The Fukushima Cleanup Will Take Generations

TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station as photographed in February 2015.

Rows of water tanks, built to hold almost a million tons of radioactive water, occupy much of the plant compound at Fukushima Daiichi Power Station, seen here from the west. Beyond the tanks stand the damaged reactor buildings from which contaminated water continues to flow.

A red fox at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station exhibits little fear of the plant’s human denizens.

Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit 2 (with Unit 1 in the background).

Unit 3 with the wreckage of the upper stories cleared. In the background is Unit 4.