The difficulty of nuclear emergency prevention measures during natural disasters: Ongoing challenges in Japan.

It is crucial to anticipate nuclear emergency scenarios and implement effective measures. Japan's climate and topography make it vulnerable to natural disasters; thus, it is necessary to address compounding and cascading disaster scenarios involving the simultaneous occurrence of natural and nuclear disasters. On January 1, 2024, an earthquake hit the Noto region of Ishikawa Prefecture, resulting in damage to the area around the Shika Nuclear Power Plant, located 90 km from the epicenter. This earthquake revealed that, in the event of a complex disaster, residents living within 30 kilometers of the Shika Nuclear Power Plant may be completely unprepared for a nuclear disaster. In the event of a complex disaster, it is crucial to implement appropriate countermeasures while balancing responses to both nuclear and natural disasters and optimizing radiation disaster prevention measures.