Professors Richard Samuels, Ken Oye, and Michael Golay shared their insight and uncertainty about Japan’s nuclear crisis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on March 16, 2011. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants lost essential safety functions in the earthquake and tsunami. The loss of the electricity grid and back up electric power sources means that pumps cannot circulate water to the reactor vessels and the radioactive uranium fuel overheats. Nuclear power plant workers must now rely on improvisation to stabilize cooling at the reactor. The escape of radioactive particles and their dispersal in wind and rain from the damaged power plant threatens the environment and health of Japan’s residents.