Japanese Taxpayers Picking Up $100B Tab for Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

"Five years ago today a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of northeastern Japan unleashed a powerful, 30-foot-high tsunami that swept across the landscape, killing 15,000 people, displacing nearly 400,000 others, and triggering one of the worst nuclear disasters in history — a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The disaster has dramatically altered Japanese society and caused nations around the world to reconsider the efficacy of nuclear power generation, particularly given the costs of cleaning up the disaster and compensating victims will likely be $100 billion — a bill that the Japanese government, not the electricity company that owned the plant, has been picking up.

James Acton, the co-director of the national nuclear program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that when thinking about the disaster's impact on Japanese society, it's important to remember its scope and the thousands upon thousands of lives lost in the tidal wave alone. "

Rob Verger reports for Vice News March 11, 2016.