Fukushima’s lessons
Nearly a year after the Fukushima nuclear powerplant disaster, Akira Omoto, a member of the five-person Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) of Japan, spoke Thursday at MIT about the impact of the accident and the lessons learned from it.Omoto, who is also an adjunct professor of nuclear engineering and management at the University of Tokyo, spoke at a seminar sponsored by MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, the American Nuclear Society and the Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems.A magnitude-9.0 earthquake — Japan’s largest in recorded history, killing some 20,000 people — and the following 14-meter-high tsunami were more than the Fukushima plant was designed to handle, Omoto said. Its structures were built to withstand a magnitude-8.6 earthquake and a tsunami of only 5.7 meters.The March 11, 2011, quake caused the plant’s initial safety system to activate, Omoto said, and nuclear fission was halted. However, the fuel rods inside the...