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DISASTER: On March 11, 2011, 41
minutes after the strongest earth-
quake ever measured in Japan,
the first wave of a tsunami hit the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant. Over the next 96 hours, three
uranium fuel cores melted down,
exposing a nearly 400-square-
mile swath to intense radiation.
Some 16,000 people died from the
combined disasters. It was the
world’s worst nuclear accident af-
ter Chernobyl in Russia.COMEBACK: Nuclear byproducts
like cesium-137 take decades to de-
cay into more stable elements, so
humans had to do the heavy lift-
ing. The Japanese government and
the plant’s owners removed topsoil
and spread potassium—which dis-
places radioactive particles thatPolytechnic University, says that
while juvenile swallow num-
bers were low, initial studies on
nestlings reveal limited genetic
damage—a potentially good sign
for radioactive ecosystems else-
where. “As human communities
regenerate, barn swallows, which
frequently nest on buildings, also
come back,” he says. “In the wake
of this disaster, you realize how
connected people and nature are.”
It could take up to 200 years
for Japan to fully decommission
the Fuku shima plant. But the
costly catastrophe has already
spurred countries to phase out
nuclear power. Germany, for ex-
ample, is on track to shut down
all 17 of its facilities by 2022.FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN
AJKA, HUNGARY
DISASTER: After weeks of tor-
rential downpour in southwest
Hungary in October of 2010, a
crack in the corner of a reservoir at
the Ajka alumina processing plant
burst, inundating 2,500-plus acres
of countryside with highly alka-
line red mud. Locals described the
flood of sludge, a byproduct from
refining bauxite rock for industrial
powder, as a “mini- tsunami.” Ten
people died, including one child,
and 700 residents were evacuated,
marking the spill as the nation’s
direst ecological fiasco.COMEBACK: To keep the red mud
at bay, the Hungarians pitted nat-
ural elements against industrial
ones. Workers dumped 11,000
tons of gypsum minerals into
river beds filled with dangerously
vegetation might otherwise draw alkaline sludge to keep it from
up—across the district. Today, con-
crete barriers and a mile-long “ice
wall” of frozen dirt largely keep
the Pacific from flowing around
the reactor buildings. So far, the
fortress- like infrastructure is help-
ing: Daily tests at the Fukushima
Agricultural Technology Centre
show that local food samples meet
stringent safety standards.
Some parts of the blast site re-
main a haunting landscape, with
abandoned café counters still
strewn with open magazines. But
over time, evacuees have returned,
along with several animals that
were already in decline. Camera
traps set up by ecologists in the re-
gion have documented wild boars,
raccoon dogs, and a dozen other
mammal species. Birds have shown
surprising resilience, too: Andrea
Bonisoli Alquati, an environmen-
tal toxicologist at California State106 WINTER 2020 / POPSCI.COM
RECOVERY INITIATED: 2011
PROGRESS: PARTIALLY COMPLETERECOVERY INITIATED:
2010PROGRESS:
FULLY COMPLETE