Monday, May 16, 2016

Fukushima: A Nuclear Story

Today I served as the MC for the Q&A following a screening of Fukushima: A Nuclear Story (WEBSITE) held at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (event INFO).  It is always an honour to be asked by the FCCJ to serve in this capacity, particularly when the event is highlighting an issue related to Fukushima.

Fukushima: A Nuclear Story, which is narrated by Willem Dafoe and makes liberal use of Japanese-style animation, is described as "unique" at the top of the four pages of distributor-authored  notes handed to attendees as they entered the screening.  This is true both for the film and its writer/ star, Pia d'Emilia, an Italian journalist and 30-year resident of Japan.

with Pia d'Emilia during the pre-screening meeting
post-screening Q&A
A video of the Q&A has been posted to the FCCJ channel:

The highlight of the day was lunch in the FCCJ bar and a visit with friend and Chernobyl/ Fukushima researcher Tim Mousseau.  Tim is based at the University of South Carolina and was in Japan this week to continue his research in Fukushima before moving on to Chernobyl the week after next (with a trip back to America in between!).  We never know where in the world we are going to run into each other- we have bumped into each other at conferences in Japan, of course, but also in Singapore and Germany (twice!).  I highly recommend reading At Chernobyl and Fukushima, radioactivity has seriously harmed wildlife, one of Tim's latest papers (HERE).

with Dr. Timothy Mousseau
Professor of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina

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