PR: Frontline: Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown on DVD May 8

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Release Date: April 26, 2012, 7:13 am
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In the desperate hours and days after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the fate of thousands of Japanese citizens fell into the hands of a small corps of engineers, firemen and soldiers who risked their lives to prevent the Daiichi nuclear complex from complete meltdown. Now, one year later, FRONTLINE presents their story, with rare footage from inside the plant and eyewitness testimony.

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INVESTIGATE WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THE DAYS FOLLOWING THE FUKUSHIMA
NUCLEAR DISASTER IN

Frontline: Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown

Available on DVD from PBS Distribution May 8th

Arlington, Va. - April 12, 2012 - PBS Distribution today announced it is releasing Frontline: Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown on DVD. In the desperate hours and days after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the fate of thousands of Japanese citizens fell into the hands of a small corps of engineers, firemen and soldiers who risked their lives to prevent the Daiichi nuclear complex from complete meltdown. Now, one year later, FRONTLINE presents their story, with rare footage from inside the plant and eyewitness testimony. Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown will be available on DVD beginning May 8, 2012. The program has a running time of 60 minutes. The DVD SRP is $24.99.

Program Synopsis
The film, based on the first interviews with some workers who are still prohibited from talking about the disaster, reveals how close the world came to a nuclear nightmare following the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. With Japan's central government struggling to get accurate information and relations straining between officials and TEPCO, the facility's owner, plant engineers improvised in the dark in an attempt to cool the crippled reactors. "When I heard the diesel generators were lost," reactor inspector Takashi Sato tells FRONTLINE, "I couldn't square that with reality. I was stunned." As the fuel started to melt, a special group of soldiers tried to inject water directly into the core of one of the reactors. "Just as we were about to get out of the car to connect the hose," Col. Shinji Iwakuma says, "it exploded. Radioactive matter was leaking in through the bindings of our masks due to the blast. Our dosimeter alarms were ringing constantly."

Fukushima residents were making their own life-and-death choices. Farmer Norio Kimura, whose father, wife and youngest daughter were missing, had to decide whether to abandon his search in the rubble for family members or risk exposure to radiation for himself and his surviving daughter. "I now thought it was dangerous to stay. Iodine tablets were being handed out in the village," he tells FRONTLINE. "I had to take her somewhere safe. We had to get far away from the nuclear plant."

Meanwhile, the nuclear experts and officials in Prime Minister Naoto Kan's office watched as the crisis spiraled out of control. On a visit to the plant, Kan, who was later criticized for his handling of the emergency, obtained a pledge from the plant manager to send in a suicide squad of workers to vent the reactor if necessary. "For me it was a very difficult decision," Kan says. "But I thought it had to be done."

And after the first of three reactor buildings exploded, many thought they were finished. "In the control room people were saying we were finished," Takashi Sato, the reactor inspector, tells FRONTLINE. "They were saying it quietly, but they were saying it. We felt we had to flee. This was the end." A group of workers, now known as "the Fukushima Fifty," were left behind in the radioactive plant to turn the tide in the battle to prevent a meltdown that could have rendered the area uninhabitable for hundreds of years and had dire global health and economic consequences.

Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown is a Quicksilver Media production for WGBH/FRONTLINE. The writer, producer and director is Dan Edge. The executive producer for Quicksilver is Eamonn Matthews. The series senior producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning.

About FRONTLINE
FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and by Reva and David Logan. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation.

About PBS Distribution
PBS Distribution is the leading media distributor for the public television community, both domestically and internationally. Jointly owned by PBS (Arlington, VA) and WGBH (Boston, MA), PBS Distribution extends the reach of public television programs beyond broadcast while generating revenue for the public television system and our production partners.

PBS Distribution offers a diverse range of programming to our customers, including Ken Burns's films (Prohibition, The National Parks, The War, Baseball, Jazz), documentaries from award-winning series NOVA (The Elegant Universe, Origins), FRONTLINE (God in America, Bush's War, Growing Up Online), and American Experience (Freedom Riders, We Shall Remain), dramas from Masterpiece (Downton Abbey, Jane Eyre, Inspector Lewis), films from independent producers (Easy Yoga for Arthritis, The Buddha, The Story of India, Carrier, Journey into Buddhism, I.O.U.S.A.), and popular children's programming from Dinosaur Train, Super Why!, WordGirl, Cyberchase, Martha Speaks, and Arthur. As a multi-channel distributor, PBS Distribution pursues wholesale/retail sales, consumer and educational sales through PBS- branded catalogs and online shops, and international broadcast and video sales. PBS distribution is also a leader in offering programming through digital platforms including the internet, mobile, and web-connected television.

Frontline: Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown
Street Date: May 8, 2012
Genre: Documentary
Run Time: 60 Minutes
SRP: $24.99
Format: DVD

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News Editor April 26, 2012, 7:13 am