CNN Speaks With Journalist Who Traveled Into Japanese Nuclear Quarantine Zone

CNN Newsroom‘s Don Lemon spoke with the Japanese journalist Tetsuo Jimbo, who drove–and, when the roads became impassable, walked–into the radiation zone near Fukushima, Japan. He videotaped the surreal scenes of abandoned animals and empty streets, and says he risked his own health and safety because he’s a journalist.

“We did take precautions,” he said. “We took iodine pills, we had our mouth and nose covered, stuff like that. But basically we went in in plain clothes,” he said, indicating that “radiation suits” worn by some emergency workers may be of little help in the zone around the crippled nuclear plant.

He says the “most scary thing” about the trip wasn’t the rising needle and alarm on his Geiger counter, but the fact that he felt nothing in his body. “You don’t smell anything, you don’t feel heat, you just don’t feel a thing.”

Watch it here, from CNN:

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!