Posted on 09/04/2013 3:44:43 AM PDT by SteveH
Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s department responsible for managing nuclear power plant facilities did not act on a risk of massive tsunami near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant projected in an in-house study in 2008, ruling out an immediate need to better protect the power station from seawater flooding, company sources said Sunday.
Despite the projection of a tsunami as high as 10.2 meters, officials of the department at the company’s headquarters insisted that such a risk was unrealistic, they said. In March, the power station was ravaged by a tsunami as high as about 15 meters.
Tsunamis triggered by the massive earthquake on March 11 flooded power supply facilities at the utility’s Fukushima Daiichi complex, crippling reactor cooling systems and consequently triggering nuclear fuel meltdowns.
(Excerpt) Read more at mdn.mainichi.jp ...
Why is it that politics absolutely, always takes precedence over engineering in everything that governments or groups of people do?
Politics, money, and a tendency to ignore threats until they present themselves.
So, if they had jumped to and put up a wall for a 10.2 meter tsunami, the plant would still have been swamped by the subsequent 15 meter wave.
They already had a fair amount of protection, just not enough for the 15 meter wave.
Might have been better to move the emergency generators up higher though.
“Might have been better to move the emergency generators up higher though.”
Or have a backup set up high. Current ones were put low and covered to withstand aerial threats I think.
Sadly ironic for a nuclear power plant to melt down for the lack of electricity.
Pretty big radioactive mess for a country hell bent on keeping our nuclear power out of their country for years and years.
They acted all along like they could do better.....and.....they cant.
I know. Lets build our Nuclear plant right next to the ocean. Cooling water is real cheap !!
From wikipedia, on fukushima dai-ichi nuclear power plant:
The reactor's emergency diesel generators and DC batteries, crucial components in helping keep the reactors cool in the event of a power loss, were located in the basements of the reactor turbine buildings. The reactor design plans provided by General Electric specified placing the generators and batteries in that location, but mid-level engineers working on the construction of the plant were concerned that this made the backup power systems vulnerable to flooding. TEPCO elected to strictly follow General Electric's design in the construction of the reactors.[21]
[...]
The location of the plant was on a bluff which was originally 35 meters above sea level. During construction, however, TEPCO lowered the height of the bluff by 25 meters. One reason the bluff was lowered was so that the base of the reactors could be constructed on solid bedrock to mitigate the threat posed by earthquakes. Another reason was the lowered height would keep the running costs of the seawater pumps low. TEPCO's analysis of the tsunami risk when planning the site's construction determined that the lower elevation was safe because the sea wall would provide adequate protection for the maximum tsunami assumed by the design basis. However, the lower site elevation did increase the vulnerability for a tsunami larger than anticipated in design.[22]
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