The Magnitude 9 Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, followed by a massive tsunami struck TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and triggered an unprecedented core melt/severe accident in Units 1 – 3. The radioactivity release led to the evacuation of local residents, many of whom still have not been able to return to their homes. As a group of nuclear experts, the Atomic Energy Society of Japan established the Investigation Committee on the Nuclear Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, to investigate and analyze the accident from scientific and technical perspectives for clarifying the underlying and fundamental causes, and to make recommendations. The results of the investigation by the AESJ Investigation Committee has been compiled herewith as the Final Report. Direct contributing factors of the catastrophic nuclear incident at Fukushima Daiichi NPP initiated by an unprecedented massive earthquake/ tsunami – inadequacies in tsunami measures, severe accident management, emergency response, accident recovery and mitigations – and the underlying factors - organizational issues, etc., have been clarified and recommendations in the following areas have been made. - Nuclear safety fundamentals - Direct factors of the accident - Organizational aspects - Common items (R&D, International cooperation, human resources management) - Post-accident management/recovery from the accident.

This book focuses on nuclear engineering education in the post-Fukushima era. It was edited by the organizers of the summer school held in August 2011 in University of California, Berkeley, as part of a collaborative program between the University of Tokyo and UC Berkeley. Motivated by the particular relevance and importance of social-scientific approaches to various crucial aspects of nuclear technology, special emphasis was placed on integrating nuclear science and engineering with social science. The book consists of the lectures given in 2011 summer school and additional chapters that cover developments in the past three years since the accident. It provides an arena for discussions to find and create a renewed platform for engineering practices, and thus nuclear engineering education, which are essential in the post-Fukushima era for nurturing nuclear engineers who need to be both technically competent and trusted in society.

Written by an expert in the field, this book is perfect for those who would like to know what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Part 1 of the book studies how core melts occurred in Fukushima Daiichi units 1, 2, and 3, respectively, based on evidence from the Three-Mile Island core melt accident and fuel behavior experiments performed in the 1970s under the cooperation between the United States, Germany, and Japan. This information explains the accident processes without contradicting data from Fukushima, which was published in the TEPCO report. The hydrogen explosions in units 1, 3, and 4 are also explained logically in conjunction with the above core melt process. Part 2 clarifies how the background radiation level of the site doubled: The first rise was just a leak from small openings in units 1 and 3 associated with fire-pump connection work. The second rise led to direct radioactive material release from unit 2. Evacuation dose adequacy and its timing are discussed with reference to the accident process, and the necessity for embankments surrounding nuclear power plants to increase protection against natural disasters is also discussed. New proposals for safety design and emergency preparedness are suggested based on lessons learned from the accident as well as from new experiences. Finally, a concept for decommissioning the Fukushima site and a recovery plan are introduced.

This book provides comprehensive research findings related to the environmental monitoring of radiation, levels of radioactive nuclides in various environments and dose estimation in residents after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident caused severe environmental contamination with radioactive nuclides. At the beginning of the book, a technical review written by a leading researcher of nuclear reactor technology explains what happened at the power plant. The review is followed by a commentary from a former member of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, providing the reader with easily understandable information about the concept of radiation dosage. In the main part of the book, a series of scientific reports presents valuable data on the radiation surveys of the environment, environmental radioactivity, transfer models and parameters of radioactive nuclides and dose assessment among residents. These reports present a wide range of findings from the research carried out in a variety of activities by large governmental organizations as well as by small private groups and individuals. The reader thus will find a large collection of valuable and interesting data related to the environmental contamination by radioactive nuclides after the Fukushima accident. Although earlier reports on this issue have been made public, this book is the only publication to fully depict the actual situation by providing comprehensive data obtained by diverse organizations and individuals.

When the Nuclear Safety Commission in Japan reviewed safety-design guidelines for nuclear plants in 1990, the regulatory agency explicitly ruled out the need to consider prolonged AC power loss. In other words, nothing like the catastrophe at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station was possible—no tsunami of 45 feet could swamp a nuclear power station and knock out its emergency systems. No blackout could last for days. No triple meltdown could occur. Nothing like this could ever happen. Until it did—over the course of a week in March 2011. In this volume and in gripping detail, the Independent Investigation Commission on the Fukushima Nuclear Accident, a civilian-led group, presents a thorough and powerful account of what happened within hours and days after this nuclear disaster, the second worst in history. It documents the findings of a working group of more than thirty people, including natural scientists and engineers, social scientists and researchers, business people, lawyers, and journalists, who researched this crisis involving multiple simultaneous dangers. They conducted over 300 investigative interviews to collect testimony from relevant individuals. The responsibility of this committee was to act as an external ombudsman, summarizing its conclusions in the form of an original report, published in Japanese in February 2012. This has now been substantially rewritten and revised for this English-language edition. The work reveals the truth behind the tragic saga of the multiple catastrophic accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.It serves as a valuable and essential historical reference, which will help to inform and guide future nuclear safety and policy in both Japan and internationally.

This PhD sought to determine the mechanisms for the reactor explosions by mapping, collecting and analysing samples from across the area of Japan that received radioactive fallout from the explosions. In doing this, the author conducted significant fieldwork in the restricted-access fallout zone using ground and novel UAV-based mapping of radiation to identify hot-spot areas for sample collecting but also using these tools to verify the efficacy of the clean-up operations ongoing in the prefecture. Such fieldwork was both technically pioneering for its use of UAVs (drones) but also selfless in terms of bravely entering a nuclear danger area to collect samples for the greater benefit of the scientific community.

Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima Daiichi is a timely and groundbreaking account of the disturbing landscape of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown amidst an earthquake and tsunami on Japan’s northeast coastline on March 11, 2011. It provides riveting insights into the social and political landscape of nuclear power development in Japan, which significantly contributed to the disaster; the flawed disaster management options taken; and the political, technical, and social reactions as the accident unfolded. In doing so, it critically reflects on the implications for managing future nuclear disasters, for effective and responsible regulation and good governance of controversial science and technology, or technoscience, and for the future of nuclear power itself, both in Japan and internationally. Informed by a leading cast of international scholars in science, technology and society studies, the book is at the forefront of discussing the Fukushima Daiichi disaster at the intersection of social, environmental and energy security and good governance when such issues dominate global agendas for sustainable futures. Its powerful critique of the risks and hazards of nuclear energy alongside poor disaster management is an important counterbalance to the plans for nuclear build as central to sustainable energy in the face of climate change, increasing extreme weather events and environmental problems, and diminishing fossil fuel, peak oil, and rising electricity costs. Adding significantly to the consideration and debate of these critical issues, the book will interest academics, policy-makers, energy pundits, public interest organizations, citizens and students engaged variously with Fukushima itself, disaster management, political science, environmental/energy policy and risk, public health, sociology, public participation, civil society activism, new media, sustainability, and technology governance.

Health Effects of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster provides a multidisciplinary retrospective on the health consequences on the population the first decade after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Sections 1 and 2 of the book begins with an introduction and an overview of the developments surrounding the Fukushima accident. Section 3 discusses topics such as the physical health impact of radiation exposure as well as diseases that resulted from long-term evacuation. Section 4 examines the psychological factors and the social impact of the disaster and how their combined influence affected the physical and mental wellness of the population. The book concludes with Section 5 which covers the mitigation strategy for treatment and care of psychological health issues resulting from the disaster. The book contains expert contributions from those who have first-hand experience in the recovery efforts and are still actively researching the impact of the disaster. Health Effects of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster provides readers with a coherent, multi-dimensional narrative about the physical, psychosocial, and psychological aspects of the decade-long aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. - Provides information based on evidence obtained through scientific methods such as long-term epidemiological surveys and case studies - Examines the indirect health impact, especially psychosocial effects, caused by technological disasters like nuclear accidents - Includes contributions from experts in the field who participated in the recovery efforts and are currently researching the health impact of the Fukushima disaster

Unique summary of the environmental impact of the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, for researchers, nuclear engineers and policymakers.

This open access book presents the findings from on-site research into radioactive cesium contamination in various agricultural systems affected by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011. This third volume in the series reports on studies undertaken at contaminated sites such as farmland, forests, and marine and freshwater environments, with a particular focus on livestock, wild plants and mushrooms, crops, and marine products in those environments. It also provides additional data collected in the subsequent years to show how the radioactivity levels in agricultural products and their growing environments have changed with time and the route by which radioactive materials entered agricultural products as well as their movement between different components (e.g., soil, water, and trees) within an environmental system (e.g., forests). The book covers various topics, including radioactivity testing of food products; decontamination trials for rice and livestock production; the state of contamination in, trees, mushrooms, and timber; the dynamics of radioactivity distribution in paddy fields and upland forests; damage incurred by the forestry and fishery industries; and the change in consumers’ attitudes. Chapter 19 introduces a real-time radioisotope imaging system, a pioneering technique to visualize the movement of cesium in soil and in plants. This is the only book to provide systematic data on the actual change of radioactivity, and as such is of great value to all researchers who wish to understand the effect of radioactive fallout on agriculture. In addition, it helps the general public to better understand the issues of radio-contamination in the environment. The project is ongoing; the research groups from the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences of The University of Tokyo continue their work in the field to further evaluate the long-term effects of the Fukushima accident.