TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Masao Yoshida, the Fukushima nuclear chief who tried to stabilize the crippled nuclear plant after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, died at the age of 58 on Tuesday, July 9 in a hospital in Tokyo.
He had been suffering from esophageal cancer, which nuclear spokesman Tepco said was not linked to his work at the plant. Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan praised his "leadership and decisiveness".
Yoshida was a Tokyo-educated nuclear engineer and chief of the nuclear plant at the time of the disaster. He was promoted to head the nuclear power plant when the disaster hit Japan in 2011. At that time, the tsunami swamped the plant, knocking out cooling systems to the reactors, which subsequently melted down. Mr Yoshida remained on site with a small team to try to bring the plant under control.
On 12 March, he ignored an order from top-level officials to stop pumping sea water into one of the reactors. His actions were subsequently seen as having prevented the situation from getting even worse.
BBC | CHOIRUL
