Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

radiation. NARRATOR: After an hour, the radiation levels stabilized. The engineers discovered what had happened. The hydrogen leak had exploded on the roof of the reactor building, but the reactor core was intact. NARRATOR: In Tokyo, the prime minister's chief cabinet secretary was downplaying the crisis. NARRATOR: Later, the prime minister and his team were harshly criticized for hiding the seriousness of the disaster from the Japanese people and the world. Behind the scenes, they knew the situation was getting out of control. The explosion halted efforts to bring water to the reactor cores. Now it was only a matter of time before the fuel melted in the open air, spewing much worse radiation levels.

NARRATOR: A column of radiation from the gas released in the explosion was already floating throughout Japan. The government expanded the evacuation zone and ordered everyone within a 12-mile radius of the plant to flee. Norio Kimura and his surviving daughter were still in that danger zone when they received the news. (translated): Now I thought it was dangerous to stay. Iodine pills were distributed in the town. I made my daughter take one. He had to get her to a safe place. That's all I could think about. We had to get very far from the

nuclear

plant. NARRATOR: Back at the plant, the situation was deteriorating.

The explosion had already delayed efforts to bring water to the fusion cores of reactors one and two. Now reactor three was also in the process of melting down. TEPCO needed help. A specialized team of soldiers was ordered to the scene. Another buildup of hydrogen meant that reactor three's casing could explode at any moment. (translated): I was desperately trying to figure out how we could get the job done quickly. He was nervous. Although we had trained for it, it was actually our first time in a radioactive area. NARRATOR: Colonel Shinji Iwakuma and his team wore suits that protected their bodies from radioactive particles, but provided no protection from deadly gamma rays.

Its mission was to inject water directly into the core of reactor three. (translated): Just when we were about to get out of the Jeep to connect the hose... it exploded. Chunks of concrete smashed through the roof of the jeep. Radioactive matter seeped through the ties of our masks. Our dosimetry alarms were ringing constantly. NARRATOR: The soldiers were now surrounded by lethally radioactive debris. They were injured in the explosion, but managed to flee the scene before anyone received a fatal dose. (translated): I was desperate to get away from danger. We were lucky on many levels. We were lucky.

Just luck. NARRATOR: Parts of the

nuclear

plant were now completely off limits to workers. Radiation levels near one of the reactor buildings were 1,000 millisieverts per hour. After one hour of exposure to these levels, radiation sickness occurs. A few hours would mean death. (translated): In the control room, people said we were done. They said it quietly, but they said it. We felt like we had to flee. This was the end. NARRATOR: That night in Tokyo, the prime minister was awakened with a disturbing message. He says he was told TEPCO planned to pull its workers from the plant.

NARRATOR: At that time in Fukushima, the plant director, Masao Yoshida, had gathered all the workers. (translated): Yoshida said: "From now on, we will evacuate." At that moment, Yoshida resigned himself to his fate. I'm sure he was willing to die himself, but he couldn't kill 250 people. Then he said, "Go home. We've already done all this. We can't do any more. Go home." (translated): It's probably bad to admit it, but I felt relieved. I just wanted to go out. NARRATOR: Meanwhile, the prime minister arrived at TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, determined to stop the total withdrawal. He demanded to speak to TEPCO executives.

Via video link, Fukushima engineers watched. NARRATOR: To this day, there is controversy over what TEPCO intended. Company executives say they never planned to completely abandon the plant. NARRATOR: That morning, TEPCO evacuated all but a skeleton crew, led by plant manager Yoshida. The remaining men would become known as the Fukushima Fifty. For now, they were locked in the central control room. (translated): The radiation level was ridiculously high. We just didn't know what to do. The reactors were unmanned. No staff. NARRATOR: Hundreds of workers were waiting a few miles away, ready to lay pipes that could pump water to the reactors.

But the radiation levels were now too high for them to get close to the plant. A team of American nuclear specialists, who had just arrived in Japan, feared that TEPCO and the government had run out of ideas. They gave us numbers, very low numbers of people who were on site, and we knew that was not enough to... do what needed to be done at that... at that time. NARRATOR: That day, frustrated by the lack of information the prime minister was giving them, the Americans decided to fly a surveillance drone over the plant. The data they obtained was disturbing.

A third hydrogen explosion had exposed pools of discarded radioactive fuel to the atmosphere. These spent fuel rods were still highly radioactive. If the pools dry out, they could catch fire and the pollution could be even worse than a reactor

meltdown

. We had some pretty clear indications that fuel damage was occurring in the spent fuel pools due to lack of water. And just as they were concerned about Japanese citizens, we were concerned about American citizens. And we thought, to put an end to all this, put water there. NARRATOR: The Japanese prime minister ordered a desperate tactic: dropping water from the air onto the spent fuel pools.

The first crew to take off knew that the Soviet pilots who had done this during the Chernobyl nuclear accident had subsequently died of cancer. (translated): That morning, before starting the engine, I called my wife. She said, "If anyone has to do it, let them go and do the best they can. I'm praying for you." So she supported me. She was crying at that time. I almost cried too. NARRATOR: A previous reconnaissance mission had been abandoned due to high radiation levels above the reactors. Tungsten plates were now bolted to the helicopter to protect the pilots from gamma rays.

The crew knew they had to drop the moving water, from 300 feet. If they went higher, they would fail. If they went any lower, they could receive dangerous doses of radiation. (translated): At that moment, I felt like, "This is it. This is finally it." Like a tingle down the spine. NARRATOR: Their target was below them. (translated): I will never forget what I saw. The bones, the skeleton of the building. The walls were scattered everywhere. Incredible. NARRATOR: The world watched the mission live through a camera placed 20 miles from the plant. (translated): The wind bent the water, so we sprayed it like this.

We could see the steam, so I knew it had entered. "We did it. We did it. We did it for everyone." That's how I felt. NARRATOR: But on their second mission, they failed. Other helicopters followed, but the wind was too strong to aim accurately. The American nuclear team was monitoring the operation. We were taking radiation measurements ourselves to see, after the fall, if the radiation level went down. Uh... and it wasn't like that. NARRATOR: The United States government began making plans to evacuate 90,000 of its citizens from Japan. For now, they advised all Americans to stay at least 50 miles from the plant.

The Japanese evacuation zone remained at 12 miles. American surveillance now suggested that flakes of deadly radioactive fuel were scattered around the reactors. This meant that anyone who approached the plant would be risking their life. Despite the danger, the Japanese government ordered a team of Tokyo firefighters to get water to the fuel pools by any means. The men had no experience working in radioactive conditions. (translated): All our troops gathered. First of all we choose everyone over 40 years old. These were the kids who were not going to have more children. I didn't talk to my family. I have taught them that at any moment they could go through these situations.

NARRATOR: One of the firefighters went forward to plot a route. But the radiation to which he was exposed prevented him from being able to accompany his men on their mission. (translated): I was worried about the radiation and the mental well-being of my team. But I had to leave it to them. I waited and prayed. NARRATOR: The plan was for firefighters to park a truck by the sea to suck up water, then lay out 800 yards of hose and let it spray into the fuel pool. Unique footage filmed that night from the front lines of the nuclear disaster shows firefighters preparing to approach the reactors.

NARRATOR: 60 minutes were given to complete the mission. Any longer would expose them to excessive radiation. (translated): When we arrived at Fukushima Dai-ichi, it was very quiet. No wind, an eerie silence. The first thing we saw was the debris from the tsunami. The roads were violently crooked. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to complete the mission in an hour. NARRATOR: A radiation monitoring vehicle left in front of the firefighters. Within minutes, the route was blocked by tsunami debris. Firefighters had to lay out the hose by hand and take radiation readings as they went. Dosimeter alarms signaled a dangerous increase in radiation.

After an hour on site, the hoses were finally connected. (translated): They told me over the radio that the water was spraying, so I started to think we had completed our mission. So I just wanted to get out of there. We ran to the minibus and left. NARRATOR: As the firefighters left, radiation levels at the plant began to drop. The men began their return to Tokyo. Some had not yet told their families what they had been doing. (translated): When I got home, they scolded me. My wife said, "Where have you been? A phone call would have been nice." NARRATOR: With radiation levels lower, TEPCO seized its opportunity.

The hundreds of workers who had been waiting headed to the plant. Their mission was to lay kilometers of pipes that would channel a constant flow of water to the reactor cores. They had to work quickly in case radiation levels rose again. (translated): At that time, in March, we did not carry dosimeters. TEPCO did not directly tell us where the radiation levels were highest. NARRATOR: TEPCO now says that most of its dosimeters were washed away by the tsunami, but that they made sure every group of workers had one. (translated): It was an emergency operation and we were in a hurry.

Nobody complained, we all understood. Even if he broke the rules, we stayed silent. NARRATOR: As the pipes were laid, a steady flow of water finally began to cool the reactor cores. After days of fear of dying, the control center workers began to feel hope. (translated): The people around me, their expressions became brighter. The angry voices fell silent. The patterns calmed down. NARRATOR: Weeks of difficult and often dangerous work lay ahead. But the most dangerous phase of the crisis had already passed. NARRATOR: The prime minister was subsequently forced to resign, accused by his critics of mismanaging the crisis.

TEPCO faces having to pay tens of billions of dollars in damages. The company is on the verge of bankruptcy. The workers who fought to save the plant face an uncertain future. None of them have died from their exposure to radiation, but more than a hundred received doses that increase their risk of developing cancer in the future. NARRATOR: Radiation released by the Fukushima

meltdown

s contaminated hundreds of square kilometers of northeastern Japan. More than 100,000 people fled the consequences. Norio Kimura moved to the Hakuba Mountains. Only here, on the other side of the country, did he feel that his surviving daughter was safe from the radiation.

In the weeks after the tsunami, the bodies of his wife and his father were recovered. But his youngest daughter, Yuna, was still missing. Four months after the disaster, Norio travels back to Fukushima. A 12-mile exclusion zone around the plant remains in effect. (coughs) NARRATOR: The animals abandoned by their owners have died of hunger. Others wander wildly. Some of these districts are so contaminated that they will be uninhabitable for decades. (man praying in Japanese) NARRATOR: Just two miles from the nuclear power plant, evacuees fromThe village of Norio is holding a ceremony in memory of those who died in the tsunami.

For Norio, it is an opportunity to say goodbye to the family he had to leave behind. (translated): It's been four months since you suddenly disappeared. I've been wondering why this happened. One day we will return to live here, looking at the sea that took you from us. We don't know when this will be. But we will definitely return. On behalf of the bereaved, Norio Kimura. Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org For more information about this and other Frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/

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