The magnitude 9.1 earthquake of 11 March 2011 and the tsunami that followed cut power to the Fukushima Daiichi plant, leading to loss of reactor cooling, hydrogen explosions at several reactor buildings and a level 7 rating. Three former TEPCO executives were acquitted of criminal negligence, a ruling made final for two of them in 2025 after the prosecution of the third ended on his death, and a 13 trillion yen civil judgment against four executives was overturned on appeal. Since August 2023 TEPCO has released treated water into the sea under IAEA review while debris removal remains at the trial sample stage.
TEPCO began the 25th discharge of treated water on 26 October 2026 and said access route work for a further Unit 2 investigation and trial debris retrieval would begin on 2 October 2026, with large scale removal not expected before 2037. The criminal acquittals are final, and no Supreme Court ruling on the shareholders' planned appeal of the overturned civil judgment was found as of 1 November 2026.
The US Geological Survey records the Great Tohoku earthquake at 05:46:24 UTC (14:46 Japan time) with magnitude 9.1 and a depth of 29 km. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency said Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 3, the reactors then operating, shut down automatically.
According to the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency timeline, the plant lost offsite power in the earthquake, and the tsunami that followed struck the site and disabled the onsite emergency diesel generators. Steam driven cooling systems continued to operate for a time.
In an update logged at 16:55 UTC, the IAEA said Japanese authorities had ordered residents within 3 km of Fukushima Daiichi to evacuate and advised those within 10 km to stay indoors.
An explosion destroyed the upper structure of the Unit 1 reactor building, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency said. The IAEA said TEPCO reported the explosion to the regulator NISA at 07:30 CET (06:30 UTC) and that Japan later reported it occurred outside the primary containment vessel. Four workers were injured.
Japanese authorities extended the evacuation zone around Fukushima Daiichi to a 20 km radius, the IAEA said, and about 170,000 people were evacuated from within that zone.
The IAEA said injection of seawater mixed with boron into Unit 1, approved by NISA, began at 20:20 Japan time (11:20 UTC). Japan provisionally rated the Unit 1 event at level 4, an accident with local consequences, on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
The IAEA said a hydrogen explosion occurred at Unit 3 at 11:01 local Japan time (02:01 UTC). The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency said it severely damaged the upper structure of the reactor building and exposed its spent fuel pool.
The IAEA logged an explosion at Unit 2 at 21:14 UTC on 14 March (about 06:14 on 15 March in Japan) and a fire at Unit 4 that began at 23:54 UTC and lasted two hours. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency said damage to the upper reactor building of Unit 4 was confirmed.
Japan raised the accident's rating on the international event scale from 5 to 7, the highest level, citing radioactive releases estimated at about 10 percent of those from Chernobyl, according to the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency.
More than 40 TEPCO shareholders filed a civil suit in 2012 on the company's behalf, AP reported. Reuters said the suit sought 22 trillion yen from five former executives.
The National Diet's Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, chaired by Kiyoshi Kurokawa, released its final report. It said regulatory agencies and TEPCO management had deliberately postponed decisions, Al Jazeera reported, and AFP said it blamed collusion between the government, the regulators and TEPCO.
The Tokyo District Court acquitted former chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and former vice presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro of professional negligence over the deaths of more than 40 people after evacuation, VOA reported. Prosecutors had sought five years in prison for each. Al Jazeera later reported that the defence had argued such a tsunami could not have been anticipated.
Japan announced its basic policy to discharge treated water stored at the plant into the sea, the IAEA said. In July 2021 the IAEA and Japan signed terms of reference for an IAEA safety review of the plan.
Japan's Supreme Court said the disaster was unforeseeable and dismissed compensation demands from thousands of residents, AP reported.
In the shareholders' civil case, the Tokyo District Court found four former executives could have prevented the accident had they exercised due care and ordered them to pay about 13 trillion yen to TEPCO, Reuters reported. It was the first ruling to hold former executives responsible. TEPCO declined to comment.
Reuters, via Claims Journal
Al Jazeera, with news agenciesThe Tokyo High Court upheld the not guilty verdicts for Katsumata, Muto and Takekuro, AP and Al Jazeera reported. AP said the three had been charged by a civil prosecution panel.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi handed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida the agency's comprehensive report, which found the plan consistent with international safety standards, according to Japan's trade ministry.
TEPCO began releasing treated water into the sea, and Chinese customs banned all aquatic products from Japan with immediate effect, AP reported. Prime Minister Kishida asked China to lift the ban. The IAEA said it had staff on site to monitor the start of the discharge.
Associated Press, via Hawaii Tribune-HeraldInternational Atomic Energy AgencyChina and Japan agreed that seafood trade would gradually resume on condition that third countries monitored the discharge, Bernama reported, citing Kyodo News. A Japanese government spokesman later referred to the understanding reached in September of the previous year, AFP reported.
The prosecution of former chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata was dismissed in November 2024 after his death, a Supreme Court spokesman told AFP.
TEPCO said it completed a trial retrieval of fuel debris from Unit 2 on 7 November 2024, after confirming the sample's dose rate was below its criterion. Nippon.com later reported the sample weighed about 0.7 grams, out of an estimated 880 tonnes of debris in Units 1 to 3.
Japan's Supreme Court dismissed the prosecutors' appeals against the acquittals of Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro, making them final, a court spokesman told AFP. AFP noted the 2019 ruling had found the men could not have predicted the scale of the tsunami.
TEPCO said a second trial retrieval of fuel debris from Unit 2 was completed on 23 April 2025, and World Nuclear News reported a second small sample had been extracted that month.
The Tokyo High Court overturned the 13.3 trillion yen judgment against four former executives and rejected the shareholders' appeal for a larger award, AFP and AP reported. The plaintiffs' lawyers said they would appeal to the Supreme Court.
Chinese customs said its ban on Japanese seafood had been lifted on 29 June for most of Japan, AP reported, while restrictions stayed in place for 10 of Japan's 47 prefectures, including Fukushima.
TEPCO concluded that preparations for large scale debris removal would take 12 to 15 years, putting the start at 2037 at the earliest instead of the early 2030s, World Nuclear News reported. AP also reported the delay to 2037 or later. The company kept its 30 to 40 year target for decommissioning, according to World Nuclear News.
Kyodo News and NHK reported, citing unnamed sources, that China had told Japan it would suspend imports of Japanese seafood again, saying it needed to monitor the treated water release, Reuters and AFP reported. The move came amid a dispute over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks on Taiwan. Japan's government spokesman said Tokyo had received no notification.
TEPCO's draft plan for fiscal 2026 set out eight discharges totalling about 62,400 cubic meters of treated water containing about 11 terabecquerels of tritium.
TEPCO said work on a Unit 2 internal investigation and trial debris retrieval using a robotic arm would begin on 2 October 2026 with access route construction, after the arm's rusted shaft motor was replaced. It said the full process would take about six months and that later dates were under review.
TEPCO began its seventh discharge of fiscal 2026, the 25th since August 2023, at 11:29 a.m. Japan time, planning to release about 7,800 cubic meters by 13 November 2026.
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Al Jazeera, with news agencies · aljazeera.com
AFP, via Dawn · dawn.com Reuters, via Claims Journal · claimsjournal.com Al Jazeera, with news agencies · aljazeera.com
Associated Press, via The Boston Globe · bostonglobe.com Associated Press, via Hawaii Tribune-Herald · hawaiitribune-herald.com
Nippon.com · nippon.com
Associated Press, via The Washington Times · m.washingtontimes.com
Associated Press, via PBS NewsHour · pbs.org
Reuters, via Free Malaysia Today · freemalaysiatoday.comLast updated 1 November 2026. Spotted an error? See corrections. Every event links to the record it comes from. Allegations are attributed to whoever made them.