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NRC Releases Audio of Fukushima Disaster
mdsolar writes "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today released transcripts and audio recordings made at the NRC Operations Center during last year's meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The release of these audio recordings comes at the request of the public radio program 'BURN: An Energy Journal,' and its host Alex Chadwick. The recordings show the inside workings of the U.S. government's highest level efforts to understand and deal with the unfolding nuclear crisis as the reactors meltdown. In the course of a week, the NRC is repeatedly alarmed that the situation may turn even more catastrophic. The NRC emergency staff discusses what to do — and what the consequences may be — as it learns that reactor containment safeguards are failing, and that spent fuel pools are boiling away their cooling water, and in one case perhaps catching fire."
It was terrible, but it's not even in the top ten as natural disasters go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll
You're completely right, I should have clarified "the most economically costly". It is estimated to have caused $235 billion (World Bank) to $309 billion (Japan) in immediate damages, which is 2-3 times that of the Kobe Earthquake (1995) and 3-4 times that of Hurricane Katrina (2005).