Recovering from a nuclear emergency: How Fukushima did it

Less than an hour. That's the time it took the earthquake-triggered tsunami of 2011 to reach Japan's eastern shoreline. Soon after, the first tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, leading to an accident that forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. Since then, the Government of Japan and the authorities of Fukushima Prefecture have made significant efforts to make much of the evacuated areas inhabitable again. A decade after the accident, what does life look like in the affected areas of Fukushima Prefecture? The IAEA has provided technical expertise, equipment, expert missions and guidance on recovery operations — based on international examples and the IAEA safety standards. It has been supporting Japanese authorities and scientists in three technical areas: radiation monitoring, remediation and the management of waste from decontamination activities.