Fukushima Nuclear Plant Research Articles

福島原子力発電所の東日本大震災被害からみた1980年の国土庁によるエコロジカル・プランニング調査の現代的意義

One of advantage in ecological planning method of Ian L. McHarg is synthesis of respective optimal landuse (non optimal landuse). The earthquake and tsunami damage in March 11, 2011 recalled us the importance of the comprehensive optimal landuse evaluation. Especially, damages of the Fukushima nuclear plants were catastrophic. This study focused on the criteria of land evaluation paper data in report of "Land Use Aptitude Evaluation Technique Investigation based on Ecological Planning" by National Land Agency Japan in 1980. We traced 5 paper maps (geological map, landform classification map, slope distribution map, vegetation map, and soil cartography map) for digital map, and inclination in coastal areas in where the two Fukushima nuclear plants exist. In addition, we made risk hazard maps (landslide, earthquake resistant, and flood, tsunami damage estimation) on each disaster with above 5 divisions maps and the table risk scores in the Land Agency Report 1980. Finally, we developed a comprehensive hazard map with overlaid a previous evaluation result and evaluation of optimum area of nuclear plant. An actual nuclear power plant site was selected to the coast for the reasons of barren ground bought easily. However, our results indicate that the nuclear power plant site was relative dangerous location in the sight of overall disasters vulnerability by the overlay analysis in 1980 data.

Distribution and Inventory of Radiocaesium Released from TEPCO Fukushima Nuclear Pouir Plant 1 Accident

Distribution and Inventory of Radiocaesium Released from TEPCO Fukushima Nuclear Pouir Plant 1 Accident

Radioactive fallout in the United States due to the Fukushima nuclear plant accident

The release of radioactivity into the atmosphere from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started on March 12th, 2011. Among the various radionuclides released, iodine -131 ((131)I) and cesium isotopes ((137)Cs and (134)Cs) were transported across the Pacific Ocean and reached the United States on 17-18 March 2011. Consequently, an elevated level of fission products (131)I, (132)I, (132)Te, (134)Cs and (137)Cs were detected in air, water, and milk samples collected across the United States between March 17 and April 4, 2011. The continuous monitoring of activities over a period of 25 days and spatial variations across more than 100 sampling locations in the United States made it possible to characterize the contaminated air masses. For the entire period, the highest detected activity values ranged from less than 1 m Bq m(-3) to 31 m Bq m(-3) for the particulate (131)I, and up to 96 m Bq m(-3) for the gaseous (131)I fraction.

Creation path of 35 S from Fukushima not so obvious

In PNAS, Priyadarshi et al. (1) reported the detection of unusual levels of atmospheric 35S in California related to releases from the Fukushima nuclear plant. The authors stated that the 35S was generated by “leaking neutrons,” activating the chlorine in the seawater that was used to cool the Fukushima reactors via the nuclear reaction 35Cl(n,p)35S. The authors calculated “that 4e11 neutrons per m2 were released,” of which “2e8 neutrons per m2 reacted with 35Cl.”

Nuclear Power after Fukushima

This article discusses advanced reactor technologies that are now getting renewed attention after the Fukushima nuclear plant accident. Interest in smaller reactors has been growing in recent years. Some of these designs have advantages over the traditional large light water reactors (LWRs) for certain applications. The smaller designs carry less of an inventory of nuclear material, so there is less material at risk in an accident involving a release. Proponents of small modular reactors (SMRs) point to cost savings due to the factory fabrication and shorter construction times. They have significant advantages for countries with small grids, where a current 1500 MWe reactor would exceed demand and threaten grid stability. Other designs that are getting the most attention at present are small or medium LWR concepts. In addition to their smaller size, these designs differ from current large, light-water designs in that most of them use an “integral” design. Most major reactor components are inside the reactor pressure vessel, thus significantly reducing the threat of a major loss-of-coolant accident.

An Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model for Evaluating Wind Farm Performance

The demands for alternative energy resources have been increasing exponentially in the 21st century due to continuous industrial development, depletion of fossil fuels and emerging environmental consciousness. Renewable energy sources, including wind energy, hydropower energy, geothermal energy, solar energy, biomass energy and ocean power, have received increasing attention as alternative means of meeting global energy demands. After Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in March 2011, more and more countries are having doubt about the safety of nuclear plants. As a result, safe and renewable energy sources are attracting even more attention these days. Wind energy production, with its relatively safer and positive environmental characteristics, has evolved in the past few decades from a marginal activity into a multi-billion dollar industry. In this research, a comprehensive evaluation model is constructed to select a suitable location for developing a wind farm. The model incorporates interpretive structural modeling (ISM), benefits, opportunities, costs and risks (BOCR) and fuzzy analytic network process (FANP). Experts in the field are invited to contribute their expertise in evaluating the importance of the factors and various aspects of the wind farm evaluation problem, and the most suitable wind farm can finally be generated from the model. A case study is carried out in Taiwan in evaluating the expected performance of several potential wind farms, and a recommendation is provided for selecting the most appropriate wind farm for construction.

Risk Society and the Hybris of Modern Japanese State/Society

This article analyses the risk society discourse in the context of Japanese society and the triple shock of the earthquake, tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear plants catastrophe. Social risk discourse has found its way to Japan but the reception has been rather selective. The policy examples in this article illustrate the obstacles that exist to promote greater social participation and social reforms in Japan.

La comunicación y la emergencia nuclear en Japón

The Fukushima nuclear plant incident that took place last March stands today as an unsolved nuclear emergency. Among all of the severe problems that arose from this situation, the lack of proper information and communication was one of the most notable. The term ‘nuclear fusion’, for example, is taken by many people to be synonymous with nuclear weapon explosions and apocalyptic events; this showcased the need for a communication of science and scientific matters done by qualified professionals (scientists and science journalists) and not by politicians, marketers, and business managers. In the Faculty of Chemistry of the UNAM, chemistry students are required to attend a course titled ‘Scientific Communication’, which is intended to provide them with the means which they need to, in turn, provide society with better and more readily available information regarding science.

Warning: false sense of certainty from the illusion of accuracy and precision in measurements

The illusion of accuracy and precision in testing is often associated with overconfident safety checks before catastrophes: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) “no safety-of-flight issues,” Deepwater Horizon site in Gulf Mexico reported as “industry model for safety” a year before its explosion, and Fukushima nuclear plant safety test found “satisfactory” at seismic magnitude viewed highest possible. In health care, testing overuse and misuse play significant roles in overconfidence and mistakes. Gaps between systems are most susceptible to errors, such as in miscommunications between the laboratory and the clinic. A safety culture is characterized by ability to communicate, anticipation of misunderstanding and resilient learning from failures. The discussion will show how messages from the laboratory may reduce the false sense of certainty from a test result; how results of tests are meaningless without pre-test estimates; how multiplicity of routine tests increases chances of false positivity; and how reporting measurement limitations can educate all users, including laboratory technicians, clinicians and patients, about the importance of quality assurance and about the pervasive nature of uncertainty beyond analytical performance. In conclusion, an illusion of accuracy and precision in testing evokes among clinicians a false sense of certainty leading to overuse and misuse of tests. Messages from the laboratory may reduce overconfidence from test results and lead to safer use of testing.

Extended hybrid pressure and velocity boundary conditions for D3Q27 lattice Boltzmann model

The extended hybrid electronic-ionic, thermal, magnetic, electric and force couple fields pressure and velocity boundary conditions for D3Q27 lattice Boltzmann model is established. Then, the closed-form solutions of extended distribution functions are derived. Last, the Fukushima nuclear plant Cesium-137 penetration case is discussed.

Evidence of neutron leakage at the Fukushima nuclear plant from measurements of radioactive35S in California

A recent earthquake and the subsequent tsunami have extensively damaged the Fukushima nuclear power plant, releasing harmful radiation into the environment. Despite the obvious implication for human health and the surrounding ecology, there are no quantitative estimates of the neutron flux leakage during the weeks following the earthquake. Here, using measurements of radioactive (35)S contained in sulfate aerosols and SO(2) gas at a coastal site in La Jolla, California, we show that nearly 4 × 10(11) neutrons per m(2) leaked at the Fukushima nuclear power plant before March 20, 2011. A significantly higher (35)SO(2-)(4) activity as measured on March 28 is in accord with neutrons escaping the reactor core and being absorbed by the coolant seawater (35)Cl to produce (35)S by a (n, p) reaction. Once produced, (35)S oxidizes to (35)SO(2) and (35)SO(2-)(4) and was then transported to Southern California due to the presence of strong prevailing westerly winds at this time. Based on a moving box model, we show that the observed activity enhancement in (35)SO(2-)(4) is compatible with long-range transport of the radiation plume from Fukushima. Our model predicts that (35)SO(2-)(4), the concentration in the marine boundary layer at Fukushima, was approximately 2 × 10(5) atoms per m(3), which is approximately 365 times above expected natural concentrations. These measurements and model calculations imply that approximately 0.7% of the total radioactive sulfate present at the marine boundary layer at Fukushima reached Southern California as a result of the trans-Pacific transport.

Unbuttoning normalcy - on cosmopolitical events.

The history of social research can be read as a critical endeavour inasmuch as it unbuttons the normalcy of collective action by multiplying relevant actors and the imaginaries of social reality. I show how paying close sociological attention to what I call cosmopolitical events, offers one approach to such a conception of critical social science. In the paper, I explore the effects of the Japanese events at the Fukushima nuclear plant to unfold its significance as consequences that disrupt, question and alter common and taken for granted modes of ordering social life. Specifically, through approaching Fukushima as a cosmopolitical event we gain insight into the complex processes of normalizing social relations. Moreover, the Fukushima event and its effects demand to extend the history of the sociological imagination to the social and political relevance of the non‐human. What emerges is a practice that enriches the process of unfolding research agendas and conceptual space to include those that have been excluded, marginalized, forgotten, unconsidered, or disfigured in the process of normalizing social and political action.

Growing concern about heatstroke this summer in Japan after Fukushima nuclear disaster

Heat stroke management will be a major challenge following the Fukushima nuclear plant accident that occurred due to the Great East Japan Earthquake. In this article, a number of actions to meet this challenge are proposed.

Technology Focus: Unconventional Resources (July 2011)

Technology Focus The future of “unconventionals” is upon us! The 21st century will see the growth of clean renewable-energy sources. Natural gas will play a prominent role. Currently, a large portion of the natural gas comes from unconventional sources (e.g., shale gas, tight gas, coalbed methane, and, soon, gas hydrates). Shale and tight gas exploitation are widely commercialized, with constant improvement of fracturing techniques to increase yield and decrease costs. North America is leading the way in unconventional-resources recovery and technology development. Transfer of these technologies to up-and-coming players has become essential. This has to be managed carefully to minimize environmental, societal, and political effects. Nations that are deficient in natural resources are turning to importing necessary fuels or wisely gathering renewable resources. For example: What will Japan do after the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant? Will it still invest as much as it used to in nuclear power to supply its energy needs? Will Japan increase its imports of nonrenewable energies, such as liquefied natural gas, or rely on renewable energies such as wind power? What will be the nature of its main demand for energy in the near future and in the long term, and how will it strike a delicate balance between these options? China has emerged as the second world power behind the USA. It also has immense nonrenewable resources that are being exploited. East/West relationships are changing with regard to energy resources. Other players besides China (i.e., India, Australia, and Europe) are starting to exploit their unconventional resources by taking advantage of the dissemination of new technologies. Inevitably, cards must be redealt in light of this new reality. What are the new challenges of this century? Who will be the new energy partners of the western world, and what kind of relationships will be built? How will this new reality influence the choices of economic and resource development? Future opportunities are great, and unconventional resources clearly will play a key role in our future energy landscape. Unconventional Resources additional reading available at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org SPE 137667 • “Natural-Gas Hydrates: Development and Test of Innovative Methods for Gas Production From Hydrate-Bearing Sediments” by J.M. Schicks, Helmholtz Centre, Potsdam German Research Centre for Geosciences, et al. SPE 140864 • “Managing Environmental Risks From Shale-Gas Exploration—Applying Lessons Learned in the US to New Ventures in Poland” by F.V. Jones, SPE, ERM Southwest, et al. SPE 139723 • “Enhanced Gas Recovery and CO2 Storage in Coalbed-Methane Reservoirs: Optimized Injected-Gas Composition for Mature Basins of Various Coal Rank” by Karine Schepers, SPE, Advanced Resources International, et al. SPE 144093 • “Application of Propane (LPG)-Based Hydraulic Fracturing in the McCully Gas Field, New Brunswick, Canada” by Don LeBlanc, SPE, Eastex Petroleum Consultants, et al.

해상보험에 있어서 방사능오염손해에 대한 보상 문제

The accident in the Fukushima nuclear plant caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 is raising voices concerning over radioactive contamination losses. In particular, radioactive contamination losses threaten the safe navigation of vessels, and may impair seafarers` safety and impede the healthy growth of world economy through marine transportation. In case vessels or cargos suffer radioactive contamination losses, it will take a high cost to remove the radioactive contaminants, and in worse cases the contaminated vessels or cargos may have to be abandoned. Furthermore, if seamen are exposed to radioactivity, their treatment can be raised as a crucial issue. Nevertheless, it has not been reviewed clearly by what method and on what ground such losses should be covered in case radioactive contamination losses take place. Thus, this study purposed to review coverage for radioactive contamination losses in marine insurance as an ex post preparation for damages caused by radioactive contamination.

The 2011 Japanese 9.0 magnitude earthquake: Test of a kinetic energy wave model using coastal configuration and offshore gradient of Earth and beyond

Based on geological investigations of coastal geometry and stratigraphy, offshore gradient variation, wave velocity/energy, and quartz grain microtexture analysis of key sites inundated by tsunamis during the Holocene, we have developed a postulated model that could be used to assess modern and ancient onshore environmental conditions during tsunami emplacement. Given that tsunami waves can travel up to ~ 900 km/h, the kinetic energy of the wave is determined by frictional release on the offshore slope to seabed, nearshore sand and sediment supply, and coastal geomorphology, specifically coast linearity or embayments that constrict wave energy. With gentle offshore gradients and relatively linear coastlines, the kinetic energy of the tsunami is decreased by friction with the seabed and radiated outward along the coast, thus producing reduced flooding of the affected coast and fewer collisions of entrained grains. In contrast, steep offshore gradients reduce friction to mere milliseconds of wave impact, and embayments, specifically narrow coastal constrictions, increase wave energy, both of which increase on land run-up heights, and importantly to our proposed model, grain collision effects. Damage to quartz grains deposited by tsunamis along coastal extents ranges from slight on linear coasts with gentle offshore gradients to highly resurfaced mineral surfaces on coasts with steep offshore gradients and narrow embayments. Our model can be further tested through collection, analyses, and comparison of quartz grains in relatively low- and high-energy environments of the recently tsunami-impacted northeastern coast of Japan. For example, the location of the Fukushima nuclear plant along a linear coastline with a less steep offshore gradient may have attenuated the energy of the incoming wave, and thus yielding less resurfaced grains when compared to the coastline located to the north of Sendai City where coastal embayments of variable size coupled with steep offshore gradients would produce higher-energy waves of greater magnitude, as attested by greater penetration inland with considerable loss of life and property damage, and resulting highly deformed grain surfaces. The model could be applicable for assessing modern and ancient coastal environmental conditions on Earth and postulated ancient marine conditions on the Red Planet.

Fukushima Fixation – The Media Focus on Radiation Risk in Tsunami-Stricken Japan

Twenty five years on from Chernobyl, the tragic events in Japan of March 2011 seem to reaffirm the ‘risk society’ perspective which the 1986 nuclear accident in the former Soviet Union did so much to popularise. It was amidst widespread predictions of mass harm – projected both across Europe and into the future – that German sociologist Ulrich Beck’s book of the same name found such a receptive audience. Beck wrote of a new era defined by the greater risk posed by ‘manufactured’, technological risk than natural, ‘external’ ones. The way in which the possible, nuclear threat from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant looms larger than the devastation and the thousands actually killed by the ‘natural’ earthquake and tsunami reminds us of Beck's distinction.

Effect of Fukushima nuclear plant accident on human health and the medical protection

The hazards Fukushima nuclear plant accident causes to human beings might be the second only to Chernobyl nuclear plant accident in the former Soviet Union.The accident has deleterious health effects on Japanese rescue workers,nearby residents and other contaminated subjects,and there are not only short-term irradiation injuries,but also long-term biological effects,with the long-term biological effects caused by low-dose irradiation being the leading one.The radioactive dusts falling to our country is far from enough to cause damage to human health.The main protective measures include shielding with buildings,clothing,and masks,cleaning/removing the radioactive contamination timely,and taking protective drugs.While developing our nuclear power cautiously and scientifically,we should also enhance the corresponding research on medical rescue and protection in case of nuclear accidents.We should also reinforce our emergency response system,training of personnel,technique and equipment,and special protective measures,so as to minimize the damages in case of any nuclear accidents and effectively protect the physical and psychological health of the people.In this paper,we discusse the possible health influence and medical protection of Fukushima nuclear plant accident,the proper attitude towards development of nuclear power,and strengthening of security measures and related scientific research.

Spotlight on Fukushima: The Aftermath: Interview with Norman J. Kleiman, PhD at Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

Norman J. Kleiman, Ph.D. is a faculty member at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Director of Columbia University’s Eye Radiation and Environmental Research Laboratory, and the U.S. Director of the Ukranian American Chernobyl Ocular Study (UACOS). Dr. Kleiman’s research uses the human eye as a model system to study the effect of ionizing radiation and environmental exposures on human health. Following the March 2011 earthquake in Japan, Dr. Kleiman has been frequently asked to discuss the consequences of the radiation leak from the Fukushima nuclear plant and has been featured in various publications and media outlets including Science, PBS, and MSNBC. In past interviews, Dr. Kleiman has offered some stirring and thought-provoking insight on the health consequences of radiation exposure at Fukushima, and he has interestingly warned against overstressing the risks posed by the radiation leak. In mid-April 2011, Columbia University student Kevin Xu of The Journal of Global Health caught up with Dr. Kleiman at his office during a brief break in his busy schedule. In the edited transcript below, Dr. Kleiman shares his perspectives on the public health consequences of the spread of radiation in Japan.

The effects of emergencies and nuclear power-related knowledge flow: from the example of Fukushima crisis

Emergencies, nuclear power accidents, not only change people’s perception about risk of nuclear technology, but also influence the flow of nuclear power-related knowledge between different groups and among people in communities. However, the content of knowledge, the directions and effectiveness of the knowledge flow were varied leading to different results of the knowledge flow. This paper discusses the effects of emergencies and nuclear power knowledge flow by taking the network perspective. The example of Fukushima nuclear plant accident showed that the network ties, the size and diversity of networks, trust and shared interests were the key elements to facilitating the nuclear power-related knowledge flow triggered by the accident.