POWER March 2021 - 7

GLOBAL MONITOR
Germany acted decisively months after
Fukushima to phase out all of its 17
operational reactors by 2022. In 2017,
Taiwan followed suit, moving to phase
out its four nuclear plants by 2025. While
Switzerland, prominently, backed a moratorium
on nuclear construction in 2017, a
number of countries cut back or canceled
decisions to build new nuclear plants.
JAEC's Okamoto expressed several
regrets about the Fukushima accident,
but his biggest one is the widespread
vilification of nuclear power that it
prompted. " In order to solve any engineering
problem, or even a social or daily
life problem, we identify the benefits
and risks that can be expected from an
action, maximize the benefits that can
be obtained, and at the same time, [address]
risk, " he said. " Actions to reduce
are rational. While nuclear power generation
has the potential for accidents,
it has the benefit of producing a large
amount of electricity at low cost. Japan
is now doing strange things to stop the
operation of nuclear power generation
in search of 'zero risk' even though we
should weigh them and enjoy the benefits, "
he said.
The nuclear industry largely agrees.
Fukushima snapped nuclear generators
worldwide out of complacency and it
has made nuclear overwhelmingly safer.
In a recent report surveying lessons
learned from Fukushima over the last
decade, the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA)
painstakingly
analyzed
drivers behind countless actions by a
range of stakeholders to address safety
risks Fukushima unveiled. " A clear majority
of actions were driven by regulatory
requirements, " it said, but " some were
taken by the individual plant owners and/
or as suggested by the association of
operating organizations, and technology
owners' groups. "
Among the deluge of regulatory-driven
actions, for example, are stringent
measures that require an estimation of
external hazards and plant responses.
Many countries also required procurement
of mobile or permanent equipment
to provide power and water, and
cope with beyond-design-basis (BDB)
events, as well as installation and
modification of permanently designed
systems, structures, and components,
such as spent fuel cooling and monitoring,
and flood-proofing
structures.
POWER MAG AD_HALF PG_ESSENTIAL_FAST TRACK_HORIZON HRSG.pdf 1 8/24/2020 8:46:42 AM
Regulators also required a revision
of severe accident management concepts
and guidelines, and general improvements
of emergency response
regarding
organization,
human,
and
equipment capabilities.
The list of self-driven actions by individual
stations or companies is also
lengthy. In France, for example, Electricité
de France decided to install socalled
" ultimate diesel generators " at
its facilities. In the U.S. (where all efforts
were reviewed by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission [NRC]), several plants
installed two pathways to transfer water
to a spent fuel pool, and at least one generator
installed " higher capability " diesel
generators and larger capacity pumps.
Overall, efforts to implement these
additional safety enhancements were
costly, the IAEA noted. In Japan, expenses
for plants that built high concrete
seawalls approached $1 billion
per unit. In the U.S., according to the
Fukushima Near-Term Task Force, NRCmandated
safety enhancements cost
an estimated $23.5 billion for the 104
reactors (which were operational over
the last decade). Self-driven actions
may have added another $40 million
per unit, the agency said. In France, fiGT-HRSG
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POWER March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER March 2021