ABSTRACT
The Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, also known as Fukushima Daiichi (Dai-ichi means “number one”) is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a 3.5 square km (860 acres) site in the towns of Okuma and Futaba in the Futaba district of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan (Wikipedia 2011b; Figure 1.1). First commissioned in 1971, the plant consists of six boiling water reactors. These light-water reactors drove electric generators with a combined power of 4.7 GWe (4.7 billion electrical watts), making the Fukushima facility the 15th largest nuclear power complex in the world and the fi rst to be constructed and run entirely by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The plant suffered major damage from an earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011 and is not expected to reopen. On April 20th, Japanese authorities declared a 20-km evacuation zone around the facility which may be entered only under government supervision (Wikipedia 2011b).
