The world’s largest nuclear power plant, among the facilities taken offline after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, could be nearing a restart. Japanese media reported that on March 14, […]
Japan on Monday marked 13 years since a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country’s northern coasts. Nearly 20,000 people died, whole towns were wiped out and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was destroyed, creating deep fears of radiation that linger today. A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, causing a tsunami that battered northern coastal towns in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.
Japanese authorities said they were forced to abandon plans Thursday to send in drones for a second day to probe one of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant because of equipment failure. Two drones successfully flew inside the reactor for the first time on Wednesday, to examine some of the molten fuel debris and other damages in areas where earlier robots failed to reach. The government and TEPCO plan to remove the massive amount of fatally radioactive melted nuclear fuel that remains inside each reactor since a magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in March 2011 destroyed the plant’s power supply and cooling systems, causing a triple meltdown.