The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Japan

On 11 March 2011,On 9 March 2011, an enormous earthquake and tsunami devastated the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. Three of the six reactors were operating at the time of the quake and all three correctly shut down as they are designed to do and the emergency cooling systems all came into operation. These are needed because even when shut down, the reactor cores continue to produce a lot of heat. Tragedy struck when enormous sea waves generated by the earthquake — called a tsunami — breached the sea wall protecting the plant and overwhelmed the emergency pumps which were cooling the reactors. Without cooling, the fuel inside got hotter and hotter and eventually melted. Several reactor buildings exploded and released radiation and a large area around the plant had to be evacuated. This became the world's second worst nuclear disaster. Incredibly, nobody was killed although the tsunami killed over 12,000 people.