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Case Study Fukushima notes + summary + exam questions
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Case Study FukushimaLesson 1: Introduction, 1st February 2021
Safety side
What happened during the 3/11 triple disaster?
Earthquake started everything, Tsunami that followed, concluding with the Nuclear disaster
“Great East Japan Disaster” / “3.11” Higashi nihon daishinsai
Earthquake: Japan sits on the ring of fire of the specific ocean. Seismic fault lines on the east of
Japan.
11 March 2011: Earthquake
• 9.0-9.1 magnitude (Mw)
• Most powerful earthquake recorded in Japan
• The world’s fourth largest in recorded history
• Japanese main island moved 2,4 towards the US
• Severe damage to infrastructure
• Many roads inaccessible
• Power outage due to severed power lines
11 March 2011: Tsunami
• 3.5 to 9.3m tsunami
• Over 30m in certain places
• 500km section of Japanese coast devastated
• Water covered an area the size of 90% of Tokyo
Who was involved?
Emergency Disaster Response
Prime Minister Naoto Kan
• Crisis Management Center and Disaster Countermeasures HQ established in Prime Minister’s
Office
• Similar HQs established in other ministries
• Northeastern Japan region designated a large-scale disaster
Mobilization of SDF (self defence force = military) for disaster relief
• Mobilization of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces “to maximum level”
• Largest-ever mobilization of the SDF
o Within three days, more than 100.000 troops mobilized for search and rescue
Support from the US
• US-Japan Security Alliance
• Nearly 20.000 US troops deployed within days from military bases in Japan to support search
and rescue
• Redeployment of USS Ronald Reagan to Tohoku coast
• “Operation Tomodachi”
International support & Volunteerism
• 163 countries and 43 international organizations extended help
o China ($4.500.000 aid)
o South Korea ($19.000.000 aid)
1
, o Taiwan ($175.000.000 aid)
o US ($650.000.000 aid)
• Large role for Japan’s civil society
o More than 935.000 volunteers found their way to the region within the year
• Volunteer Centers staffed by NGOs
o Primary institutions for coordinating disaster relief across Japan
Disaster relief efforts
• Many areas inaccessible
• Local governments decapitated (=onthoofd)
• Over 300 medical institutions shut down
What was the impact of the disaster?
11 March 2011: nuclear crisis
• Four nuclear power plant on Japan’s northeastern coast
• Comparison:
o Onagawa 1 (INES level)
o Fukushima Daiichi (1) 7
o Fukushima Daini 3
o Tokai 0
Fukushima’s boiling water reactors
• General electric design
• Supplied by GE, Toshiba & Hitachi
• Reactors 1-3 came into commercial operation in 1971-1975
Tsunami at the Fukushima power plant
Overview of the nuclear disaster:
2
, 1. Total power failure
2. Loss of “cooling down” functions
3. Water level drops
4. Core damage and hydrogen generation
5. Hydrogen and radioactive material leaks
Nuclear crisis management: actors involved
On-site: workers
Off-site: supervision: Plant supervisor Masoa Yoshida
Tokyo: leadership: Prime Minister Naoto Kan
Restoring power and venting the reactor
Hydrogen explosions at reactors
• 12 March, 15:36: hydrogen explosion in reactor no. 1
• 14 March, 11:01: hydrogen explosion in reactor no. 3
Evacuating residents
Cooling the reactors:
√ water pumping using a concrete pumping car
√ SDF helicopters are used for water-dropping operations
Stabilization and decommissioning
• Minimizing radiation leakage into the environment
• Expected four decades of decommissioning
• More on TEPCO and the decommissioning later
Fukushima nuclear evacuation areas 2015/2018
3
, Support for displaced & evacuated people
Humanitarian crisis
• 470.000 displaced at peak of crisis
• 170.000 due to earthquake/tsunami
• Other due to the nuclear crisis
• Temporary housing: prefabricated houses, private apartments, public-sector apartments
• Mar 2012: still 344.290 displaced
Consequences and aftermath
• Support for evacuees and reconstruction of region
• Reviving industry and livelihoods
• Decommissioning Fukushima Dai-ichi and nuclear safety
• Evaluating and learning lessons
• Future of energy security in Japan: whither nuclear energy?
Why study this case?
What can I expect in the rest of the course?
Lesson 2: The politics & culture of nuclear energy in Japan, 4th
February 2021
What are the causes of the 2011 nuclear Japan’s energy security
disaster? Nuclear governance in Japan & regulatory
Could the nuclear disaster have been capture
prevented? Political culture in Japan and the “nuclear
Japan has a troubled history with nuclear village”
technology. What is the impact of the disaster Trauma and nuclear energy in popular
in this context? discourse
What does the disaster mean for Japan’s The future of nuclear energy in Japan
energy security and the future of nuclear
energy?
TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu initial explanation of the accident
• Natural disaster
• “soteigai” – a Black Swan event; beyond the scope of what can be expected, anticipated and imagined
• Not accepted by experts & public
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