On March 11, 2011 Japan was struck by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake, the most powerful in the country's recorded history. But the real horror had only just begun. A 14-meter-high tsunami created by the seismic event followed, sending giant waves of seawater crashing into the the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, triggering a nuclear disaster. While the world watched in horror, the responsibility of containing the disaster fell on workers who had to risk their lives to salvage the plant -- and protect the planet. In this episode of Teamistry, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite takes us through the harrowing experience that no amount of training could've prepared the team for. Former plant superintendent Atsufumi Yoshizawa describes the scenes from the frontlines and how a method called "Resilience Engineering" helped his team prevent total meltdown. You'll also hear from operations manager Akira Hogyuko as he talks about how trust between team members and seniors helped them navigate the disaster. Plus Lake Barrett, a retired nuclear engineer and consultant on the clean-up effort, helps explain the major events that unfolded in those frightful moments. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to www.atlassian.com/podcast.
March 20.
Eleven, one of the most powerful and.
Destructive earthquakes in history, has devastated a large area of Japan.
Hundreds of people are dead after the 8.9 magnitude quake unleashed a massive tsunami that washed everything away in its path.
The crisis at the damaged nuclear plant in Japan worsened.
Today.
Well on the ground, 300 brave workers continue to risk their lives to pump water into a storage area for spent fuel rods.
I remember so vividly watching these news reports as they came in, just in horror at what was happening.
So shocked, so sad, and worried about how bad the nuclear disaster might get.
Would that whole area of Japan become desolate like Chernobyl?
Would the radiation spread to the rest of the country?
Would it spread around the world?
But I have to admit, it wasn't until a while later that I really imagined what it would have been like for those workers right on the front line in the power plant, doing everything they could to contain the crisis.
They knew something very, very serious had happened, something that they were not trained to cope with.
The story of those workers, the people who risked their lives to contain the disaster, has rarely been heard.
A lot of people who worked at the Fukushima nuclear power plant were from the area or lived in Fukushima.
Their first thought was protecting their neighborhood and their family and relatives.
They were driven emotionally to protect.
I'm Gabriella cowperweight, and this is teamistry, an original podcast from Atlassian.
This show is all about the chemistry of teams and what happens when people are so open to new ideas of working, innovating, and expressing themselves together.