The China Syndrome

チャイナ・シンドローム [DVD]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Syndrome

One year has passed since the huge earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit eastern Japan last year.
Though many people are still missing and there remains a lot of debris, tsunami-hit areas are gradually recovering.

However, we have little prospect how to decommission the crippled Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant and decontaminate radioactive materials.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda declared on Dec. 16 that reactors had entered in the state of cold shutdown and the crisis had been resolved.
But we still don't even know where melted fuels are.

The China Syndrome is an American film released in 1979.
It's about a nuclear accident cover-up.
As Three Mile Island accident occurred only 12 days after this film was out, it became a mega-hit.

Jane Fonda acts a TV reporter named Kimberly.
One day, she did an interview at a nuclear power plant in California for a documentary program.
During her job, the reactor caused some trouble.
A cameraman with her, secretly shot footage of the sequence of the accident and showed it to experts. They said it was close to a severe accident and it could have caused "China Syndrome," a fictional result that describes nuclear fuels melt through the other side of the earth.
However, the company of the power plant didn't reveal there was such an accident.

A supervisor of the plant named Jack Godell, performed by Jack Lemon, thought it was not unsafe and should be shutdown.
But the company executives opposed it because it would reduce their profits.

Jack decided to file a whistle-blowing in cooperation with Kimberly and accumulated the evidence.
However, the company interfered not to make him to do so.

Jack escaped the chaser and rushed into the plant.
He realized that there was no time to prevent a severe accident.
He took over the control room and demanded his interview by Kimberly to be broadcasted live on the air.
Soon after the broadcast began, the company cut out the electricity supply.
But as a result of that, an accident occurred. Jack was shot by the police.
The reactor became stable just before the severe accident happend.

The company contended that Jack was drunken and lunatic in order to cover up the accident.
But one of his associates revealed the fact in front of cameras against company's will.
Kimberly also insisted Jack was right.

As I watched this film, I felt as if I was seeing the accident of Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant.
But I wonder whether there are any people in nuclear industry and mass media with such a sense of justice like Kimberly and Jack.