Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
E42988
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a 2011 catastrophic failure at a Japanese nuclear power plant triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami, leading to core meltdowns, radioactive releases, and long-term environmental and policy impacts worldwide.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster canonical | 19 |
| Fukushima nuclear disaster | 1 |
| Fukushima nuclear meltdown | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T334056 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster Context triple: [DARPA Robotics Challenge, inspiredBy, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster]
-
A.
Great Kanto earthquake
The Great Kanto earthquake was a devastating 1923 seismic disaster that struck the Tokyo-Yokohama region of Japan, causing massive destruction and loss of life.
-
B.
K-East Reactor
K-East Reactor was one of the plutonium production reactors at the Hanford Site in Washington State, built during the Cold War to support the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
-
C.
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the first and only wartime uses of nuclear weapons, carried out by the United States against Japan in August 1945 and leading to immense destruction and Japan’s subsequent surrender in World War II.
-
D.
Great Hanshin earthquake
The Great Hanshin earthquake was a devastating 1995 seismic disaster in Japan that caused widespread destruction and loss of life, particularly in the city of Kobe.
-
E.
atomic bombing of Nagasaki
The atomic bombing of Nagasaki was the second nuclear attack carried out by the United States against Japan in August 1945, leading to massive civilian casualties and contributing to Japan’s surrender in World War II.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster Target entity description: The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a 2011 catastrophic failure at a Japanese nuclear power plant triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami, leading to core meltdowns, radioactive releases, and long-term environmental and policy impacts worldwide.
-
A.
Great Kanto earthquake
The Great Kanto earthquake was a devastating 1923 seismic disaster that struck the Tokyo-Yokohama region of Japan, causing massive destruction and loss of life.
-
B.
K-East Reactor
K-East Reactor was one of the plutonium production reactors at the Hanford Site in Washington State, built during the Cold War to support the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
-
C.
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the first and only wartime uses of nuclear weapons, carried out by the United States against Japan in August 1945 and leading to immense destruction and Japan’s subsequent surrender in World War II.
-
D.
Great Hanshin earthquake
The Great Hanshin earthquake was a devastating 1995 seismic disaster in Japan that caused widespread destruction and loss of life, particularly in the city of Kobe.
-
E.
atomic bombing of Nagasaki
The atomic bombing of Nagasaki was the second nuclear attack carried out by the United States against Japan in August 1945, leading to massive civilian casualties and contributing to Japan’s surrender in World War II.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (59)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
industrial accident
ⓘ
nuclear disaster ⓘ radiological accident ⓘ technological disaster ⓘ |
| affectedReactor |
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
ⓘ
surface form:
Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1
Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2 ⓘ Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 ⓘ Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 ⓘ |
| cause |
loss of cooling
ⓘ
loss of off-site power ⓘ loss of on-site backup power ⓘ station blackout ⓘ |
| classification | INES Level 7 ⓘ |
| country | Japan ⓘ |
| countryRegulator |
Nuclear Regulation Authority (Japan)
ⓘ
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency ⓘ |
| decommissioningStartDate | 2011 ⓘ |
| environmentalImpact |
marine contamination in Pacific Ocean
ⓘ
radioactive fallout over eastern Japan ⓘ |
| estimatedDecommissioningDuration | 30–40 years ⓘ |
| evacuationRadius | 20 km ⓘ |
| expandedEvacuationZone | up to 30 km ⓘ |
| governmentResponse |
declaration of nuclear emergency by Japanese government
ⓘ
mass evacuation of local population ⓘ |
| healthImpact |
increased radiation exposure for emergency workers
ⓘ
psychological stress for evacuees ⓘ |
| impact |
global nuclear policy changes
ⓘ
public opposition to nuclear power ⓘ shutdown of nuclear reactors in Japan ⓘ stricter nuclear safety regulations worldwide ⓘ |
| INESLevel | 7 ⓘ |
| location |
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
ⓘ
Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture ⓘ Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture ⓘ |
| mediaCoverage | extensive international news coverage ⓘ |
| notableSubstanceReleased |
cesium-134
ⓘ
cesium-137 ⓘ iodine-131 ⓘ xenon-133 ⓘ |
| operator |
Tokyo Electric Power Company
ⓘ
surface form:
TEPCO
Tokyo Electric Power Company ⓘ |
| reactorType | boiling water reactor ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
ⓘ
Japanese nuclear power phase-out debate ⓘ |
| result |
contamination of air, soil, and water
ⓘ
core meltdown in Unit 1 ⓘ core meltdown in Unit 2 ⓘ core meltdown in Unit 3 ⓘ decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi plant ⓘ hydrogen explosions in reactor buildings ⓘ long-term evacuation zones ⓘ release of radioactive materials ⓘ |
| sameINESLevelAs | Chernobyl disaster ⓘ |
| startDate | 2011-03-11 ⓘ |
| studiedBy |
International Atomic Energy Agency
ⓘ
United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation ⓘ World Health Organization ⓘ |
| triggeredBy |
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
ⓘ
surface form:
2011 Tōhoku earthquake
2011 Tōhoku tsunami ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster Description of subject: The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a 2011 catastrophic failure at a Japanese nuclear power plant triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami, leading to core meltdowns, radioactive releases, and long-term environmental and policy impacts worldwide.
Referenced by (21)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Fukushima nuclear meltdown
this entity surface form:
Fukushima nuclear disaster
subject surface form:
Shin Godzilla