(above images from Irasutoya)

One thing that one must know about nuclear power plants is that they need water–a lot of water– to run. That’s why they are always built right next to a large body of water.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was built on the east coast of northern Japan, in Fukushima Prefecture, and it sent the electricity that it generated far away, down to a different region–the Tokyo region.

Click here and you can see a photo of Fukushima Daiichi from its sea side: https://mainichi.jp/graphs/20190307/hpj/00m/040/005000g/1

I’ll give my own translation of the Japanese written in that photo:

Top left, in white print: Current circumstances at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

From left to right, bottom: Unit 4, Unit 3, Unit 2, Unit 1*

Top, right, in background: Treatment Water Storage Tanks

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Here is an article in English that explains why these tanks exist: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201903190042.html

Quoting the article:

“Groundwater becomes contaminated when it flows into the buildings of the three reactors that suffered meltdowns in 2011 following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.”

Fukushima is mountainous, so the water flows from the mountains to the ocean in the form of groundwater. It passes throught the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and becomes radioactive with the substance Tritium. Normally, that water would then flow into the ocean, contaminating the ocean with Tritium. However, TEPCO is trying to catch that groundwater. After it catches the groundwater, it then stores the water in tanks (as shown in the photo.)

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Here are the statistics from TEPCO. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric) is the knucklehead company that owns and operates this nuclear power plant, so it’s a little like getting gun control information from the National Rifle Association.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommission/progress/watertreatment/index-e.html

Here’s information from the Fukushima government. https://www.pref.fukushima.lg.jp/site/portal-english/en04-02.html

Here’s a blog that has great photos of not only the water tanks, but also the land around the water tanks–so you can see a bit of the layout of the area. This blog seems to be run by, um, a cat and I think maybe the cat lives in Akita Prefecture (northwest of Fukushima Prefecture.) But I’m not actually quite sure. LOL https://beguredenega.com/archives/19495

*Notes: Each unit is a nuclear reactor. Do not be misled by the term “unit!”

Before the meltdowns, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant had six nuclear reactors in total.

Core meltdowns occurred in Units One, Two, and Three.

(Meltdowns did NOT occur in Units Four, Five, Six because they happened to be shut down at the time on March 11, 2011.)