Fukushima nuclear plant evacuated after massive tsunami hits Japan. A haunting reminder of 2011 resurfaces

A tsunami has hit coastal areas of Russia’s Kuril Islands and Japan’s large northern island of Hokkaido after a powerful, 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Russia early Wednesday. Warnings are also in place for Alaska, Hawaii and other coasts south toward New Zealand.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said a tsunami as high as 40 centimeters (1.3 feet) had been detected in 16 locations as the waves moved south along the Pacific coast from Hokkaido to just northeast of Tokyo. Officials urged caution, saying that bigger waves could come later.

Workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was damaged in the 2011 tsunami, have been evacuated as a precautionary measure.


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What happened at Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011?

In 2011, the 9.0-magnitude quake was so forceful it shifted the Earth off its axis. It triggered a tsunami which swept over Japan's main island of Honshu, killing more than 18,000 people and wiping entire towns off the map at that time.

At the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the gigantic wave surged over coastal defences and flooded the reactors, sparking a major disaster. Authorities set up an exclusion zone which grew larger and larger as radiation leaked from the plant, forcing more than 150,000 people to evacuate from the area.

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More than a decade later, that zone remains in place and many residents have not returned. Authorities believe it will take up to 40 years to finish the work of decontamination, which has already cost Japan trillions of yen.

The Fukushima Disaster is classified as a level seven event by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the highest such event and only the second event to meet this classification after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Where is the Fukushima nuclear plant?

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is in the town of Okuma, in Fukushima Prefecture. It sits on the country's east coast, about 220km (137 miles) north-east of the capital Tokyo.

On 11 March 2011 at 14:46 local time (05:46 GMT) the earthquake - known as the Great East Japan Earthquake, or the 2011 Tohoku earthquake - struck east of the city of Sendai, 97km north of the plant.

Residents had just 10 minutes warning before the tsunami hit the coast.

Overall almost half-a-million people were forced to leave their homes as a result of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident