WINNER OF BEST FIRST CHAPTER AWARD from UP Authors "#Betrayal" is the sequel to" The Nuclear Catastrophe", a fiction novel of survival. The United Nations decrees that an independent team will be sent to Japan to evaluate the ongoing situation in Fukushima. The nuclear power plant accident is over two years old and threatens the world. Bryce Anderson's company in southern California is selected. He finds that he is not welcomed with open arms by the country of Japan. Sara and her new husband have moved to Northern California since their previous experience with the San Mirado nuclear catastrophe. Sara is ill and cannot believe that the Fukushima, Japan, nuclear disaster has now occurred. She is part of a woman's charity group raising money to send to the Children's Charity in Japan benefiting nuclear victims. Fuji, a nuclear plant worker, and Mr. Nouchi, a farmer, and their families in Japan have become nuclear refugees. John Taguchi works for the Los Angeles Times and gathers the stories of these forgotten people. The Yakuza, also known as Japanese mafia, have money invested in the now ruined nuclear plants. They are making demands and threats. Mr. Tan Tanaka, Japanese Minister of Public Affairs, is pulled in many directions as he tries to satisfy everyone. Their lives all intertwine in this tale of murder, greed, and power. Whom would you trust?
About the Author: Barbara Billig graduated from Washington University in St. Louis at age nineteen with a degree in biology and chemistry. After moving to southern California and living in the area of the San Onofre nuclear power plant she became concerned that there might be some event, such as an earthquake, that could cause the control rods in the nuclear plant to become frozen in place. Normally the control rods are lowered into the core of the reactor to absorb the radioactive particles being created, and slow down the intensity of the nuclear reaction, or raised to speed it up. But if an earthquake caused them to become immobile, so they could not be lowered, so much energy and heat would be generated the fuel could become molten, with fires and uncontrollable explosions following. To bring attention to this problem she wrote "The Nuclear Catastrophe" as a fiction novel of survival, to highlight the possibility of this disaster and all that would follow. The Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 confirmed what had been written could happen. But the surprises that ensued from the government and associated entities such as the owners of the Fukushima power plant led to writing a sequel: "#Betrayal".