In Fukushima, The Fear Of Radiation Did More Damage Than Radiation, Say Scientists
Five years on, the focus on the nuclear accident has distracted us from the human tragedies and important lessons of the 2011 earthquake, say scientists.
On 11 March 2011, a huge earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan, sending a vast tsunami speeding towards the shore.
The 9.0-magnitude earthquake was the fourth-most-powerful ever recorded, and the tsunami it created reached areas almost 40 metres above sea level. It hit the Tōhoku region with catastrophic force.
Bloomberg / YouTube / Via youtube.com
There was huge devastation from the quake and tsunami, and at least 15,900 people were killed.
More than 2,500 people are still missing, five years later.
ANN / YouTube / Via youtube.com
But, in the West at least, the disaster is best remembered because of the damage to a nuclear power plant called Fukushima Daiichi.
Fukushima is a prefecture, or region, a hundred or so miles northeast of Tokyo. The video above shows an explosion at the plant.
The power plant shut down automatically when the quake hit. However, the tsunami flooded over its sea wall and knocked out its backup cooling system. The damage eventually caused a reactor core to melt down. About 150,000 people left their homes, either as part of a mandatory evacuation or out of choice.
YouTube / Via youtube.com
Polls in Europe and the US found that support for nuclear power had suddenly dropped. Germany started phasing out its own nuclear power plants immediately after the disaster.
Even now, the event colours perceptions of nuclear power. This month Greenpeace released a report, Nuclear Scars, on the "lasting legacies of Fukushima and Chernobyl", that ties in with the anniversaries of the two disasters (Chernobyl happened 30 years ago next month). "The long-lived nature of radioactive contamination means the consequences of these disasters will be with us for decades and centuries to come," the report says. "We have an obligation to ourselves, our children and the planet to ensure we never see such destruction and misery ever again."