Summary
Following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant lost grid power and backup cooling capacity. Fuel meltdowns occurred in three reactors, hydrogen explosions damaged buildings, and extensive radioactive contamination forced mass evacuations.
Systemic Features
- Environmental trigger → infrastructure failure → nuclear meltdown
- Loss of redundancy: backup generators and electrical switchgear were flooded
- Tightly coupled dependency: reactors required safe shutdown power paths that did not exist under extreme flooding conditions
- Crisis amplified by organisational complexity and communication failures
Cascading Systems Affected
- National electricity supply & energy policy
- Housing & displacement (160k+ evacuated, many never returned)
- Agriculture, fisheries & food safety supply chains
- Public health, governance, national trust
- Global nuclear-policy shifts (Germany, Italy, Japan restructuring)
Impacts
- Long-term exclusion zones, economic losses in the hundreds of billions USD
- Large-scale internal displacement & trauma
- Global energy-policy reconfiguration away from nuclear reliance
- Persistent symbolic and political damage to technological trust