What Is Fukushima? Everything To Know About Nuclear Disaster At Daiichi Power Plant

The coastal prefecture of Fukushima has faced a difficult road since a devastating earthquake and tsunami rocked the area in 2011, killing tens of thousands and causing its nuclear reactor to melt down, leaking radiation and rendering the surrounding provinces uninhabitable. Since then, the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), has been working to clean and decommission the facility. In January, the company bumped its estimate for a full cleaning to $188 billion, noting it would probably take decades. Radiation levels from the reactors should have faded over time, but TEPCO said Thursday levels inside the Fukushima Daiichi plant reached such astronomical levels, not even a cleaning robot could survive inside. The previous radiation high, measured one year after the disaster, was 73 Sieverts per hour.