FUKUSHIMA’S FOUR YEARS LATER

The nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan was really just the cherry on top of an already devastating afternoon. An initial earthquake rocked the area, which triggered a tsunami that ravaged the shore, which led to the nuclear meltdown. After the plant went bottoms up, the area was completely evacuated, creating a 12.5 mile exclusion zone in all directions around the plant.

Photographer Arkadiusz Podniesinski went into the exclusions zone, armed with a camera, to see how the area looks four years later. What he found is a testament to Mother Nature’s tenacity.

Radioation reading of 6.7 uSv/h inside the exclusion zone

Cracks caused by the initial earthquake

Radioactive bags of soil

Kouichi Nozawa (pictured) lives with his wife Youko in a room in temporary housing near Fukushima, after being evacuated out of the exclusion zone

Many vehicles now lie almost completely covered by the forest, which has been left to grow wild since the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Cow with mysterious spots

MUTANT VEGETABLES OF FUKUSHIMA

South Korean website posts photos of mutant flowers and vegetables from Japan. They say it happened because of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. But it is not clear where the produce was farmed from and whether the nuclear disaster is in fact to blame.

Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster occurred two years ago. The disaster – in which 18,500 people died – was the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986.