Meltdown: Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima by Deirdre Langeland (review)

Langeland, Deirdre Meltdown: Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima. Roaring Brook, 2021 illus. with photographs Trade ed. ISBN 9781626727007 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781626726994 $9.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 5-9

In 2011, twin disasters slammed Japan's Fukushima Prefecture, located near the offshore epicenter of a 9.1 earthquake, in rapid succession—a tsunami of greater height and force than local containment efforts could handle, and the rapid unraveling of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, which lost its own power, and with that, the ability to secure its six nuclear reactors. Langeland has a lot of scientific heavy lifting to do: explaining the earth science behind the quake; hydraulics and geomorphology behind the tsunami; and engineering, chemistry, atomic physics, and human resources management behind the reactor meltdowns and the seat-of-the-pants scramble to minimize local and global danger in an environment too toxic to enter. She's up to the task, though, with well-placed science lesson insertions, supported by clear graphics and a deep well of often clever analogies aimed squarely at middle school readership. Plenty of color photographs are included, but this title is lighter on browser appeal than accessible science integrated with a tense, cautionary disaster narrative. A timeline, glossary, bibliography, sources notes, are included; the final book will contain an index.