BY THE NUMBERS: The Fukushima nuclear disaster, 5 years onTOKYO - Mar 09 - Associated Press
Five years after a powerful earthquake and tsunami sent the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan into multiple meltdowns, cleaning up the mess both onsite and in surrounding towns remains a work in progress. Here's a look, by the numbers, at the widespread effects of radiation from the March 11, 2011 , disaster: 164,865: Fukushima residents who fled their homes after the disaster. 97,320: Number who still haven't returned. 49: Municipalities in Fukushima that have completed decontamination work. 45: Number that have not. 30: Percent of electricity generated by nuclear power before the disaster. 1.7: Percent of electricity generated by nuclear power after the disaster. 3: Reactors currently online, out of 43 now workable. 54: Reactors with safety permits before the disaster. 53: Percent of the 1,017 Japanese in a March 5-6 Mainichi Shimbun newspaper survey who opposed restarting nuclear power plants. 30: Percent who supported restarts. The remaining 17 percent were undecided. 760,000: Metric tons of contaminated water currently stored at the Fukushima nuclear plant. 1,000: Tanks at the plant storing radioactive water after treatment. 10.7 million: Number of 1-ton container bags containing radioactive debris and other waste collected in decontamination outside the plant. 7,000: Workers decommissioning the Fukushima plant. 26,000: Laborers on decontamination work offsite. 200: Becquerels of radioactive cesium per cubic meter (264 gallons) in seawater immediately off the plant in 2015. 50 million: Becquerels of cesium per cubic meter in the same water in 2011. 7,400: Maximum number of becquerels of cesium per cubic meter allowed in drinking water by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency . Sources: Fukushima prefectural government, Japan Ministry of Internal Affairs , the Tokyo Electric Power Co. , the Nuclear Regulation Authority , the Federation of Electric Power Companies and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution . Follow Mari Yamaguchi at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi And at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/mari-yamaguchi
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