IAEA Missions Review Decommissioning Activities at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

On 11 March 2011 a massive earthquake and tsunami caused a major accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. Fuel removal and postaccident stabilization and cleanup activities are ongoing at the plant, with the aim that active dismantling can proceed in due course. In the five years since the accident, at the request of the Government of Japan, the IAEA sent more than ten expert missions to advise the country in various areas, including three on the safety and technological aspects of decommissioning and remediation. The objective of the decommissioning peer review missions was to provide an independent assessment of the activities associated with the planning and implementation of decommissioning the plant.