The next day, large amounts of radioactive material were spilled. The disaster was the largest nuclear incident since the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Around 300,000 people were initially evacuated from the area. It was the worst disaster in Japan since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown killed over 15,000 people.
Fukushima: 5 Years Later
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami ripped through the coast of northern Japan and triggered Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns.
Pictures
A fishing boat washed up by the March 11, 2011 tsunami and black plastic bags containing radiated soil from the decontamination operation are seen in front of cranes and chimneys of Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant through an abandoned house prefecture Feb. 24, 2015.Reuters
A protester holding a banner rises her fist during an anti-nuclear rally in front of the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the operator of the tsunami-crippledFukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a day before the five-year anniversary of the disaster, in Tokyo, Japan, March 10, 2016. The banner reads in Japanese "No nuclear power plant".teleSUR
A Reuters reporter measures a radiation level of 9.76 microsieverts per hour in front of Kumamachi Elementary School inside the exclusion zone in Okuma, near Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, Feb. 13, 2016.Reuters
Protesters rising their fists shout slogans during an anti-nuclear rally in front of the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a day before the five-year anniversary of the disaster, in Tokyo, Japan, March 10, 2016.Reuters
Tomoko Hoshino, 78, and her husband Akira (R), 79, who were evacuated from Okuma, a town inside the exclusion zone next to Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, talk at their house in a temporary housing complex in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima prefecture, Feb. 17, 2015.Reuters
Big black plastic bags containing radiated soil, leaves and debris from the decontamination operation are dumped at a temporary storage site in Tomioka town, Fukushima prefecture, near Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Feb. 22, 2015.Reuters
People protest against the use of nuclear energy and atomic bombs during a demonstration marking the 4th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, March 7, 2015.Reuters
Members of the media, wearing protective suits and masks, walk after receiving a briefing from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) employees (in blue) in front of storage tanks for radioactive water at TEPCO's tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town,Fukushima prefecture, Japan in this Feb. 10, 2016 file photo.Reuters
A member of the media, wearing a protective suit and a mask, looks at the No. 3 reactor building at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan in this Feb. 10, 2016 file photo.Reuters
Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is illuminated for decommissioning operation in the dusk in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, in this aerial view photo taken March 10, 2016, a day before the five-year anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.Reuters