The Lesson of Fukushima - Nuclear Energy is Safe

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 02/17/15

So what were the lessons learned from Fukushima. Quite simply they are that nuclear power has been proven to be much safer than anyone previously imagined. The nuclear fraternity worldwide should have celebrated after the Fukushima drama. The world watched the entire saga, second by second, and what was the outcome. Answer: total people killed by radiation, zero. Total injured, zero. Total private property damaged by radiation, zero. Expected long-term effects on people, zero. If scientists had wanted to design an intentional crash experiment as is done with motor cars in crash labs, there could not have been a better one than the reality which unfolded at Fukushima. A forty year old nuclear power plant, built to a sixty year old design, was struck by the largest earthquake on record. The reactors survived that with no problem. They shut down as designed. Then, 55 minutes later, the largest tsunami on record arrived. The giant wall of water jumped the protective wall, and slammed into the nuclear plant. The plant survived that too, initially. But then previous bad management decisions came into play, like ghosts from the past. Years earlier it had been decided to place the back-up diesel fuel tanks outdoors. Bad decision. These tanks held the reserve fuel for the emergency diesel cooling pumps, to be used if and when the primary electrical pumps failed. The tsunami washed away the power lines supplying the electricity to the primary reactor cooling pumps, so they needed the diesel pumps fast. But no fuel, it was all floating away with the rest of the debris from the smashed up houses, schools, police station, airport, shops, offices, harbour. The roads were gone, or blocked with debris, so no police, fire brigade, army units, were coming in to help. The reactors all shut down correctly, no problem there, but hot reactor fuel needs to be water-cooled for two to five days after an emergency shutdown, to remove residual heat.