Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident

AESJ, 2015. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident Final Report of the AESJ Investigation Committee. Springer, http //dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55160-7. 

D. Kamei, T. Kuno, S. Sato, K. Nitta, T. Akiba, Impact of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident on hemodialysis facilities An evaluation of radioactive contaminants in water used for hemodialysis. Then Apher. Dial. 16, 2012, 87-90. 

Sakaguchi, A., Kadokura, A., Steier, P. et al. (2012a). Isotopic determination of U, Pu and Cs in environmental waters following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, Geochem. J. 46, 355-360. 

The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations wrote an interesting addendum to their INPO 11-005, Special Report on the Nuclear Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. They go on to discuss some of the lessons learned from the black swan event. Many of the lessons learned are heavily related to nuclear-specific design and operational issues however, here are some that have more universal application and again are themes that we shall see throughout this book (INPO, 2012) ... 

INPO. 2012, August. Lessons learned from the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, INPO 11-005 Addendum, Revision 0. Atlanta, GA Institute of Nuclear Power Operators, http //www.wano.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/11-005-Fukushima-Addendum2.pdf, downloaded March 28, 2014. 

Press reports have actually suggested that TEPCO knew by the time of the accident that the design basis tsunami was insufficient. The Japan Tunes for July 3, 2011 reported that TEPCO was aware as early as 2008 that a 10-m-plus tsunami could hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, and that the results of new analysis work had been reported for the first time to the safety regulator (the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency or NISA) on March 7 - only four days before the tsunami occurred. 

Review of accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Incxjiporated s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station and proposed countermeasures (Draft), Japan Nuclear Technology Institute (JANTI), October 2011. 

Special report on the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, INFO, November 2011. 

According to the European Nuclear Society, as of the year 2012, there were 435 nuclear power plants operating around the world. With an installed electric net capacity of about 368 GW, these reactors were running in 31 countries. The country with the largest nuclear capacity is the United States with 104 power reactors followed by France (58), Japan (50, though by May 2012, all of these had been temporarily taken out of commission because of concern over the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident), and the Russian Federation (33). As of 2012, there were 63 nuclear power plants with a total installed capacity of 61 GW under construction in 15 countries. 

It is obvious that an optimal solution is often not achieved such as the UK public rejection to GDF and the Fukushima nuclear accident have shown. Fukushima Daiichi reactor accident is an example... 

Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), Special Report on the Nuclear Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, INPO 11-005, November 2011. 

Nuclear power generation, however, is not without problems. Foremost among them is the danger of nuclear accidents. In spite of safety precautions, the fission reaction occurring in a nuclear power plant can overheat. The most famous examples of this occurred in Chernobyl, in the former Soviet Union, on April 26, 1986, and at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan in March of 2011. 

Figure 1.21 Number of nuclear power reactors of the world put into commercial operation versus years and age of operating reactors as per March 2015 (Nuclear News, 2015). Five reactors have been put into operation in 1969 (ie, they operate for mote than 47 years). It is clear from this diagram that the Chernobyl NPP accident had tremendous negative impact on the nuclear power industry that lasted for decades. We currently have additional negative impact from the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident.

Sekimura, N., 2011. Overview cf the Accident in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants. Washington, DC U.S. National Academies Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. 

Radioactive iodine gained notoriety through the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986, which resulted in an increase of thyroid carcinomas among small children by a factor of around 10-30. It is now presumed that many of these cancer cases might have been prevented by prophylactic administration of iodide. The longer term consequences of the nuclear fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011, where also a number of different radionuclides were released, are still being evaluated. 

You don t need to be reminded of the most recent nuclear accidents, principally Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in 2011. After the Three Mile Island accident in the late 1970s, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission developed WASH 1400, The Reactor Safety Study. The WASH 1400 report laid the foundation for the use of probabilistic risk assessments (called probabilistic safety assessments in Europe). According to Henley and Kumamoto (1991), probabilistic risk assessment involves studying accident scenarios and numerically rank[ing] them in order of their probability of occurrence, and then assess[ing] their potential consequence to the public. Event trees, fault trees, and other risk-consequence tools are applied in developing and studying these scenarios. These techniques are extremely useful for the engineer but very expensive. The nuclear industry has been the leader in probabilistic safety analyses. 

Technical lessons learned from the Fukushima-Daiichi accident and possible corrective actions for the nuclear industry an initial evaluation, MIT-NSP-TR-025 Rev 1, July 26, 2011. 

Western European Nuclear Regulators Association WENRA. 2013. WENRA safety reference levels for existing reactors, update in relation to lessons learned from TEPCO Fukushima-Daiichi accident, November 20, 2013. 

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