Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster Author: David Lochbaum Edwin Lyman Susan Q. Stranahan The Union of Concerned Scientists | Language: English | ISBN:
1595589082 | Format: PDF
Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster Description
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake large enough to knock the earth from its axis sent a massive tsunami speeding toward the Japanese coast and the aging and vulnerable Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactors. Over the following weeks, the world watched in horror as a natural disaster became a man-made catastrophe: fail-safes failed, cooling systems shut down, nuclear rods melted.
In the first definitive account of the Fukushima disaster, two leading experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists, David Lochbaum and Edwin Lyman, team up with journalist Susan Q. Stranahan, the lead reporter of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Pulitzer Prize–winning coverage of the Three Mile Island accident, to tell this harrowing story. Fukushima combines a fast-paced, riveting account of the tsunami and the nuclear emergency it created with an explanation of the science and technology behind the meltdown as it unfolded in real time. Bolstered by photographs, explanatory diagrams, and a comprehensive glossary, the narrative also extends to other severe nuclear accidents to address both the terrifying question of whether it could happen elsewhere and how such a crisis can be averted in the future.
- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: New Press, The (February 11, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1595589082
- ISBN-13: 978-1595589088
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
This book has the best coverage of the Fukushima disaster that we've come across so far (as of Feb 2014).
Written by scientists from the Union of Concerned Scientists and a prize-winning reporter that covered Three Mile Island, this book clearly describes the events before, during, and after the Fukushima meltdowns, and how the NRC and Japan's equivalent regulator are captured by the nuclear industry, how risks are routinely dismissed and downgraded, how unsafe reactors world-wide threaten our present and future, and how the Japanese government is disregarding the will of their people, who no longer want nuclear power.
Some highlights:
Page 42 - How a Japanese court ruled against concerned geologists, saying that a fault under a seven reactor complex didn't exist. Two years later, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck on that very fault, almost causing a major incident.
Page 64 - How the NRC didn't want people to ask if a Fukushima-style meltdown could occur in the U.S.
Page 128 - How Obama addressed the nation, saying, "We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States...", when government experts were still arguing whether radiation levels would or would not be harmful. In fact, at the time, some models showed that exposure to one-year-olds in Alaska could be as high as 35 rem.
Page 184 - How a U.S. Nuclear power plant sits right below a large dam, and, unbelievably, a dam failure was never taken into account when it was licensed. Hint: It would cause another Fukushima.
And much, much more.
This book doesn't exaggerate the risks, and doesn't underplay them either. Ultimately, it is a damming indictment of both the regulators and the industry, and shows yet again why nuclear energy of today is just too risky.
Hopefully they will write a second book, since Fukushima is not over yet, not by a long shot.
By David Slik
I have met coauthor David Lochbaum before, over at least a couple of the decades of my 48 years doing things nuclear, so I know that he is competent and a straight shooting nuclear safety engineer and critic. He does challenge the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a better job with their middle name, and certainly the Nuclear Energy Institute considers him to be a thorn in the side. I have witnessed the cutting edges (top issues and safety culture) of nuclear safety in the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program, in the Department of Energy (nuclear weapon production facilities) and at about 17 commercial nuclear power plants (as a team member either for NRC or the utilities). The Fukushima info in the book is about as comprehensive and insightful as anyone might need or want, and David puts additional insights in that only us Nukes can appreciate and love. At this point in history, I believe all nuclear engineers and managers should read this book and reflect on the "risk informed" concepts that so often fail us in absolute space, but which I admit are handy in comparing options and setting priorities, but even that opens the door not to do a lot of corrective actions. In short, I am not at all convinced that our approach to nuclear safety is yet adequate to protect us for the next century and in all places around the world. This book reinforces my concerns with the industry and the NRC. This risk-informed nonsense could be overcome, but not with the current nuclear safety management paradigm. - Google: TECHNIDIGM, nuclear safety
By Charles R. Jones
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