The 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident: How and Why It Happened

212 Pages·2014·13.63 MB·English

by  Yotaro Hatamura

The 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
Accident
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Woodhead Publishing Series in Energy:
Number 73
The 2011 Fukushima
Nuclear Power Plant
Accident
How and Why it Happened
Yotaro Hatamura, Seiji Abe, Masao
Fuchigami and Naoto Kasahara
Kenji Iino
Translated by
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List of authors
S. Abe Kansai University, Osaka, Japan
M. Fuchigami KomatsuLtd, Tokyo, Japan
Y.Hatamura HatamuraInstitutefortheAdvancementofTechnology,Tokyo,Japan
N. Kasahara The Universityof Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
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73 The2011Fukushimanuclearpowerplantaccident:Howandwhyithappened
Yotaro Hatamura, Seiji Abe, Masao Fuchigami and Naoto Kasahara. Translated by
KenjiIino
Introduction
On March 11, 2011, The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred, and the tsunami
waves it induced triggered an unprecedented accident at the Tokyo Electric Power
Company (TEPCO)-owned Fukushima-1 (Daiichi) Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).
Threeandahalfyearshavealreadypassedsincethen.Greateffortsbythoseinvolved
with recovery have placed the reactors in cold shutdown; however, the problems of
contaminatedwater,over130,000evacuees(160,000immediatelyaftertheaccident)
still kept outof their homes,and decontamination still continue.
On May 24, 2011, the Cabinet Council decided to establish the Investigation
CommitteeontheAccidentattheFukushimaNuclearPowerStations.Itsassignment
was,forFukushima-1andFukushima-2,to“conductmulti-facetedresearchandverifi-
cationtoidentifythecausefromaneutralstandpointofthepeopleofJapanandpropose
policies to stop the damages from escalating and prevent similar accidents from
repeating[1].”NaotoKan,thePrimeMinisteratthetime,appointedoneoftheauthors
ofthisbook,YotaroHatamura,tochairthecommittee.SeijiAbeandMasaoFuchigami
wereappointedbyHatamuratoserveastechnicalconsultantstothecommittee.
After its first meeting on June 7, 2011, the committee visited the sites of
Fukushima-1 and -2 NPPs for inspection and interviewed a total of 772 people: the
PrimeMinisterandothersfromthecentralgovernment,headsofaffectedlocalgov-
ernments,residentsandevacueesofthearea,andothers.Thecommitteepublishedits
InterimReportonDecember26,2011[1],andtheFinalReportonJuly23,2012[2].
After a public presentation in Fukushima prefecture, the Cabinet Council dissolved
the committee.
TheInterimandFinalReports(Englishversionsavailablefromwww.cas.go.jp/jp/
seisaku/icanps/eng/)arepreciserecordsoftheinvestigationintothefactsoftheacci-
dent.Thetwo-volumereportsamounttoabout1,500pagesoftextandfiguresandare
about8cmthick.Itwillbeextremelydifficultforthegeneralpublictoreadthrough
the pages tounderstand what the investigationclarified.Thefacts inthe reportsare
likepotatoesandradishesdugfromthegroundandpiledatthestorefrontofagrocery
store.Potatoesandradishesneedtobecookedtotastegood.Inaddition,wewillnot
enjoytheirflavorsunlessweconsumethem.Wecannotunderstandthissituationifwe
arejustgiventherawmaterial,andunlesswecanunderstandthefacts,wewillnever
learn anything fromthis accident,which causedgreatsacrifices.
InJuneof2011,whenthecommitteestarted,Imadeanannouncementthat,asthe
chairofthecommittee,mypolicywastoexplainwhathappenedinthecourseofthe
FukushimaNPPaccident,andwhyithappened,soeveryonecouldacquirethatinfor-
mationasknowledge.Inotherwords,Isetthegoaltoanswerthequestionsofthepeo-
ple of Japan and of the world. The committee, however, primarily due to time