Asia
Ten years ago, a massive undersea earthquake off Japan’s eastern coast sent a wall of water rushing toward the shore.
The Great East Japan Earthquake, the most powerful in Japan’s recorded history, and the tsunami it unleashed — up to 20 feet high in some places — left more than 22,000 people dead or missing and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.
Mainichi Shimbun/Reuters
The surge of seawater on March 11, 2011, also flooded the electricity generators powering the cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing three of the four reactors to go into catastrophic meltdown.
Explosions at the plant scattered clouds of radioactive dust over a vast area of northeastern Japan and caused more than 150,000 people to flee in panic.
Mainichi Shimbun/Reuters
It was one of the worst nuclear disasters in history, and its impact will be felt for many decades to come.
Mainichi Shimbun/Reuters
An aerial view of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on March 20, 2011.
Air Photo Service/Reuters
Air Photo Service/Reuters
Houses are swept away by water in Natori city following the 2011 tsunami and earthquake.
Kyodo/Reuters
Kyodo/Reuters
People walk in a ravaged area in Miyako on April 5, 2011.
Toru Hanai/Reuters
Toru Hanai/Reuters
Whirlpools following the 2011 tsunami in Iwaki city.
Yomiuri/Reuters
Yomiuri/Reuters
Today, millions of tons of contaminated topsoil have been removed from the fields around the nuclear power plant, but large areas of mountains and forest cannot be cleared of radioactive material. Entire towns are still not safe for people to return.
Yomiuri/Reuters
A calendar dated March 11, 2011, remains, 10 years later, in Namie.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Bags of radiation-contaminated soil are stocked in Futaba.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Weeds grow inside an abandoned playground in Okuma.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
An abandoned greenhouse in Futaba.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
An abandoned house inside the “difficult-to-return” zone in Namie.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Harumi Mottate holds a photo album showing pictures of her evacuation in 2011.
Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
A man walks past a collapsed house in Futaba.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
An abandoned Japanese sake factory in Futaba.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
The Rev. Akira Sato stands outside the old building of Fukushima First Bible Baptist Church in Tomioka.
Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
A car destroyed by the 2011 tsunami in Futaba.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Fukushima’s tragic legacy will continue for decades, left for the next generation of engineers and scientists. The technology does not exist to fully clear the site of the highly radioactive mixture of fuel and concrete from the cores. And there is no place set aside to store the deadly materials even if it could remove them.
Many experts say the government’s timeline of between 20 and 30 years is hopelessly optimistic. They argue it may never be possible to remove the fuel from the ruins of Fukushima.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
A truck drives past a warning sign in Namie.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Bags of radioactive waste are reflected in a traffic mirror in Namie.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Bags of radiation-contaminated soil are lined up near a decontamination worker in Futaba.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Storage tanks for contaminated water at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images