by Jomei » Tue Jun 26, 2012 4:30 am
From what I've read, they were dangerously close to a worst-case scenario that could have involved evacuating Tokyo. It was the prime minister's decision to force Tepco to fight to maintain control of the reactor--not to abandon it like their executives wished--that averted an even worse disaster.
Very scary because I was in Tokyo at the time about to start a job. My fear was that, in a worst-case scenario, we might evacuate too late, and I'd get caught in a major shitstorm. I didn't trust the government of any country or Tepco to tell us what was what so I went to Osaka for a week to watch the situation unfold from a distance and ultimately ended up having to return to the US due to mostly unrelated financial/professional reasons. My worst fears did not come to pass, but my intuition was actually frighteningly close to being correct.
A lot of planning, job-hunting, and saving down the tubes. But it was an experience and is now quite a story.