Fukushima—Two Years Later

On 11 March 2011 the Great Tohoku earthquake (M_w 9.1, Global Centroid Moment Tensor) struck northern Japan’s Pacific coast. The estimated number of deaths (including missing) was more than 18,000, and the estimated economic losses were on the order of at least 2×10¹³  Yen (about US$ 2.5×10¹¹). The tsunami caused a Level 7 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Dai‐ichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS) which required the evacuation of a large region due to radioactive contamination, and necessitated ongoing efforts to stabilize the situation with the long term goal of decommissioning the destroyed reactors. For a...