The Accident at Fukushima: What Happened?
- Japan Nuclear Technology Institute - JANTI (Japan)
At 2:46 PM, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in eastern Japan, people were spending an ordinary afternoon. The earthquake had a magnitude of 9.0, the fourth largest ever recorded in the world. Avery large number of aftershocks were felt after the initial earthquake. More than 100 of them had a magnitude of over 6.0. There were very few injured or dead at this point. The large earthquake caused by this enormous crustal deformation spawned a rare and enormous tsunami that crashed down 30-40 minutes later. It easily cleared the high levees, washing away cars and houses and swallowing buildings of up to three stories in height. The largest tsunami reading taken from all regions was 40 meters in height. This tsunami reached the West Coast of the United States and the Pacific coast of South America, with wave heights of over two meters. It was due to this tsunami that the disaster became one of a not imaginable scale, which saw the number of dead or missing reach about 20,000 persons. The enormous tsunami headed for 15 nuclear power plants on the Pacific coast, but 11 power plants withstood the tsunami and attained cold shutdown. The flood height of the tsunami that struck each power station ranged to a maximum of 15 meters. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Units experienced the largest and the cores of three reactors suffered meltdown. As a result, more than 160,000 residents were forced to evacuate, and are still living in temporary accommodation. The main focus of this presentation is on what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi, and how station personnel responded to the accident, with considerable international support. A year after the Fukushima Daiichi accident, Japan is in the process of leveraging the lessons learned from the accident to further improve the safety of nuclear power facilities and regain the trust of society. In this connection, not only international organizations, including IAEA, and WANO, but also governmental organizations and nuclear industry representatives from various countries, have been evaluating what happened at Fukushima Daiichi. Support from many countries has contributed to successfully stabilizing the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. International cooperation is required as Japan started along the long road to decommissioning the reactors. Such cooperation with the international community would achieve the decommissioning of the damaged reactors. Finally, recovery plans by the Japanese government to decontaminate surrounding regions have been started in order to get residents back to their homes as early as possible. Looking at the world's nuclear power industry, there are currently approximately 440 reactors in operation and 60 under construction. Despite the dramatic consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe it is expected that the importance of nuclear power generation will not change in the years to come. Newly accumulated knowledge and capabilities must be passed on to the next generation. This is the duty put upon us and which is one that we must embrace.
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9-332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22293353
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-14-WM-12000-suppl; TRN: US14V1418114877
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2012: Waste Management 2012 conference on improving the future in waste management, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 1 Mar 2012; Other Information: Country of input: France
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER STATION
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MELTDOWN
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