Intro

Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare chronicles the terrifying sequence of events that unfolded on March 11, 2011, when one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded struck Japan, unleashing a massive tsunami that swept away everything in its path. But the natural disaster was only the beginning — the waves knocked out the cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, setting six reactors on a path toward meltdown within less than 24 hours. As radiation began to leak and the country descended into complete chaos, authorities and workers on the ground scrambled to contain a situation that threatened to become the worst nuclear catastrophe in human history. Drawing comparisons to Chernobyl — which involved only a single reactor — the documentary lays bare the institutional failures, human decisions, and terrifying physics that brought a modern nation to the brink of an unimaginable disaster.