Japan will mark 15 years since the tsunami by pushing Takaichi to use more nuclear power

Tokyo — Japan on Wednesday marked the 15th anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster off its northeast coast, as the government pushes for the use of nuclear power.

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of the region, causing more than 22,000 deaths and forcing nearly half a million people to flee their homes, many of them due to tsunami damage.

In Fukushima, about 160,000 people fled their homes due to radiation spewing from the tsunami-prone Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. About 26,000 of them have not returned because they were resettled elsewhere, their hometowns are off limits or they have chronic concerns about radiation.

The country observed a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m., the moment the earthquake struck 15 years ago.

At a ceremony in Fukushima, Prime Minister Sane Takaichi pledged to do everything in the next five years to speed up the region’s recovery and continue to share the “valuable lessons we learned from the disaster’s massive sacrifice.”

Takaichi sought to speed up reactor restarts and promote nuclear power as a sustainable energy source, according to a major policy reversal in 2022, which ended a decade-long nuclear phase-out plan.

Some residents of tsunami-ravaged areas walked to the coast early in the morning to pray for their loved ones, and the remains of others are still missing.

More than 1 million homes, offices and schools were damaged or destroyed in the earthquake and tsunami in Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and other coastal areas. Major infrastructure was rebuilt, but people have been displaced and the recovery of communities and local economies has been slow.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant lost its power and cooling functions, causing three of its six reactors to meltdown. The three reactors contain at least 880 tonnes of melted fuel remnants, but details of their condition inside are still largely unknown due to dangerous radiation levels.

Full removal of the melted fuel remains is delayed until 2037 or later.

There is also enough slightly radioactive soil from area-wide decontamination efforts to fill 11 baseball stadiums.

The government has pledged to move the soil and has tried to use some for road construction and other public works projects but has faced public resistance.