Episode 41 — Fukushima Disaster With Chuck Casto – Part 2

Manage This - The Project Management Podcast

ANDY CROWE ● BILL YATES ● NICK WALKER ● CHUCK CASTO NICK WALKER: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. Every other week we carve out some time to meet and talk about what matters to you in the field of project management. We pick the brains of some of the top performers in the profession, hear their stories, explore their methods, and celebrate their successes. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me are a couple of guys who are the top of the tops, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates. And Andy, last time we had a thought-provoking discussion with someone who has been right in the middle of managing crisis situations; and we get to hear more from him today. ANDY CROWE: I would say he’s been more in the middle of it than anybody I know personally. And so it was a wonderful discussion about the Fukushima disaster. NICK WALKER: Chuck Casto, President of the Casto Group, brings with him a long and prestigious career in nuclear safety and regulatory issues. He was a member of the Senior Executive Service at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, holding the position of Regional Administrator. He has been asked on numerous occasions to resolve complex policy issues for clients and for Congress and was the recipient of the Distinguished Executive Award from President Obama in 2012. Chuck was the director of site operations in Japan during the Fukushima nuclear plant accident. He helped reestablish that country’s regulatory body after the accident and also established criteria to restart nuclear plants that had been shut down in Japan. Dr. Casto, once again may I say what a privilege it is to have you here on Manage This. CHARLES CASTO: I’m happy to be here. Thank you, Nick. NICK WALKER: Well, last time we met we talked about responding to this international crisis and what it took to lead people through it. So let’s recap just a little bit. Can you just briefly describe where were you when you first heard about this accident? CHUCK CASTO: Friday, March 11th, like many of us, I saw on television that the nuclear plant and – well, the earthquake had happened, and the tsunami had happened. And then we had learned somewhere late that afternoon that the nuclear plant had experienced a devastating tsunami attack, 45 feet high at least, and had wiped out their cooling systems. For me, I was working construction projects for several reactors under construction here in Georgia and South Carolina, not really connected to the operational part of the house any longer, had been with the operational part for decades. So Washington was handling the crisis. I was here, remote Atlanta, working a construction project in obscurity when Prime Minister Kan called President Obama and asked for help. And as they looked for people to lead the team in Japan, my name popped up, and I was chosen. I guess the first real interaction, I was actually nearby here, getting gas, fueling my pickup truck. And my neighbor called me and said, “Chuck, what’s up with this nuclear plant in Japan?” And I said, “Well, John, they’ll get power and water back to it, and everything will be just fine.” Well, I was quite wrong. And later on, when he found that I was leading the effort, he said, “You, Mister, everything’s going to be okay. You’re leading the effort.” So it was – the outcome was much different than we had expected. And when I finally got the call, I had three hours’ notice to grab my passport. I was in downtown Atlanta. I had to have my wife get some few clothes together and a passport, and drive back north and then back down to the airport, meanwhile on cell phone getting charters and getting calls from the chairman and other people about the role. I think, as a good crisis leader, I put on a shirt that had a logo, had a nuclear logo on it. BILL YATES: Yeah. CHUCK CASTO: And I jumped on an American flight. And as I got on the flight,