March 11, 2011: A 9.1 magnitude earthquake
centered approximately 45 miles off the coast
of Miyagi Prefecture initiates a tsunami that
reaches a height of 133 feet.
Four nuclear power plants situated along the
coast of the Tōhoku region – the Onnagawa
plant in Miyagi Prefecture; the Tōkai plant
in Ibaraki Prefecture; and two plants in Fukushima
Prefecture – are flooded by the tsunami.
The crews at the first two plants quickly
shut down their reactors.
At the two nuclear power plants in Fukushima,
however, the cooling systems are crippled.
The crew of the Number Two Fukushima Plant
require the following four days to properly
cool and deactivate their reactors.
At the Number One Fukushima plant, insufficient
cooling leads to catastrophic problems.
Three of the reactors suffer meltdown, several
explosions of hydrogen gas occur throughout
the plant, and thousands of metric tons of
radioactive waste water seep into the soil
and spill into the Pacific Ocean.
Approximately 300,000 residents are forced
to evacuate the surrounding area, and amidst
the chaos, over 1,600 die from what has come
to be known as “evacuation stress” – a
higher casualty rate, in fact, than the combined
death tolls of the earthquake and tsunami
themselves.
The World Health Organization reports that
an additional 130 – 600 people will likely
die of cancer caused by the radiation in the
coming decades.
Following the Chernobyl accident of April
1986, the Fukushima incident is considered
to be the second worst nuclear disaster in
world history.
On the International Nuclear Event Scale,
it rates a 7, the worst possible rating, which
indicates serious health and environmental
effects from widespread contamination.
The Tokyo Electrical Power Company (TEPCO),
which oversees the nuclear power plant, has
offered two public apologies – once in July
2012 for its failure to meet basic safety
requirements, and once again in July 2016
for its failure to halt the leak of contaminated
water.
Six years after the initial disaster, the
reactors at the Number One Fukushima Plant
remain active.
It continues to produce waste water at the
rate of up to 400 metric tons a day, which
it stores in massive tanks.
TEPCO has not announced any long-term strategies
to deal with this ever-increasing contamination.
