Nearly six months after a devastating earthquake rocked a nuclear power plant in Japan, engineers say the design lessons are starting to come into sharper focus.
The good news from the event is that residents near the Fukushima Daiichi plant weren't exposed to high levels of radiation. The bad news is that some plant workers may have been exposed to higher levels, and the plant itself sustained serious damage. Three of its reactor cores probably ruptured, and cracks reportedly surfaced on the outside of the four-foot-thick concrete containment walls.
"There are two ways to look at it," James F. Stubbins, a professor of nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering at the University of Illinois, told Design News. "You could say it's a once-in-400-year event, so maybe the actions of the designers could be understood. On the other hand, there could have been better preparation."
Experts interviewed by Design News cited several key areas of concern regarding the plant's design and the response that followed. The biggest, they said, was the placement of diesel generators and pumps. The tsunami that followed the earthquake wiped out both, disabling the plant's emergency cooling capabilities.
"They could have placed the diesel generators 100 feet up and they could have built the surrounding walls higher," said Jeff Terry, an assistant professor of physics at Illinois Institute of Technology. "The design just wasn't able to handle a 39-foot-high tsunami."
Experts also suggested that future plants might benefit by replacing aging reactors earlier and by shipping spent fuel away from the site. "We should take the waste and get it out of there," Terry said. "Odds are, nothing is going to happen. But I'd rather take those odds in an unpopulated area."
In retrospect, it also appears that plant officials could have reacted to the emergency more expeditiously. "There should have been more planning for events beyond their design specs," Stubbins told us. "They wasted a lot of time when they could have been pumping seawater. Management didn't want to ruin the reactors."
WE can count up the very obvious fundamental flaws that led to this disaster. And we can be certain that the culture in Japan will assure that disaster will strike again and again, since there is an unwillingness to point out mistakes, as well as to admit to them.
But I can point out that the very first huge mistake was designing and building a system that required outside power to run the cooling system. That is especially dumb considering that the ocean, a natural source of cooling, was right there. All that would have been required would be to build the cooling system low enough to allow gravity feed of cool water. Designing the inner loop to use natural convection would be the other part of the plan. These are the way it should have been, which would have allowed the reactors to keep running. Of course they might have cost a bit more, but they would not have failed because of los of poower. But refusing to point out an error of a manager made certain that nobody ever considered the option.
Learning from disaster is so obvious we think it is anybody's motto. But when money must flow, learning is second, money is first. Here in France, in 1999, we have experienced a quite Fukushima situation, a big NPP relied on only one pump to survive, politics were on the verge to evacuate the Bordeaux town in a hurry. This was hidden from public for years, revealed only years after because an innocent journalist question to a politic triggered the hidden truth. In France, we know now that numerous NPP designs were undersized regarding lots of aspects, our NPPs are aging and we have no money to dismantle, so we keep them running. Around every NPP arise health concerns, traces of tritium are everywhere, I suppose the situation in USA is the same. Ok, nuclear is lower CO2 than coal, but children cancers are increasing year after year, no need too work in a mine to get disease, it breathes to you directly from the NPP. My conclusion is that learning from disaster is “distance” dependant and vanishes rapidly in time with a good public communication lobbying.
I have to agree, and this is exactly the technology we need to develop, the pebble bed reactor cooled with helium, the molten salt reactor, which make the best use of the technology while doing as much as possible to mitigate the risk, and reduce hazardous by-products.
Seems like if we can 'put a man on the moon', we can make nuclear power safe and reliable...
I was not aware of those issues in France. And remember an expert on CNBC referring to Frances's technology as being safe and without incident. Apparently there was a spin on that reality and I suspect some management, cost cutting or politics behind the single pump degign...
Why not use Stirling Cycle Engines that would use the waste heat from whatever is being cooled to power the cooling pumps? Then no diesel fuel or external power would be required.
For new plants the passively safe technologies are the way to go. But are there situations where retrofitting existing reactors or cooling ponds with Stirling Cycle Engines would be a safety improvement?
Greg There are SEVERAL geothermal systems in operation especially in Texas and other southern states. I attended a meeting in the early 2003 or 4 that showed the cost savings of the school system using the technology for over a decade to other greater DFW area school districts. The SAVINGS were impressive and included very lowmaintenance cost yeilding TOTAL 10 YEAR SAVINGS over 45% compared with other local districts.
MORE: Other SAFE nuclear technologies ARE available that have NOT EVEN BEEN CONSIDERED. They can be stopped, started, have been tested for years, DO NOT POLUTE in any way ARE EXTREAMLYcost effective since they are based on nuclear science and other proven qtantum energy discoveries, notusing enriched materials.
Knowing this to be true is difficult as an engineer to condone the continuance of fision designs and their proliferation of dangerous waste materials. IT IS TIME TO ABANDON 20th CENTURY ENERGY and LIGHT THE FUTURE NEEDS OF MANKIND WITH 21st CENTURY ENERGY SOLUTIONS.
Using almost 200 light-emitting diodes in the front and back of the new 2014 CTS, Cadillac designers are showing how LEDs can change the character of a vehicle.
We recently posted an online slideshow called, “18 People You Didn’t Know Were Engineers.” Within hours of its publication, readers began to suggest names of other luminaries -- astronauts, politicians, athletes and actors -- who were educated or had worked as engineers.
In yet another sign that hydrogen is creeping into the consciousness of global automotive designers, sports car maker Aston Martin plans to run a hydrogen-fueled vehicle in a 24-hour Grand Touring race later this month.
One of the ugly truths of engineering is that life has a price. Cars, buildings, power plants, and industrial machinery can always be made safer for a cost, but manufacturers are at the mercy of the market.
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