Covering Nuclear Threat in Japan, Veteran WABC Reporter Calls Conditions ‘Extremely Complicated’

By Andrew Gauthier 

“I have always been willing to take risks to cover major events, but the risks here are extremely complicated to manage,” WABC reporter N.J. Burkett said recently about his experience covering the aftermath of the Japan earthquake.

Burkett, along with photographer Mike Thorne, has traveled to Japan and is finding that conditions there are among the most difficult that he has encountered in his 25-year career, which has included coverage of the 9/11 attacks as well as the aftermath of last year’s earthquake in Haiti.

“I’d sooner take my chances with incoming missiles and suicide bombers,” Burkett told the Daily News.

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The current threat of nuclear meltdown has made covering the news in Japan especially difficult.

“This story really requires the correspondents to place themselves in some proximity to the plant,” he said. “We are keeping a distance of 40 miles. But if there’s a total meltdown, that probably won’t be far enough.”

Here’s video of Burkett’s coverage so far:

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