Fukushima accidents

World Nuclear Association. Fukushima accident, updated March 20, 2014. http //www.world-nuclear.org/info/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/fukushima-accident/, downloaded March 21, 2014. 

It is in this context of overwhelming and widespread damage, huge mortahty, massive destruction of infrastructure, loss of communications, and national shock at the severity of this natural disaster that the response to the emerging Fukushima accident must be judged. 

Many reports have been published about the Fukushima accident, for example [1-7, 9-10]. These include reports by the Japanese Government and its official inquiries, the Japan Nuclear Technology Institute, the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (in Atlanta, Georgia), and the World Health Organization. In the following a brief synopsis is presented of what happened and some key lessons learned. 

Politically, the impact of the Fukushima accidents was variable. Notably, Germany announced immediate closure of several nuclear plants, with an intention to shutdown the others by 2023. 

A large amount of radioactivity was released from the Fukushima accidents, but a lot of the radioactivity drifted out to sea. The area of seriously contaminated land was much less than for Chernobyl - probably less than one-tenth (Fig. 15.7). 

Maps showing caesium-137 contamination from Chernobyi and Fukushima The bright biue areas in the Japanese map (60-100 kBq/m ) can be compared with the pink areas in the European map (>40 kBq/m ). Hence the area affected by the Fukushima accidents appears to be iess than one-tenth of that affected by Chernobyi. 

The Fukushima accidents were initiated by, and compounded, a natural disaster, which by itself had caused massive loss of life, damage and hardship. The Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami was the most expensive natural disaster in history, estimated by the World Bank to cost 235 billion. 

If there is one single lesson that can be drawn from the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents, it is the absolute requirement that any nuclear power program should have robust and independent oversight of its safety management arrangements. Independent oversight means that the regulator must be independent of the nuclear industry, and also independent from political interference. 

The need for good, well-rehearsed emergency planning arrangements was also demonstrated in the Piper Alpha accident (Chapter 13) and, more recently, the Fukushima accident has demonstrated that the scope of emergency planning sometimes needs to include consideration of the breakdown of civil infrastructure (Chapter 15). 

FUKUSHIMA ACCIDENT FALLOUT IN FOOD AND FODDER IN GERMANY... 

Fukushima Accident Fallout in Food and Fodder in Germany... 

Steinhauser, G., Brandi, A., Johnson, T., 2014. A Comparison of the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents A review of the environmental impacts. Science of the Total Environment, Volume 470 71, pp. 800-817. 

Furthermore, the issues raised by Deepwater Horizon are not confined to the offshore oil and gas industry. At the time of writing, the consequences of the severe damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan are still being ascertained. But it is clear that those consequences will be profound substantial quantities of radioactive materials have been released, a significant fraction of Japan s power-generating capability is lost forever, and the cost of clean-up and remediation is going to be enormous. Indeed, the Fukushima accident may result in a massive slowdown in the construction... 

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