Operator Tepco really messed up, report shows

Sep 21, 2015 18:24 GMT  ·  By
Study reveals the Fukushima nuclear disaster could have been prevented
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   Study reveals the Fukushima nuclear disaster could have been prevented

There have so far been two major nuclear catastrophes. One happened in 1986 in Ukraine, when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant released massive amounts of radioactive particles in the aftermath of an explosion and a fire. Then there was the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Japan. 

In a new report in the journal Philosophical Transactions A of the Royal Society, a team of researchers show that this most recent nuclear disaster could have been avoided, provided that Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) had done its job to properly secure the facility.

“We've found that there were design problems that led to the disaster that should have been dealt with long before the earthquake hit,” says specialist Costas Synolakis with the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering. So, yes, Tepco seriously messed this one up.

Fukushima was pretty much doomed

In March 2011, Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant was hit by an earthquake and then a subsequent tsunami measuring about 15 meters (nearly 50 feet) in height. Power was lost, the backup generators failed, and so three of the facility's reactors suffered a meltdown.

In their report, researcher Costas Synolakis and his colleagues argue that the reason the plant's backup generators failed was that they were positioned too close to the ground and so were straight in the path of the mammoth wave. Plainly put, they were doomed from the start.

Of the generators, one set was located in a basement. The others were positioned 10 to 13 meters (33 to 42 feet) above sea level. Hence, when the tsunami hit, they were flooded. Power lines leading to off-site generators, also positioned too low, were also destroyed.

“The pre-event tsunami hazards study if done properly, would have identified the diesel generators as the lynch pin of a future disaster. Fukushima Dai-ichi was a siting duck waiting to be flooded,” says researcher Costas Synolakis, as cited by EurekAlert.

Tepco downplayed risks to the facility 

When the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was built, scientists warned Tepco that the area was vulnerable to especially large tsunamis. The company ignored these warnings.

Instead, it carried out its own assessment and modeling, and concluded that the worst that could happen was a 6-meter (20 feet) tsunami triggered by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake. Come March 2011, however, it was proven wrong.

A draft of an International Atomic Energy Agency report that leaked earlier this year also points the finger at Tepco as the chief culprit for the March 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The same report blames Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which failed to compel Tepco to secure the facility after studies carried out between 2007 to 2009 showed that the area was vulnerable to quakes with a magnitude greater than 8 and massive tsunamis.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant
The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant

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Study reveals the Fukushima nuclear disaster could have been prevented
The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant
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