March 11, 2026

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

Once a nuclear accident occurs, it inflicts devastating damage on the environment and local communities, with recovery taking decades or even centuries. This is a lesson learned from the 2011 nuclear meltdowns at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Fukushima’s Okuma and Futaba towns which host the Fukushima NPP still have significant “difficult to return” zones where human entry is restricted due to high-level radiation doses.

Unlike other disasters such as floods and earthquakes, the nuclear disaster is not a thing of the past, even 15 years on.

On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake with a magnitude 9 on the Richter scale (seismic intensity 7) and subsequent massive tsunamis delivered a devastating blow to coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures. In addition, triggered by a tsunami, nuclear meltdowns and hydrogen explosions occurred at four of the six reactors (Nos. 1-4 reactors) at the Fukushima NPP.

Even now, inside the 1-3 Units, an estimated 880 tons of solidified nuclear fuel debris - a mixture of melted fuel, metal cladding, and structural materials - remains. In the sampling operations for the decommissioning of the crippled plant, only 0.88 grams of debris were retrieved. It was found in 2024 that the Unit 1 concrete pedestal foundation was damaged, raising concerns that it could collapse in the event of another earthquake. Given the high risk of radiation exposure for workers engaged in decommissioning work, it is uncertain whether the Fukushima NPP operator-set goal of completing the work by 2051 will be achieved.

In the January 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, a major incident involving the loss of external power supply occurred at the Hokuriku Electric Power Company’s Shika Nuclear Power Plant, but fortunately, the operation of the plant was successfully suspended. A compound disaster consisting of an earthquake and a nuclear accident could happen anytime, anywhere in Japan. Let us increase the movement calling for realizing “zero nuclear power plants in quake-prone Japan” nationwide and pressure the government led by Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae to change its pro-nuclear power energy policy.