‘Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare’ Trailer – HBO Documentary Chronicles the 2011 Accident

In 2011, a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, caused by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, resulted in electrical grid failure and damaged nearly all of the power plant’s backup energy sources.

On the 15th anniversary of the catastrophe, the documentary Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare chronicles the near-total meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

It includes first-hand insight from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant engineers, government advisors, American consultants and journalists, TEPCO officials, and emergency workers.

Directed by James Jones (HBO’s Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes) and co-directed by Megumi Inman (Atomic People), the documentary debuts Tuesday, March 10 (9:00-10:40 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

In March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake – the strongest ever recorded in Japan – unleashed a tsunami that devastated the country’s northeast coast. Entire towns were erased and 20,000 lives were lost, but an even greater threat loomed at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where the giant wave disabled the cooling systems of three reactors. As radiation levels soared and hydrogen explosions tore through the facility, Japan’s leaders faced the unimaginable prospect of evacuating Tokyo – the world’s largest city with 35 million people.

Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare reconstructs the nine harrowing days following the disaster in forensic, real-time detail, from the control-room engineers fighting to prevent a total meltdown, to the political leaders confronting the unthinkable, to ordinary citizens caught in the fallout.

At the heart of the story are the power plant workers who were tasked with averting a major catastrophe. It was potentially a suicide mission, commanded by Japan’s prime minister Naoto Kan. Navigating days of isolation and terror, these plant workers – who would later be known as the courageous Fukushima 50 – recount the mounting pressures they faced as they entered the darkened reactors to try to avert the worst outcome, knowing the work might kill them. For years, these men stayed silent, burdened by guilt and stigma rather than celebrated as heroes. Now the control-room supervisor on duty when the disaster began, Ikuo Izawa, and others who were present in those nine fateful days, recount their detailed experiences publicly for the first time.

Watch the official trailer for Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare above.