The 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear meltdown at which power plant?

The 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Fukushima Daiichi stood on Japan’s northeastern coast in Fukushima Prefecture and was operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company.

On 11 March 2011, the magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake automatically shut down the plant’s operating reactors. The tsunami arrived about 50 minutes later, overtopped the seawall, flooded emergency diesel generators, and cut off the electrical systems needed to remove residual reactor heat.

Reactors 1, 2, and 3 suffered core meltdowns. Hydrogen produced during the overheating accumulated in reactor buildings and caused explosions in Units 1, 3, and 4. The accident led to large-scale evacuations and was ultimately rated Level 7, the highest category on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

The other options refer to different incidents or facilities. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is another Japanese nuclear station, while Three Mile Island and Chernobyl identify separate nuclear accidents in the United States and Ukraine.