Jimmy Carter and Fukushima

By K.N.C. | TOKYO

THREE weeks after Japan's earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant, spewing radiation as far as Iceland, clean-up crews have been working around the clock to bring the reactor under control and contain the leakage. Their life is a nightmare. "Crying is useless," wrote one worker in an e-mail to a colleague. "If we are in hell, all we can do is crawl up to heaven."

Workers who were already facing deadly radiation exposure were forced to sleep on a floor with barely enough to eat and drink, until the Japanese media exposed their terrible conditions. Some workers were sent into the toxic plant without basic protective gear like rubber boots, and needed to be hospitalised. On April 1st the government revealed that the plant's operator, TEPCO, had not even provided dosimeters—small, inexpensive badges that record radiation exposure—to all workers.