The Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident: two years on, the fallout continues
More than two years after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan, scientists are still trying to quantify the extent of the damage.Of particular importance is determining just how much hazardous material escaped into the atmosphere from the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in the period following the disaster on 11 March 2011.Scientists estimate a ‘source term’ (the types and amounts of hazardous materials released following an accident) by running computerised atmospheric and oceanic dispersal simulations and collecting samples from seawater. Data from