IMPACT OF NUCLEAR DISASTER ON FUKUSHIMA DAI-ICHI POWER PLANT

LB5124- CURRENT BUSINESS ISSUES (SP 51)

LECTURER: Mr Chua Chong Hock

Submitted by:

SINDHU PRAKASH 12667501

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December 12, 2011 Toshio Nishizawa, President, The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated.

Respected Sir, We are submitting to you the report, which will help the TEPCO in the speedy expedition of the disaster that occurred in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The purpose of the report is to bring to your notice, the process of mobilizing all available resources towards the stabilization of "Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station" and to "care for the afflicted", "ensure stable power supply during the summer" and "implement extreme business efficiency and streamlining measures." The content of this report concentrates on the structural and acoustical aspects of the measures that will help the Nuclear power plant recover from the disaster met. This report also discusses the ways in which the support can be sought from the concerned sources for the speedy recovery.

Sincerely, SindhuPrakash R&D Administrative Officer The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated

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CONTENTS
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.....................................4 2. INTRODUCTION5 2.1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE...................................5 3. COMPANY BACKGROUND................................6 4. ISSUES/PROBLEMS......................................6 4.1RADIO ACTIVE DECAY........................................7 4.2 HEAT ACCUMULATION....................................7 4.3 CORROSION..7 4.4 SALT ACCUMULATION.7 4.5 RADIO ACTIVE MATERIAL..7 4.6 POLLUTING THE AIR7 4.7 MELTDOWN.7 4.8 REGULATION.....................................8 4.9 CASUALITIES..8 5. CRITICAL ANALYSIS.......................................8 5.1 ISSUES/PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED....................................8 6. RECOMMENDATION9 6.1 ENERGY POLICY REFORM9 6.2 NATIONALIZATION.10 6.3 NOAA-FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION.10 7. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.11 7.1 PRILIMINARY ASSESSMENT.12 7.2 SECONDARY ASSESSMENT....12 7.2.1 7.2.2 PRILIMINARY ASSESSMENT12 SECONDARY ASSESSMENT..........................12

8. CONCLUSION.................................12
9.

REFERENCES.................................13

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This report gives a detailed analysis of the hazards of operational reactors and the nuclear disasters which new affected widely designs and future reactor concepts. The risk factors are also associated with the management of spent nuclear fuel. The first part of the report describes in detail about the company background and the issues faced by them in operation today; the second part says about the risks involved with new designs and the causes mentioned in detail and ; the third part the 'ageing' of operational reactors; the fourth issue is, the terrorist threat and the major risks involved to nuclear power and the final part associated with climate change impacts such as flooding on nuclear power. The project is mainly focused on the natural disasters which affected the company. This issue happened when internally the company had a minor nuclear problem. When both the issues occurred together the company had to face a major loss and other natural disasters affected the neighbourhood. The company attained a major loss and because of the loss they faced a lot of drawbacks. The impact faced by the fukushimi dai-ichi about japans nuclear crisis.meltdown was the major issue because of why the problem occurred. The company also given certain suggestions as to how to rectify the mistakes done and safety measure to face the issue if occurs in future. This project clearly specifies the causes and the solutions taken i.e the safety measures used in the project.

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INTRODUCTION
This project mainly focuses on the nuclear disasters like equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and the release of radioactive materials at the Fukushima nuclear power plant due to the earthquake and tsunami on11 march 2011. (Lummis), 2011) The Fukushima meltdowns
scattered nuclear fallout over an area the size of Chicago. Government scientists estimate that the total radiation released on land was about a sixth of the level at Chernobyl (Osnos, 2011).

This is maintained by Tokyo electric power company (TEPCO). This disaster is the largest nuclear accident occurred in Japan since 1986. On March 11, the largest earthquake on record struck Japan and generated a thirty-foot tsunami that inundated the country's northeast coast. The death toll is estimated at over thirteen thousand with thousands more missing, and the country is grappling with power shortages, search and rescue efforts, and the need to provide shelter and other services for victims. The disaster also caused a set of catastrophic events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Over one hundred thousand people have been evacuated in the area surrounding the plant; some are already suffering from radiation exposure. Several powerful aftershocks have complicated search and rescue efforts and hampered official efforts at bringing the nuclear situation under control. The triple-fold crisis has ignited debate over the prospects for the Japanese economy and has significant implications for the future of nuclear power in Japan and around the world.

2.1 Purpose and Scope:

The purpose and scope of the study includes understanding, describing and evaluating the incidents that occurred in Japans Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant The earthquake and Tsunami in Japan caused a volcanic eruption of boiling nuclear water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear reactor which led the company to shutdown indefinitely. As the impact was quite heavy the environment was deeply affected and both the natural resources of the country and the companys resources were damaged.

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COMPANY BACKGROUND
The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant ,is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a 3.5square-kilometre (860-acre) in the towns of Okuma and Futaba in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It was first commissioned in 1971, the plant consists of six boiling water reactors .These light water reactors drove electrical generators with a combined power of 4.7 GWe. The Fukushima Daiichi is one of the 15 largest nuclear power stations in the world. Fukushima I was the first nuclear plant to be constructed and run entirely by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The plant suffered major damage from the 9.0 earthquakes and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011 and is not expected to reopen. The earthquake and tsunami disabled the reactor cooling systems, leading to nuclear radiation leaks and triggering a 30 km evacuation zone surrounding the plant. On April 20, 2011, the Japanese authorities declared the 20 km evacuation zone a no-go area which may only be entered under government supervision. The Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant, or Fukushima Dai-ni, is located to the south and also run by TEPCO.

ISSUES AND PROBLEMS

The company faced lot of issues and problems and this natural disaster was a major a drawback. The question to be asked to ourself is Does this mean that trouble at the 4 wrecked reactors on the East coast of Japan is over? Will this continue to the future? With the restoration of mains power to the site, in the media there is talk that the situation is now under control. The rate of deterioration has certainly slowed, but there are five slow burning issues that will determine the eventual outcome, one working in favour of the authorities and four working against: 4.1 RADIOACTIVE DECAY The fission products have started declining as they increase, though the rate of decline is slowing as we increase the short half lives into the intermediate and longer half life inventories.

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4.2 HEAT ACCUMULATION suspects to rise for so long as circulation cooling is absent until a steady state is reached between the reactors and spent fuel and the surrounding buildings. 4.3 CORROSION of the stainless steel reactor vessel, pipes and pumps in a salt water environment they are not designed to withstand. 4.4 SALT ACCUMULATION which is another issues faced by the company. 4.5 RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL spread and accumulation in the surrounding environment. 4.6 POLLUTING THE AIR In a sign of how far-fetched a crisis of this magnitude was considered, Tepco didn't take the extra step of installing a filter on its emergency vent pipe to scrub out radioactive particles. But the whole vent installation was considered voluntary, since Japanese regulators didn't think nuclear reactors would ever have to deal with the high pressures the vent system was designed to withstand. That meant venting would be accompanied by the release of significant amounts of radioactivity in the air. 4.7 MELTDOWN Meltdown was a major loss for the company. <Ref>{{cite

news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8509502/Nuclearmeltdown-at-Fukushima-plant.html |title=Nuclear meltdown at Fukushima plant |date=12 May 2011 |author=Julian Ryall |publisher=The Daily Telegraph

|location=London}}</ref>TEPCO administration confirms that a meltdown occurred due to the water leakage and , with molten fuel has fallen to the bottom of the reactor's containment vessel. According to their research there are holes in the base of the pressure vessel, and most of the fuel has probably melted. The nuclear fuel has possibly leaked into the containment vessel, which was damaged in an explosion during the crisis. This caused both the Japanese government and TEPCO to be criticized for consistently underestimating the severity of the situation.

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4.8 REGULATION Here we would want to highlight this point because the Regulatory may capture and may contribute to the series of failures which were revealed after the tsunami receded. Regulatory capture may have also contributed to the current situation. While the case argues with the government they accept the blame with the regulatory and not for ensuring the nuclear industrys oversight both domestically and internationally. 4.9 CASUALTIES Here inside the company the employees were dead from "disaster conditions" following the earthquake. There was a huge problem and that issue which affected the whole country was that there were bodies which were decontaminated as radiation and that has been decomposed from the plant for three weeks. And as they mentioned earlier some of them were literally suffering from dehydredation because they have not eaten in three days.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

5.1 ISSUES/PROBLEMS IDENTIFICATION Based on the article, the issues and problems can be addressed as follows: 1. Fukushima Daiichi should have anticipated the danger of accidents if there is an external environmental situation like Earthquake and Tsunami. 2. The danger of proliferation of nuclear weapons which are close to the city and also close to other nuclear reactors is hazardous to the people living in the neighbourhood during an emergency situation like overflowing nuclear boiling water reactors into the city. 3. The company should have disposed the existing nuclear waste far away from the city, in a no mans land so that even during an environmental disaster occurrence it can still be controlled and would not have been lethal like cited in the article by Mary Hamer, M.D. U.S.A.

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4. Nuclear Power generation can supply only a small fraction of the world's energy needs and the quantity is still less for a country like Japan and the country cannot afford to lose its valuable energy resources. 5. The Nuclear power generation is heavily subsidized & if it were not for these subsidies, (nuclear power) would not be able to compete with wind energy or solar energy. It is vital that the subsidies be shifted from nuclear power to the development of various forms of renewable energy.

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Enlarge the exclusion zone from 20 kilo meters to at least about a 50-km radius of the plant; 2. Distribute detailed instructions on effective ways to protect the health of individuals while avoiding the additional contamination of food. Organize regular measurements of all people by individual dose counters at least once a week. Distribute radio protectors and decontaminants of radionuclide. 3. Develop recommendations for safe agriculture on the contaminated territories: reprocessing of milk, decontamination of meat, turning agriculture into production of technical cultures. Such ''radionuclide-resistant'' agriculture will be costly and needs to be subsidized; 4. It is necessary to urgently improve existing sustainable measures and possibly create new ones to deal with the immediate and long-term consequences faced during an external emergency situation. 5. The most effective way to help organize post-Fukushima life in the contaminated territories is to create a special powerful interagency state body to handle the problems of contaminated territories during the first most complicated years. 6.1 ENERGY POLICY REFORM A government-run bailout fund would buy new stocks such as preferred shares to be issued by the utility, sources said.
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The companys Shares in Tepco came down as much as 17 percent before regaining some ground to end down 11 percent. "The report got investors worried that Tepco could possibly become insolvent," said Hiroyuki Fukunaga, CEO of Investrust. "If they need 1 trillion yen to avoid that, then the money is not coming from anyone but the government." Which is reffered in http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-12-08/news/30490673_1_cold-shutdowntepco-fukushima To cover costs, Asia's biggest utility is pushing for hikes in electricity charges. It also wants permission to restart nuclear reactors, particularly those that have been idled at its biggest plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. 6.2 NATIONALIZATION-How Japan affects United States of America: Nationalization could be a first step toward these reforms as sthe generations are splitted and distributed. "But whether this is a trial balloon and gets shot down in the short run, whichs to say?" while the nationalization of the country had issues which spread to a particular country like U.S. they had also affected by the fish contamination. The government says that their panel led by Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura will announce plans to inject public funds, though Fujimura told reporters the issue of public funds was not now on the table for the new year.

Tepco is due to announce new steps in the coming days, which include an increase in its planned cost cuts over 10 years by 100 billion yen to 2.64 trillion yen as well as the sale of a thermal power plant, a source has said. Tepco will pay premium of about 20 billion yen ($258.03 million) for the five-year policy, a 10-fold increase from the several hundred million yen a year it pays at present, Nikkei said. Tepco's future as an independent firm has been in doubt since an earthquake and tsunami wrecked the plant in March, triggering the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years and leaving it with huge compensation payments and clean-up costs ($1 = 77.7300 Japanese yen) 6.3 NOAA-Food and Drug Administration:
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The FDA should immediately ban all food and water imports from Japan, expanding on the FDAs original step of restricting imports of milk and produce from the region near the accident site. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and FDA work together to be sure that seafood caught in United States and international waters is free of radioactive contamination. Data generated by any monitoring program should be made public. Congress should provide adequate funding for the seafood inspection, both at home and abroad, instead of attempting to cut funding to both the United States Department of Agriculture and the FDA, which would weaken their ability to meet their current obligations, even without the additional burden posed by this nuclear accident

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
7.1 PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT: This can be implemented on a reactor, which is in periodic inspection and has organised its start up preparations. 7.2 SECONDARY ASSESSMENTS: This method can be implemented on all existing power reactor facilities.(however, Fukushima dai-ichi and dai-ni NPs of TEPCO, as well as any facilities that are being taken measures for decommissioning and do not have any fuel remaining in the facilities, are excluded). The target for the operators to submit their reports is by the end of the year. however this deadline will be adjusted, as necessary, considering the states of implementation of the stress tests in Japan and the state of review in the

investigation committee on the accident at the fukushima nuclear power stations of Tokyo electric power company. Power reactor facilities currently under construction will be implemented the assessments prior to starting up. The assessments will be implemented per NPS Actions taken by NISA:

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7.2.1 PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENTS: NISA will evaluate the content of the preliminary assessment when NISA receives submission of it. NISA will report the results of its findings to the NSC and request them for its confirmation. 7.2.2 SECONDARY ASSESSMENTS: NISA will evaluate the content of submitted reports. NISA will report the results of its findings to the NSC and request them for its conformation. Furthermore, if necessary, NISA will revise the implementation matters for the secondary assessments, and will instruct the operators again to implement the assessments based on revised implementations matters, considering the states of implementation of the stress tests in European countries and the state of review in the investigation committee on the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power stations of Tokyo electric power company.

CONCLUSION

So hereby the company would like to conclude that according to the Government, over 160,000 people in the general population were shown in March 2011 for radiation exposure and there was no case found which literally had thirty workers conducting operations at the plant who had exposure levels greater than 100 mSv. The company also says that in September 2011, the companys six workers at the Fukushima Daiichi site have exceeded lifetime legal limits for radiation and more than 300 have received significant radiation doses. Reference : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster The company states that in September 2011, there were no deaths or serious injuries due to direct radiation exposures. But the Cancer deaths due to accumulated radiation exposures cannot be ruled out, and according to one expert, might be in the order of 100 cases. The company should make a note of those issues and problems which is explained above to be rectified and take the necessary security measures to make a change and alert if in case the natural disasters occur in future. And I have also mentioned the suggestions and the recommendations which can be used to make further changes in the market. The company

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even now bear a certain loss but in case they work in detail on the mistakes which they made there are chances for them to rectify the errors.

REFERENCES
http://www.countercurrents.org/hamer050411.htm the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster by Mary Hamer, M.D 05 April, 2011 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24949 The Severity of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster: Comparing Chernobyl and Fukushima by Prof. Matthew Penney and Prof. Mark Selden May 24, 2011 http://www.cfr.org/japan/issue-guide-japans-triple-crisis/p24382?cid=ppcGoogle-Japan_Issue_Guide&gclid=CPWJlaWr-awCFY4a6wodd1xFTA, Japan's Triple Crisis April 12, 2011, CFR.org Staff http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/17/111017fa_fact_osnos FALLOUT, Evan OsnosOCTOBER 17, 2011 http://www.nirs.org/fukushima/crisis.htm Michael Mariotte, March 11, 2011. Nuclear Crisis in Japan http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/12/japan-fukushima-reactore_n_1089900.html , Japan Fukushima Reactor: Eight Months After Nuclear Disaster, Plant Remains In Shambles Mari Yamaguchi 11/12/11 http://e360.yale.edu/feature/anatomy_of_a_nuclear_crisis_a_chronology_of_fuk ushima/2385/, Anatomy of a Nuclear Crisis:A Chronology of Fukushima DAVID
BIELLO 21

THE

MAR 2011Nuclear Crisis in Japan

http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/26/fukushima-26-march-status/ Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident 26 March status 26 March 2011 by Barry Brook

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/world/asia/report-details-initial-chaos-atfukushima-daiichi-nuclear-plant-in-japan.html, Report Gives New Details of Chaos at Stricken Plant, MATTHEW November 11, 2011

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