THE DAYS follows the events of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident that occurred in Japan in 2011. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
On March 11, 2011, a powerful earthquake hits Japan, and the affected regions include the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The employees at the power station are sent to the seismic safe building.
Soon after the earthquake, a tsunami hits the power station, killing two operators who had gone to the basement to check the reactor building’s water levels. The tsunami also damages the cooling systems as well as results in a total station blackout.
This is considered an unprecedented situation, as the operators in the control room have no way to find out what is going on with the reactors. The Prime Minister declares a nuclear state of emergency, the first ever in Japan.
As the operators are not certain whether the reactors’ cooling system is working or not, they decide to open up the valves on the water pipes. The station manager, Masao Yoshida, informs the operators that fire trucks are also being sent to spray cold water into the reactors to further cool them without power.
However, due to the damage done to the roads after the earthquake and tsunami, the fire trucks take very long to get to the reactors. The rubble and the aftershocks make it impossible for the truck with the power supply to reach the station, and the control room still remains without power.
In Unit 1, the air pressure starts rising, and the operators find out that the cooling system is not on. If this continues, the containment vessel will be damaged, and the radiation will leak into the atmosphere.
To prevent that, they decide to vent the reactor by releasing the gas into the atmosphere, and TOEPCO, the company in charge, agrees. Despite knowing the danger, some of the operators volunteer to do this manually, and they are successful.
The danger does not end, as a hydrogen explosion takes place in one of the reactor buildings, destroying the water hoses that were to be used to cool the reactors. The radiation levels keep rising. On top of that, Japan faces another problem, as Tokyo is running out of power.
The air pressure in the containment vessel starts rising again, and Yoshida decides to use seawater to cool the reactors, even when TOEPCO orders him not to do so. He realizes that the employees on site need to make their own decisions because they are facing something that has never happened before.
It works for some time, but soon, the water stops reaching the reactor, and the pressure rises again. To prevent the fuel rods from exposing in Unit 2, the operators risk their lives once again, and when that does not work, they use car batteries to operate the SR valve. Due to this, the water reaches the reactor again.
However, another explosion in Unit 3 as well as the rising temperature of unit 4’s spent fuel creates new problems for them. The SR valve also closes again, and the pressure in Unit 2 starts rising like before. The fuel rods in 2 get fully exposed this time.
Seeing that they might not be able to prevent a major contamination event, Yoshida gets permission to evacuate most of the employees and stay back at the station with the minimum number of employees to continue their efforts of cooling the reactors.
Meanwhile, the US government asks its citizens in Japan to evacuate. The Prime Minister fears that this will lead to other countries doing the same, which would not be favorable for Japan.
The explosions keep injuring those working on the ground to inject water into the reactors, and the Prime Minister seeks the help of the SDF to inject water through choppers.
The worst-case scenario will leave one-third of Japan inhabitable for decades to come, but the employees at the power station are determined to keep trying to prevent that from happening till the very end, even if that means losing their lives.
THE DAYS ending explained in detail:
Do the reactors get stabilized?
With the fire trucks still not injecting water, Yoshida asks a man named Araki from the Nuclear Security Service for instructions to refill the fire engines’ water tanks. As it is too complex to be learned in a day, Araki and the others from the Nuclear Security Service come to help on their own accord.
Additionally, the first helicopter brigade begins the mission of injecting water into the reactors from the sky. TOEPCO also sends pump trucks used in construction to do the same on the ground.
All these efforts lead to the water level going up and cooling down the reactors. The reactors are finally stabilized.
What happens after the disaster is brought under control?
Although the reactors are stabilized, the US government refuses to cancel the evacuation order, but it does send a lot of help to Japan, which includes the USS Ronald Reagan, over 200 experts in nuclear power, and relief materials.
Four project teams are set up at the consolidated headquarters to end the crisis. Eventually, power is also restored in the control room, and the funerals of the two operators who lost their lives are held.
The work toward a cold shutdown continues even a month later, and it has become common for the employees working there to pass blood while urinating; they are physically and mentally exhausted.
The power station was built with the hope of generating energy for the future, and years later, it is being torn down. It will take thirty to forty years more to tear down the power station.
What is the aftermath of the accident?
After the accident, the debris from hydrogen explosions emits high doses of radiation, creating obstacles for workers who are working on the ground. There is still unspent nuclear fuel inside the reactors.
When the cooling system broke down, the molten nuclear fuel dissolved itself and the reactor. The remaining substances combined and accumulated at the bottom of the reactor. This radioactive material is known as nuclear debris.
There is tons of nuclear debris that humans cannot even go and see because of the high level of radiation. In 2019, it is discovered that this debris can be moved, but the question of how to extract and store it still remains.
The people of the Hamadori region were forced to abandon their homes after the accident; 117, 000 people had to leave their hometowns. While the farm animals died, the wild animals began to thrive there. The process of cleaning and containing contamination sources is going on even today.
A journalist, Ryusho Kadota, interviewed more than 90 people who responded to the accident and published a book. The accident at Fukushima has not been resolved, and the work of decommissioning is still going on.
What happened to Yoshida?
Yoshida survived the accident, but he was diagnosed with stage-three cancer after the accident. He wanted to tell the story of the accident to the future generation, so he left a record of his experiences.
On July 9, 2013, Masao Yoshida passed away at the age of 58. His post-accident testimony, The Yoshida Testimony, as well as TOEPCO’s Fukushima Nuclear Accident Analysis Report were released and are considered to be invaluable records.
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