Japan today marks the 12th anniversary of the triple disaster on March 11, 2011, when one of the world’s largest earthquakes ever recorded triggered a deadly tsunami that led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
As every year, at 14:46 local time (07:46 Greek time) a minute of silence was observed in the country. Then, 12 years ago, an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter scale shook the entire archipelago and was felt even in China.
A powerful earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan triggered a tsunami that sometimes reached the height of buildings and swept across the region.
The tsunami is mainly responsible for the heavy loss of nearly 18,500 dead or missing from the disaster.
The ensuing nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which flooded and melted the cores of three of its six reactors, forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes and left entire areas uninhabited for years to come.
Access to more than 1,650 square kilometers of Fukushima prefecture, or 12% of its area, was banned for several months after the disaster. Since then, massive decontamination efforts have reduced the area of uninhabited zones to 337 square kilometers, i.e. 2.4% of the prefecture.
In mid-January, a Japanese court upheld the acquittal of three former officials of Tepco, the company that operates the Fukushima nuclear power plant — the only individuals prosecuted in connection with the disaster — who were found not guilty and acquitted. on charges of negligence in an accident in 2011.
The work to decontaminate and dismantle the station is expected to take decades.
One of the critical points is the handling of more than a million tons of contaminated water accumulated at the station site, which comes from rain, groundwater and the necessary injections to cool the reactor cores.
These waters have been treated to purify them, but tritium, a radioactive element that is not dangerous to humans except in very high concentrations, has not been eliminated.
The Japanese government has confirmed that it plans to start phasing this water into the Pacific Ocean this year, a controversial project that has nonetheless received positive approval from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which oversees it, and Japanese regulators. .
Source: AFP, APE-MPE.
Source: Kathimerini
Anna White is a journalist at 247 News Reel, where she writes on world news and current events. She is known for her insightful analysis and compelling storytelling. Anna’s articles have been widely read and shared, earning her a reputation as a talented and respected journalist. She delivers in-depth and accurate understanding of the world’s most pressing issues.