Japan marked the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan that triggered a nuclear power plant meltdown as it completes 11 years today. The Fukushima earthquake, named as the Tohuku earthquake, clocked a devastating 9.0 on the Richter scale, signifying an extremely high intensity which also triggered tsunami with waves ranging from 23- 128 feet in height in the country’s north and northeast coastal regions.
Tens of thousands of people were displaced from their homes as a nuclear power plant, Fukushima Daiichi located at Okuma, Fukushima, underwent the most severe nuclear accident in history, outstripping the one in Chernobyl nuclear power plant (in present-day Ukraine), 1986, as per the International Nuclear Event Scale that placed it on ‘Level 7’.
Japan also waded into controversy in 2021 because of its decision to release the contaminated water from the reactors of the plant into the sea, drawing criticism and protests from local fishing communities as well as other countries. The work of releasing more than one million tonnes of water stored in 1,000 tanks is scheduled to begin from the spring of 2023 and expected to continue for another four decades.
At least 18,000 people died due to the accident at the nuclear power plant where radiation leakage caused at least 160,000 people to flee. 40,000 people are still missing due to the disaster. The day was marked by a minute of silence and people offering prayers. State-sponsored commemoration of the event was stopped after it completed 10 years in 2021.
Today also marks the 18th anniversary of the 2004 Madrid bus bombings which killed 193 people and injured 1,000, claimed by the Al-Qaeda as a ‘response’ to Spanish involvement in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
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