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Japan is marking the third anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi crisis, when a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami on its northeast coast. The twin disasters resulted in an unprecedented triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Internal emails revealed by NBC News show in the days after the meltdown, regulators in the United States made a concerted effort to downplay the potential of a similar crisis occurring on U.S. soil. The campaign included refusing to answer media questions on disaster preparedness, spinning journalists on key data, and even hiding Japanese engineers from reporters visiting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Maryland. The effort came despite widespread internal doubts over the safety of aging U.S. plants. In a memo to staffers about the agency’s public talking points, the NRC’s head of public affairs writes: “While we know more than these say, we’re sticking to this story for now.”
