White Panels at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Hide Scars of 2011 Accident

By Yoshimune Numata / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

15:56 JST, January 24, 2026

White panels covered the No. 1 reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Friday, ahead of the 15th anniversary of the accident, which occurred in March 2011.

Work to decommission the power plant has been progressing, as fewer traces of the nuclear accident could be seen, and many tanks, which previously stored treated water, have been disassembled.

The panels around the No. 1 reactor building are the first thing that came into sight. During the 2011 accident, the building was severely damaged by a hydrogen gas explosion.

In January last year, the rusted steel frames of the same building were mostly exposed, showing the scars of the accident.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. completed installing the white panels on Monday.

The covers will prevent dust containing radioactive materials from scattering while the remaining debris is removed from inside the No. 1 reactor building.

Last year, 12 large tanks containing treated water could be seen, but now, the area is mostly empty.

TEPCO plans to disassemble nine more tanks in a neighboring area and build facilities for such purposes as storing nuclear fuel debris, which will be removed from the reactors.

The removal of nuclear fuel debris, which is highly radioactive, is the most difficult step of the decommissioning. The government and TEPCO aim to complete the decommissioning by 2051.

“The necessary preparations have finally been made,” said Hideaki Tokuma, risk communicator of TEPCO. “It hasn’t changed how difficult the path forward will be, but we want to overcome [those challenges].”