In 2011, the Arab Spring spread across the Middle East. Which nuclear disaster occurred in Japan that year?

The story behind the answer

The Fukushima disaster occurred in 2011 after a magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11 overwhelmed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing core meltdowns in three reactors and large radioactive releases. It was rated Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale—the same severity category as Chernobyl—prompting mass evacuations and a major rethink of Japan’s energy policy.

Remember the timeline by pairing “Arab Spring 2011” with “3/11 Japan → Fukushima.” The other options are from different years: Chernobyl (1986, USSR), Three Mile Island (1979, USA), and Tokaimura (1999, Japan criticality accident). Fukushima’s cause—natural disaster-induced power loss—also distinguishes it from these primarily technical or operator-error incidents.