Tuesday, 11 March marked 14 years since a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The disaster was classified by officials at Level 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, the highest possible rating and one that was only ever reached by Chernobyl. The disaster caused widespread radioactive contamination of the surrounding area and led to the displacement of nuclear refugees. Approximately 25,000 are still unable to return home. The extensive damage caused to the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station means that decomissioning is ongoing and is expected to take at least 40 years.
Huge volumes of contaminated water are generated by the need to continuously cool the damaged fuel rods as well as groundwater and rainwater that flows onto the site. In August 2023 the Japanese government began dumping contaminated wastewater into the Pacfic Ocean and had dumpted more than 78,000 tonnes by the end of 2024. This has been met with widespread protest by Japanese fishers, neighbouring countries, and many Pacific nations.
Yet despite the tremendous cost of the disaster in human, ecological, and economic terms, the lessons have not been learned. The Japanese government continues its official support for nuclear power and here in Australia, the Liberal-National Coalition under Peter Dutton are advocating for Australia to build its own nuclear reactors. There is also a bipartisan consensus by the major parties to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
Don’t Nuke the Climate have produced modeling to show what a Fukushima-like event would do to each of Dutton’s proposed nuclear reactors <NuclearPlume.au – Mapping the Fukushima radiation plume in aus>