11 March 2026 marked the 15th anniversary of the events surrounding the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. As part of the anniversary commemorations, the Japanese Institute of Environmental Radioactivity organised a scientific seminar. The event was attended by a representative of the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ), dr inż. Piotr Kopka from the Division of Nuclear Energy and Environmental Studies.

The incident occurred in 2011 following a massive earthquake off the coast of Honshu and the resulting tsunami. At the time, the power station experienced serious problems with cooling the reactor cores, leading to one of the most significant nuclear accidents in history.

As part of the commemorations marking the 15th anniversary of these events, a scientific seminar was held, organised by the Institute of Environmental Radioactivity at Fukushima University. The Institute was established in 2013 following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, and its main task is to conduct long-term research into the behaviour of radioactive materials and their impact on the natural environment.

The symposium, entitled "Fukushima Voice: 15 Years of Nature and Humanity", is the twelfth event in this series. The event is primarily aimed at researchers studying the environmental and health impacts of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. At the same time, the seminar is open to everyone interested and has for years attracted considerable interest from the local community, which closely follows the region’s radiological situation and the results of ongoing measurements and research.

Dr inż. Piotr Kopka from the National Centre for Nuclear Research also took part in the symposium. Since 2024, he has been collaborating with scientists from Fukushima on modelling the transport of radionuclides in the environment.

The National Centre for Nuclear Research has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Institute of Environmental Radioactivity, which has enabled the implementation of a number of interesting research projects. Equally important, this cooperation facilitates the exchange of expertise between scientists from Poland and Japan. As a result, researchers from the NCBJ working on broadly defined environmental research related to nuclear safety can benefit from the knowledge of Japanese specialists.

Dr Piotr Kopka’s visit was organised as part of an international scholarship under the Environmental Radioactivity Research Network Center (ERAN) programme. This centre was established in 2019 by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.