Nuclear security

Nuclear response team based in the valley

5-years-ago an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan killing close to 16,000 and leaving many more injured or missing. It was the costliest natural disaster in world history and caused the second worst nuclear power disaster on record. The lessons learned from that accident are quietly playing out just miles from downtown Phoenix.

A massive and secret building loaded with emergency nuclear equipment sits in the valley, ready to go at a moments notice. It's all a plan hatched after the Japan quake.

No one in the nuclear field saw it coming; it was unimaginable, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that overwhelmed the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The sea wall surrounding the reactor was built 32 feet high, but the wave produced by the tsunami crested at 42 feet. The massive amount of water wiped out generators resulting in a loss of power and thus three reactors melted down.