Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is seeking to restore public confidence in its decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant through offering a “virtual tour” of the site.
The Inside Fukushima Daiichi online platform is available in Japanese and English.
It has been seven years since the accident and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is steadily being decommissioned with the cooperation of a great many people. An important part of the decommissioning process is conveying in easy-to-understand manner what conditions in the decommissioning field are like to as many people as possible. That is why we created Inside Fukushima Daiichi. This virtual tour allows anyone anywhere to experience what it’s like to be on the front lines of decommissioning work.
The viewer is able to navigate parts of the plant, which are shown through interactive video footage that has clickable information window pop-ups explaining the various things shown on the screen.
There are ten “routes,” each introduced by English narration, that take the viewer around different locations on the premises of the crippled plant.
The Japanese-language version of the virtual tour launched in March this year, while the English one went online last week.
TEPCO has clearly invested a lot of money into this PR campaign, though some of its efforts are sabotaged by poor choices, not least the narration, which is seemingly generated by software, rather than an actual voice actor, and some clunky text translations.
TEPCO also recently launched a new mascot and television advertising again after years of absence from screens.
