Abstract:
 
On March 11, 2011, a massive tsunami triggered by a huge earthquake flooded the six-unit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan. The flood caused damage to the plant’s electrical systems far beyond what the plant’s owner, TEPCO, had ever anticipated or made preparations to mitigate. As a result, the plant experienced a near-total loss of ac and dc power supply and distribution systems, rendering it impossible to operate the plant’s installed cooling equipment. Ultimately, three reactors suffered core melt accidents and released high levels of radioactive materials into the environment. Only through luck and extraordinary intervention were the plant’s spent fuel pools able to escape a similar fate. Today, more than seven years after the accident, Japan is still dealing with its consequences, including a price tag of hundreds of billions of dollars, and a cleanup that will take many decades. Meanwhile, Japan and other countries that operate nuclear power plants have been engaged in efforts to understand the root causes of the Fukushima accident and take steps to reduce the risk of similar events in the future. However, in the U.S., nuclear industry lobbying has successfully limited the extent of the new requirements that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission imposed in response to Fukushima. This talk will summarize the accident and its aftermath, the ongoing cleanup efforts at the Fukushima site, and the impact of the accident on the regulation of both operating and new nuclear power reactors. 

Speaker(s): Dr. Edwin Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS),

Location:
Room: Meeting Room 2
Bldg: Dolley Madison Public Library
1244 Oak Ridge Ave.
McLean, Virginia