Preview
  • Station Blackout

  • Inside the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster and Recovery
  • By: Charles A. Casto
  • Narrated by: Brian Troxell
  • Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (37 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Station Blackout

By: Charles A. Casto
Narrated by: Brian Troxell
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

On March 11, 2011, 50 minutes after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit eastern Japan, a tsunami 45-feet high engulfed the nuclear power plant known as Fukushima Daiichi, knocking out electrical power and all the reactors' safety systems. Three reactor cores experienced meltdowns in the first three days, leading to an unimaginable nuclear disaster. The person the Tokyo Electric Power Company called for help was Dr. Chuck Casto. In Station Blackout, Chuck Casto, the foremost authority on responding to nuclear disasters, shares his first-hand account of how he led the collaborative team of Japanese and American experts that faced the challenges of Fukushima. A lifetime of working in the nuclear industry prepared him to manage an extreme crisis, lessons that apply to any crisis situation.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 Charles A. Casto (P)2019 Audible, Inc.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Station Blackout

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

interesting details but you need a little patience

On the whole I enjoyed the book. I bought the book looking for some ground-level view into the events and aftermath, and I got that and more.
You will need some patience to wade through a chapter or two of leadership pontificating - or just skip them.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting!

As someone who has been in the nuclear industry for over 34 years, the story of Fukushima is one of heartbreak. The story told here provides great insights into the disaster. The only thing I didn’t care for was the narrator’s voice. There was little inflection in his voice, so the story was a bit flat.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

File Under Leadership

If you are looking for the Fukushima version of Midnight In Chernobyl, keep looking. This is actually a pretty good book on Crisis Leadership. The author comes across, partly on account of the narrator’s style, as very full of himself. However, maybe he deserves to be. I just didn’t like the constant first-person chest thumping as the management examples where unpacked throughout the story. The audiobook of course lacks the oft-mentioned PDF file of pictures, diagrams, and schematics, which made the disaster scenes harder to visualize. Also, the timeline of the disaster is told four times: from the Daichi plant operators perspective, from the operators at Daini, from the authors’ bureaucratic wrangling, and then a disjointed timeline of lessons learned that leverages all three and more. If all you want are the facts and events as they unfolded in chronological order, without an MBA-style discourse on crisis management, there must be better options.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

no thanks

I don't recall the authors name, but that us kinda the point of this review. The story is about the accident(?) and what did/has happened. I found myself listening to this guys account of what he did and how amazing it was that the parties engaged from the US adapted to some japanese customs, etc ... It was as if the author duscovered the concept. I just found the story quite self-serving and intensely boring. Strong pass recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Expected a History Book

Got a biography with a great deal of self back slapping about "leadership". Honestly didn't even finish the first chapter.
So why the one star rating? There's no " I was mislead" rating.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!