Lessons not yet learned from the Fukushima disaster

Abstract

The Fukushima nuclear catastrophe has led to a wide-spread international discussion on how seismic and tsunami hazards can be better predicted and adverse consequences be prevented. In some countries the event led to the complete phase-out of nuclear energy. The lessons drawn by different organisations including earth scientists, earthquake engineers, non-governmental and governmental organisations will be reviewed from an independent position. This review captures the following areas: (1) Hazard assessment, (2) Engineering design and defence in depth concepts, (3) Emergency preparedness. It is shown that not all important lessons from the catastrophe have been drawn, because some of the root causes of the accident are not yet addressed. Especially the need of a holistic approach towards hazard assessment and the implementation of defence in depth and diversity of design principles for critical infrastructures like nuclear power plants hast to be stronger emphasized to prevent similar disasters.

NDSHA - The New Paradigm for RSHA - An Updated Review

“…(e.g. Saxe 1873;Krinitzky 1993aKrinitzky , b, c, 1995Klügel 2008;PAGEOPH Topical Volume 168, 2011;Mualchin 2011;Wang and Cobb 2013;Klügel 2015;Mulargia et al, 2017;Stark, 2017).…”

Bridging the Gap Between Nonlinear Seismology as Reality and Earthquake Engineering

“…In the case of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, deterministic hazard assessment methods were used for the original design, but Japanese authorities recently moved to probabilistic assessment methods and the resulted probability of exceedance of the design basis acceleration was expected to be 10-4-10-6 (Klϋgel 2014). The design basis seismic data were exceeded during the March 11, 2011, earthquake (M ¼ 9.0) at Fukushima NPP as shown in (Klϋgel 2014).…”

“…The design basis seismic data were exceeded during the March 11, 2011, earthquake (M ¼ 9.0) at Fukushima NPP as shown in (Klϋgel 2014). Ignoring their own information from historical events caused a violation of the deterministic hazard analysis principles!…”

Risk and hazard assessment of extreme natural events for critical infrastructures

“…Among such events there has to be listed the Nicobar-Andaman earthquake with the subsequent tsunami (2004), the hurricane Katrina or the Big Japan Earthquake of 2011 which led to the destruction of the nuclear power plant (NPP) of Fukushima Daiichi as a consequence of the complete loss of internal and external infrastructure supporting the plant's safety systems [1]. In these cases, traditional probabilistic hazard assessment methods and their linked decision criteria (e.g.…”