- [Peter] Nearly 14 years after Japan's worst nuclear disaster, the area around the Fukushima Power Plant remains a ghost town. Homes and businesses are closed indefinitely, and the place is littered with belongings abandoned in the evacuation.

The Exclusion Zone is the ultimate reminder of the dangers of nuclear power gone awry. The meltdown at Fukushima led to the closure of all of Japan's nuclear reactors, and the most complex cleanup operation in modern history that continues to this day.

The Fukushima Plant will stay shut forever, but power companies are clamoring to restart dormant reactors across Japan, as the AI revolution sends demand for energy soaring. Here's how Japan is grappling with atomic energy's dramatic comeback in the shadow of disaster.

We traveled into the Fukushima Exclusion Zone with Tepco, the company that manages the plant. As we drive closer to the site, the radiation counter on the bus ticks steadily higher. Large areas around the plant remain frozen in time,

a testament to the consequences of nuclear destructive power. (driver peaking in Japanese) - The 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling system, causing three reactors to melt down. Tepco has been cleaning up ever since,

but stubbornly, high levels of radiation make that a complex and expensive operation. Opponents of nuclear power see the Fukushima meltdown as the inevitable result of relying on a dangerous energy source. The concentration of radiation is highest at the damaged reactors,

and we were only allowed to stay in the nearest zone for 15 minutes to limit our exposure. Japan is in one of the most seismically active regions in the world, so Tepco has had to build
a number of fail-safes

around the site in case
another disaster strikes. This wall next to me
here is 16 meters high, and that's just a little bit taller than the tsunami that hit in March, 2011, so the plant should be protected
against further tsunamis,

as decades of decommissioning
work continue, Japan has already spent
more than $80 billion on making the site safe
and paying compensation, and that cost is still rising. (speaking in Japanese) - [Peter] In the midst
of the massive cleanup,

Tepco and other companies are fighting to restart
reactors across Japan. Owners of nuclear plants hope that they can sign lucrative
contracts with tech companies. AI pioneers in need of
enormous amounts of energy to keep data centers running, are betting billions of
dollars on nuclear power.

After well-publicized accidents sparked the shift away
from nuclear energy, there is now a global race to
secure access to atomic power. Microsoft recently struck a deal to restart Pennsylvania's
Three Mile Island, the site of America's
worst nuclear accident.

The booming demand for data
centers is now supercharging the debate over restarting reactors. Before Fukushima led to
a nationwide shutdown, Japan's 54 nuclear reactors provided nearly 1/3 of the
country's energy supply. Only 13 reactors are back
online under tight restrictions.

The offline reactors that are operable have a total capacity
of about 24 gigawatts, that's enough to power
hundreds of data centers. Japan's idle sites include the world's largest
nuclear plant, known as KKNPP.

The seven reactors here can generate 8.2
gigawatts of atomic power, that's double the capacity of
the biggest plant in the US. On one of his last trips
as ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel visited the site

to lobby the country to
switch the reactors back on. - These data centers
that are gonna be huge and only exponentially
growing, and we can see it. You can't get into a situation, either you're powering the data center

or you're powering your phone, and if we don't have a reliable power source, we're gonna get to that place. - [Peter] Calls for
restarting the reactors may be getting louder, but many in the country remain scarred by the events of 2011.

(speaking in Japanese) (speaking in Japanese) - I think the public has
every right to ask questions, but at a certain point
you get to that choice, you know, that you gotta make a decision, and I think nuclear power

is an important answer to the future. - [Peter] Japan is at a crossroads, its vast nuclear plants stand ready to fuel a new era that's set to be defined by AI's insatiable thirst for power, but Fukushima's shadow hangs
heavy over the country.

Radiation levels in the
Evacuation Zone are falling, but entire towns may remain
hollowed out for years to come. While many are turning to the
potential of nuclear energy, Japan serves as a reminder of the perils when things go wrong.

Inside Japan’s Nuclear Exclusion Zone as AI Fuels Atomic Energy’s Comeback | WSJ

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