Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant commissioned by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) in 1971, and located in Fukushima, Japan. The plant consisted of 6 boiling water reactors (used for generating electrical power) that cumulatively generated about 4.7 Gigawatts, ranking the Fukushima Daiichi as one of the largest nuclear power stations in the world.
On March 11 2011, an undersea earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, less than 100 kilometers from the Tohoku region, Japan, triggering a tsunami that damaged the nuclear power plants emergency generators. The reactors were automatically shut down, resulting in 3 nuclear meltdowns, 3 hydrogen explosions, and the release of radioactive contaminations.
After the incident, the Government issued an evacuation order within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant, relocating over 100,000 residents due to airborne radiation contamination.
According to recent reports, China has reportedly banned the importation of seafood from Japan, because of the latter’s decision to dump treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi plant in the ocean. The report further mentions that a total of 7,800 cubic meters of wastewater will be released over 17 days, primarily due to lack of storage, with TEPCO confirming the safety of this discharge.
China’s customs department cited that this ban was aimed at preventing radioactive contamination of aquatic products from Japan.
