The Fukushima Daaiichi nuclear meltdown disaster took place in Japan following the Tohoku Earthquake off the eastern Japanese coast and the resultant tsunami on March 11, 2011. It was the most serious nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl, Ukraine, nuclear meltdown of 1986. Following the initial seismic magnitude 9.0 earthquake, now referred to as The Great East Japan Earthquake, a 15-meter-tall tsunami arrived less than 1 hour later and went over the 10-meter-high seawall of the nuclear plant. The nuclear power plant, with the first of its six reactors constructed in 1967, was located near the towns of Okuma and Futaba on the eastern Japanese coast and was one of a number of nuclear plants operating throughout Japan.

Once the tsunami breached the protective seawall and entered ...