11 years after the tragedy in Japan
On March 11, 2011, the most powerful earthquake in the history of Japan with a magnitude of 9 occurred off the east coast of Japan. Within minutes, a tsunami struck coastal cities – Minamisanriku, Sendai, and Yamada City of Iwate Prefecture were the most seriously affected, and were completely destroyed.
Tens of meters high waves destroyed and damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings, and more than 18,000 people were killed or went missing. Nearly half a million Japanese lost their homes.
As a result of the earthquake and tsunami, one of the greatest nuclear disasters in the history of mankind occurred – 4 of 6 reactors of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant were destroyed. The nuclear power plant systems received a signal of the earthquake, automatically shut down the nuclear reactors and started emergency cooling systems. But the giant wave breached the barrier, flooding the plant and damaging the cooling systems – resulting in the release of radioactive materials.
Although authorities quickly delineated the boundaries of the contaminated area, it expanded rapidly as the radiation leak escalated. As a result, within a few days, more than 150,000 people had to evacuate their homes in the vicinity of the plant.
Japan’s direct economic losses from the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 amounted to more than $360 billion, not counting the nuclear accident. Elimination of consequences at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is still underway. Total expenditures will amount to more than $190 billion.
A decade passed, but the disaster zone is still in disrepair – local residents do not want to go back, despite the efforts of Japanese authorities to restore life in Fukushima. Several more towns in northeastern Japan are still closed – authorities estimate it will take 30 to 40 years to clean up the consequences and will require hundreds of thousands of laborers to clean up nuclear waste and more than a million tons of radioactive water. Some coastal settlements are being rebuilt from scratch, taking into account all safety requirements – so that the catastrophic consequences of the tsunami will not be repeated in the future.
