TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

A new report says Japan considered evacuating Tokyo after the March 2011 tsunami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant:

The report quotes the chief cabinet secretary at the time, Yukio Edano, as having warned that such a “demonic chain reaction” of plant meltdowns could result in the evacuation of Tokyo, 150 miles to the south.

“We would lose Fukushima Daini, then we would lose Tokai,” Mr. Edano is quoted as saying, naming two other nuclear plants. “If that happened, it was only logical to conclude that we would also lose Tokyo itself.”

The report claims that the plant’s operator, Tepco, wanted to pull out all staff from the plant, which would have allowed an even greater disaster and the evacuation of staff at other nuclear power plants, causing them to fail as well. When he heard of their intention, Naoto Kan, Japan’s former prime minister, went to their headquarters and insisted they keep staff at the plant.

If that had happened, Tokyo would have been evacuated. That’s almost unimaginable, but Japan came very close to it.