Fifteen years ago, a massive earthquake and tsunami smashed into Japan’s East coast causing widespread destruction and a catastrophic loss of power at the Fukushima nuclear plant. 

The world held its breath as a nuclear disaster unfolded.

Today, 15 years later, the crisis continues.

Against a backdrop of rising global nuclear tensions with multiple nuclear weapon states involved in wars, the lessons from the devastation that unraveled in Fukushima are more urgent than ever. 

On that day 15 years ago, the nuclear reactors melted down. This catastrophe caused a mass evacuation of around 150,000 people, hundreds of billions of dollars damage and an ecological crisis as massive amounts of   radioactive poison was released into the air and ocean.

In August 2012, I joined a delegation of international monitors and public health experts to visit the Fukushima region and tour the nuclear exclusion zone.

We met people whose lives had been irreparably changed. We drove through abandoned regions and towns empty of both people and hope. 

We met with elderly evacuees in temporary housing who would never return home. We heard stories of individual bravery and corporate indifference, all to the sinister soundtrack of a disturbingly active radiation counter. 

These snapshots and stories remain vivid for me today. And in the wider world, the crisis continues.

Rubble outside Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. Photo: Gill Tudor

Australia’s direct link to the Fukushima disaster

In the shadow still left by Fukushima, it made sense that voting Australians clearly rejected domestic nuclear power at the 2025 federal election, especially considering Australia’s direct connection to Fukushima.

In October 2011, it was formally confirmed to the Australian Parliament that Australian uranium was fuelling  Fukushima  at the time of the disaster.

The head of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office – a unit of DFAT charged with tracking Australian uranium – told a Senate Committee that,

“…we can confirm that Australian obligated nuclear material [uranium] was at the Fukushima Daiichi site and in each of the reactors.”

Australian radioactive rocks were the source of Fukushima’s fallout and shockingly, even today large volumes of this waste are being directly released into the Pacific Ocean.

Waste from Fukushima poses a huge threat to the Pacific Ocean

Today, the fallout from the disaster continues, with Japanese nuclear authorities confirming that active intervention will be required for the next 40 years. There are also serious radioactive waste concerns, especially around the contested release of radioactive wastewater into the Pacific.

Between 100 and 300 tonnes of water are collected and stored at the stricken reactor complex each day, with over one thousand large tanks holding around 1.3 million tonnes of contaminated water on site.

This includes water used to cool nuclear fuel rods along with ground, rain and seepage water — all with elevated levels of radioactive contaminants.

Tokyo’s Electric Power Company is directly discharging this waste into the Pacific and intends to do so for decades, despite deep community concern and scientific uncertainty.

Ocean dumping is actively opposed by coastal and fishing communities in Japan and is highly controversial in both Korea and China.

It is also a cause for deep heartache among the wider Pacific community many of whom have spoken of the adverse environmental and cultural impacts and the tension between this action and the prohibition of radioactive waste dumping in the 1985 South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty.

The lingering threat of nuclear today

Fukushima was and remains a profound environmental, economic and human disaster that continues to negatively impact lives in Japan and far beyond.

It also starkly highlights the costs and risks of nuclear energy and the complexity of managing nuclear waste.

Japan is a mature and technically sophisticated nation and one of the largest economies in the world, yet 15 years after a nuclear disaster, the best that it can do in relation to radioactive waste is to pump and dump.

Closer to home, the Fukushima lesson is clear: nuclear power has no role in Australia and we should stop fuelling global nuclear risks and insecurity. Simply: we must end uranium exports.

Less than a year ago Peter Dutton led the Coalition to a shattering defeat in an election he dubbed a ‘referendum on nuclear power’. 

Nuclear was the clearest policy difference between the two major parties and Australia made their opinion clear; firmly rejecting Peter Dutton, his party and the nuclear plan.

Despite this massive rejection of nuclear power, the new Coalition leadership is dusting off their nuclear ambitions and seeking to again delay and distract from Australia’s impressive renewable energy transition.

Instead of chasing this radioactive fantasy, they need to see the Fukushima anniversary as a warning we should not ignore and a radioactive reality we must not repeat.

We cannot change the past, but we can and must learn from it to help shape the future. Fukushima’s message is clear - our planet is precious and our energy future is renewable, not radioactive.

Join over 40,000 people by signing our petition calling for a nuclear-free Australia.

Dave Sweeney speaking at ACFs 2025 Federal Election launch in Kooyong.

Header image: Energy Shift Parade in Shibuya. Photo: Matthias Lambrecht