While Japan has ambitions for nuclear energy to power about 20 percent of its electricity needs by 2030, it does not have truck-sized reactors keeping the lights on in its northern island of Hokkaido. According to false posts on several social media platforms, the East Asian country is testing "a tiny, box-sized nuclear power plant" built by Japan's National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) that has the capacity to electrify a small town. But the agency told AFP that no such technology exists.
"Japan launched the Yoroi Reactor -- a tiny, box-sized nuclear power plant that fits in a shipping container and can supply 1 megawatt of clean energy to small towns or disaster areas," says a November 23, 2025 post from an Australia-based Facebook user, adding two units were unveiled in Hokkaido.
It also shares a post published on November 7 that largely repeats the false claim, along with an illustration of three workers examining what appears to be a working power plant tucked into a truck, with the yellow-and-black symbol for radiation on the vehicle's exterior.
Similar claims with the same image were also shared by Facebook users in other countries, and it also appeared on TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube.
In Australia, where this claim was shared in several conservative Facebook groups critical of the ruling Labor party, the government has poured billions into solar power, wind turbines and green manufacturing in its pledge to make the country a renewable energy superpower.
But...
While Japan has ambitions for nuclear energy to power about 20 percent of its electricity needs by 2030, it does not have truck-sized reactors keeping the lights on in its northern island of Hokkai...