NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011 - (Page 57)

ThE JAPAN EFFECT U.s. nuclear reactors return to the spotlight after fukushima By James Michael Brodie a s Japan continues to recover from the worst nuclear disaster in decades, nuclear regulators in the U.S. are taking a second look at American reactors. And while Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials and others are confident in the safety of the U.S. reactors, which account for roughly 20 percent of the nation’s electricity, they admit that Fukushima has returned the spotlight to an energy source once at the center of controversy. “U.S. plants have always been designed keeping severe events in mind,” NRC spokesman Scott Burrell told Career Engineer. “The analyses we tend to do focus on individual events. But plants are designed to deal with a wide range of events, and we believe we have the staff and procedures to keep the public safe.” Concerns over how U.S. plants would withstand the type of double whammy of a major earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit the Fukushima Daichi nuclear reactors in March caused the NRC to order a review of all of the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors. Speaking in May to an NRC panel reviewing the Japanese disaster and the potential for the same in the U.S., the head of the agency’s reactor task force reported that licensees were not required to protect certain equipment from natural phenomena, adding that they were only required to store equipment at a safe distance from a fire or blast. Licensees were also not www.nsbe.org required to have sufficient resources, staff, or equipment for some aspects of a multiunit event response. “Current requirements do not cover some elements of the Fukushima scenario, nor were they designed to do so,” said Charles Miller, director of the NRC’s Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs and Chair of the NRC Task Force. “These locations may not be protected from flooding or seismic events.” ANATOmY OF A DISASTER The disaster at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power complex was the worst nuclear calamity since the 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the Ukraine-Belarus border. On March 11, a magnitude 9.0 quake shook the complex, located of off the coast of Honshu Island, automatically shutting down three reactors. Another three were undergoing routine maintenance and were not operating, according to published reports. The tremor also knocked the plant off of the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO’s) power grid, although backup diesel generators, intended to run pumps to keep the water in the reactor from boiling, kicked in to continue cooling. Later that day, a 46-foot-high tsunami, created by the earthquake, overran the plant site, knocked out the generators and washed away fuel tanks. As temperatures inside Continued on page 58 • CAREER ENGINEER • fall 2011 • 57 http://www.nsbe.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011

NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011
Contents
The Next Level
Achievement Finds an Ally
Leadership, Your Way
The Programs Zone
Dr. Philicity Williams of the National Security Agency
Chapter News
Membership News
International News
NSBE Advisor Makes History
Pack Out Pittsburgh!
Empowered by Vision
Top Officers
St. Lucian Students Thrive at IIT
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
SEEKing Excitement for STEM
What’s New?
NSBE Calendar
The Professional’s Perspective
Shifting to Renewables for Electric Power
Alumni Officers
The Japan Effect
AE Members on the Move
Golden Torch Honoree
‘Brother Founder’ Donates $100K to NSBE
XL’ent!
Building Successful AE Chapters
Advertisers Index

NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011