Earthquake in Japan

       The Latest Map Video Fukushima Still Looms Large

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       In Quake-Scarred Japan, 2011 Fukushima Disaster Still Looms Large As another major quake struck Japan, the country was still reckoning with the nuclear crisis triggered by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami of 13 years ago.

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       Evacuees at a temporary shelter in Fukushima, Japan, in March 2011. Credit...Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

       By Emma Bubola

       Jan. 1, 2024, 6:37 a.m. ET

       As Japan assesses the damage from Monday’s major earthquake, it is still reckoning with the devastating nuclear crisis triggered by an quake nearly 13 years ago, one that placed the name of Fukushima on par with Chernobyl’s and traumatized the nation.

       In March 2011, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami devastated the northeast coast of Japan and knocked out cooling systems at three of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s reactors, causing a triple meltdown that spewed radioactive fallout over large swaths of land around it.

       The quake and tsunami killed more than 19,000 people, and the nuclear calamity, one of history’s worst, raised alarms around the world. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from towns and farming villages around the plant, and a decade later some still had not returned.

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       Emma Bubola is a reporter based in London. More about Emma Bubola

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