The Fukushima Daiichi Accident: Japan, 2011
2011 · event
On 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, triggering a tsunami that reached the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the country's northeast shore. The waves flooded the facility, disabling the cooling systems that kept the reactors safe. Over the following days, three of the six reactors experienced core meltdowns, and hydrogen explosions tore through the containment buildings. Radiation began escaping into the surrounding air, soil and sea. Authorities ordered the evacuation of everyone within a 30-kilometre radius.
Fukushima Daiichi had been operating since 1971, one of the largest nuclear stations in the world with a combined output of 4.7 gigawatts. It was built and run jointly by Tokyo Electric Power Company and General Electric. The plant stood in the towns of Ōkuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture. On the day of the disaster, three reactors were running, two were in maintenance, and one was shut down. All were boiling water reactors cooled by systems that depended on electricity and, as backup, diesel generators.
The Japanese government declared a 20-kilometre no-go zone around the plant in April 2011, allowing entry only under supervision. More than 150,000 people left their homes, many never to return. The remaining reactors were permanently closed over the following years. Cleanup crews worked in protective gear amid high radiation, removing debris and attempting to contain contaminated water that continued to accumulate. In 2021, the government approved a plan to release treated water into the Pacific over three decades.
Fukushima Daiichi remains the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl and reshaped global energy policy. Germany and several other countries accelerated their withdrawal from nuclear power. In Japan, all nuclear reactors were temporarily shut down for safety reviews, and public trust in the technology fractured. The disaster underscored the vulnerability of complex systems to natural forces and left a generation grappling with questions of risk, responsibility and the long shadow of invisible contamination.