Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power station on Japan's Pacific coast in the towns of Okuma and Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company. It comprised six boiling water reactors with a combined nameplate capacity of about 4.7 gigawatts, the first of which began operating in 1971 and the last in 1979. On 11 March 2011 a magnitude 9.1 earthquake and the tsunami that followed knocked out the plant's cooling systems, causing meltdowns and radiation releases that were rated Level 7, the highest level on the International Nuclear Event Scale, a rating otherwise given only to the Chernobyl disaster. The accident forced the evacuation of roughly 83,000 residents, and the plant has not generated power since.