The Fukushima Daiichi Accident, Japan. Annex I. Case study that considers the guidance and recommendations provided in this Safety Guide

The Great East Japan Earthquake, with a moment magnitude of 9.0, occurred at 14:46 (Japanese Standard Time) on 11 March 2011. The seismic motions and the tsunami caused by the earthquake led to severe damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), and associated infrastructure. As a result, the plant, which had six boiling water reactors, experienced a station blackout (i.e. the loss of all external power and practically all of the alternative power supply). At Units 1–3, which were operating at full power at the time of the accident, the reactor cores eventually melted, and radioactive material was released to the environment. The information presented in this section is taken from INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, The Fukushima Daiichi Accident, Technical Volume 3/5: Emergency Preparedness and Response, IAEA, Vienna (2015), except where otherwise stated.