The first surge of the tsunami hit Fukushima almost an hour after the earthquake, at 3:41 p.m., with a second, even larger surge eight minutes later. The seawater pumps, whose engines had been sealed a decade prior, could withstand the waves, even at the massive scale they were experiencing. It was in the backup generators that the vulnerability lay. They were at too low a level and were completely inundated by the forty-foot-plus waves. As a consequence, the cooling systems failed for three of the six reactors on the site. Without effective cooling, the reactors overheated. Pressure built and
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