Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake large enough to knock the earth from its axis sent a massive tsunami speeding toward the Japanese coast and the aging and vulnerable Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactors. Over the following weeks, the world watched in horror as a natural disaster became a man-made catastrophe: fail-safes failed, cooling systems shut down, nuclear rods melted.

In the first definitive account of the Fukushima disaster, two leading experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists, David Lochbaum and Edwin Lyman, team up with journalist Susan Q. Stranahan, the lead reporter of the Philadelphia Inquirer's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Three Mile Island accident, to tell this harrowing story. Fukushima combines a fast-paced, riveting account of the tsunami and the nuclear emergency it created with an explanation of the science and technology behind the meltdown as it unfolded in real time. Bolstered by photographs, explanatory diagrams, and a comprehensive glossary, the narrative also extends to other severe nuclear accidents to address both the terrifying question of whether it could happen elsewhere and how such a crisis can be averted in the future.


Author: David Lochbaum, Edwin Lyman, Susan Q. Stranahan
Publisher: New Press
Published: 02/11/2014
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781595589088


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 11/18/2013
Booklist 12/01/2013 pg. 18
Kirkus Reviews 01/15/2014
Library Journal 02/01/2014 pg. 93
Choice 12/01/2014 pg. 648

About the Author
David Lochbaum is the head of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Nuclear Safety Project and author of Nuclear Waste Disposal Crisis. He lives in Chattanooga. Edwin Lyman is a senior scientist in the Global Security Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists. He lives in Washington, D.C. Susan Q. Stranahan is the author of Susquehanna: River of Dreams. She lives in Maine. The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world.