PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Fukushima accident underscores need for US to seek out new information about nuclear plant hazards

2014-07-24
(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON -- A new congressionally mandated report from the National Academy of Sciences concludes that the overarching lesson learned from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is that nuclear plant licensees and their regulators must actively seek out and act on new information about hazards with the potential to affect the safety of nuclear plants. The committee that wrote the report examined the causes of the Japan accident and identified findings and recommendations for improving nuclear plant safety and offsite emergency responses to nuclear plant accidents in the U.S.

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was initiated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. The earthquake knocked out offsite AC power to the plant, and the tsunami inundated portions of the plant site. Flooding of critical equipment resulted in the extended loss of onsite power with the consequent loss of reactor monitoring, control, and cooling functions in multiple units. Three reactors -- Units 1, 2, and 3 -- sustained severe core damage, and three reactor buildings -- Units 1, 3, and 4 -- were damaged by hydrogen explosions. Offsite releases of radioactive materials contaminated land in Fukushima and several neighboring prefectures, prompting widespread evacuations, distress among the population, large economic losses, and the eventual shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan.

Personnel at the Fukushima Daiichi plant responded to the accident with courage and resilience, and their actions likely reduced its severity and the magnitude of offsite radioactive material releases, the committee said. However, several factors relating to the management, design, and operation of the plant prevented plant personnel from achieving greater success and contributed to the overall severity of the accident.

Nuclear plant operators and regulators in the U.S. and other countries are taking useful actions to upgrade nuclear plant systems, operating procedures, and operator training in response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident. As the U.S. nuclear industry and its regulator, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC), implement these actions, the report recommends particular attention to improving the availability, reliability, redundancy, and diversity of specific nuclear plant systems:

DC power for instrumentation and safety system control Tools for estimating real-time plant status during loss of power Reactor heat removal, reactor depressurization, and containment venting systems and protocols Instrumentation for monitoring critical thermodynamic parameters -- for example temperature and pressure -- in reactors, containments, and spent-fuel pools Hydrogen monitoring, including monitoring in reactor buildings, and mitigation Instrumentation for both onsite and offsite radiation and security monitoring Communications and real-time information systems

To further improve the resilience of U.S. nuclear plants, the report also recommends:

The U.S. nuclear industry and the USNRC should give specific attention to improving resource availability and operator training, including training for developing and implementing ad hoc responses to deal with unanticipated complexities. The U.S. nuclear industry and USNRC should strengthen their capabilities for assessing risks from events that could challenge the design of nuclear plant structures and components and lead to a loss of critical safety functions. Part of this effort should focus on events that have the potential to affect large geographic regions and multiple nuclear plants, including earthquakes, tsunamis and other geographically extensive floods, and geomagnetic disturbances. USNRC should support these efforts by providing guidance on approaches and overseeing rigorous peer review. USNRC should further incorporate modern risk concepts into its nuclear safety regulations using these strengthened capabilities. USNRC and the U.S. nuclear industry must continuously monitor and maintain a strong safety culture and should examine opportunities to increase the transparency of and communication about their efforts to assess and improve nuclear safety.

Until now, U.S. safety regulations have been based on ensuring plants are designed to withstand certain specified failures or abnormal events, or "design-basis-events"-- such as equipment failures, loss of power, and inability to cool the reactor core -- that could impair critical safety functions. However, four decades of analysis and experience have demonstrated that reactor core-damage risks are dominated by "beyond-design-basis events," the report says. The Fukushima Daiichi, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl accidents were all initiated by beyond-design-basis events. The committee found that current approaches for regulating nuclear plant safety, which have been based traditionally on deterministic concepts such as the design-basis accident, are clearly inadequate for preventing core-melt accidents and mitigating their consequences. A more complete application of modern risk-assessment principles in licensing and regulation could help address this inadequacy and enhance the overall safety of all nuclear plants, present and future.

The Fukushima Daiichi accident raised the question of whether offsite emergency preparedness in the U.S. would be challenged if a similar-scale event -- involving several concurrent disasters -- occurred here. The committee lacked time and resources to perform an in-depth examination of U.S. preparedness for severe nuclear accidents. The report recommends that the nuclear industry and organizations with emergency management responsibilities assess their preparedness for severe nuclear accidents associated with offsite regional-scale disasters. Emergency response plans, including plans for communicating with affected populations, should be revised or supplemented to ensure that there are scalable and effective strategies, well-trained personnel, and adequate resources for responding to long-duration accident/disaster scenarios. In addition, industry and emergency management organizations should assess the balance of protective actions -- such as evacuation, sheltering-in-place, and potassium iodide distribution -- for affected offsite populations and revise the guidelines as appropriate. Particular attention should be given to protective actions for children, those who are ill, and the elderly and their caregivers; long-term social, psychological, and economic impacts of sheltering-in-place, evacuation, and/or relocation; and decision making for resettlement of evacuated populations in areas that were contaminated by radioactive material.

INFORMATION: The study was sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are private, independent nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter granted to NAS in 1863. The National Research Council is the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org. Twitter: @NAS_news and @NASciences RSS feed: http://www.nationalacademies.org/rss/index.html Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalacademyofsciences/sets

Pre-publication copies of Lessons Learned From the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving the Safety of U.S. Nuclear Plants are available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Continuous antibiotics not necessary for many children with common prenatal abnormality

2014-07-24
Up to 5 percent of all prenatal ultrasounds uncover antenatal hydronephrosis, or enlarged kidneys, the most commonly detected prenatal abnormality in the United States. Many children with this abnormality are treated continually with preventive antibiotics for the first few years of life with the hopes of preventing the condition's associated urinary tract infections. Until recently, however, little evidence existed as to the benefits of this treatment, which involves considerable cost and inconvenience for families. But a study published this week in the Journal of Pediatric ...

Study gives new perspective on agricultural plastic, debris burning, and air quality

Study gives new perspective on agricultural plastic, debris burning, and air quality
2014-07-24
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- To reduce fire hazard in the United States, wildland managers often utilize the silvicultural practice of mechanically cutting woody shrubs and suppressed trees (ladder fuels). These cuttings and other post-logging debris are then burned during periods of low fire danger in order to dispose of the material. To improve the burning and minimize hazardous air pollutants, managers often cover all or part of the debris pile with low-density polyethylene plastic, commonly referred to as agricultural plastic, in order to keep water out. A recent study published ...

Age of puberty in girls influenced by which parent their genes are inherited from

2014-07-24
(Boston)--The age at which girls reach sexual maturity is influenced by 'imprinted' genes, a small sub-set of genes whose activity differs depending on which parent passes on that gene, according to new research published today in the journal Nature. The findings come from an international study of more than 180,000 women involving scientists from 166 institutions worldwide, including Boston University School of Medicine. The researchers identified 123 genetic variations that were associated with the timing of when girls experienced their first menstrual cycle by analysing ...

15-year analysis of blue whale range off California finds conflict with shipping lanes

15-year analysis of blue whale range off California finds conflict with shipping lanes
2014-07-24
NEWPORT, Ore. -- A comprehensive 15-year analysis of the movements of satellite-tagged blue whales off the West Coast of the United States found that their favored feeding areas are bisected by heavily used shipping lanes, increasing the threat of injury and mortality. The researchers note that moving the shipping lanes off Los Angeles and San Francisco to slightly different areas – at least, during summer and fall when blue whales are most abundant – could significantly decrease the probability of ships striking the whales. A similar relocation of shipping lanes in the ...

Greater odds of adverse childhood experiences in those with military service

2014-07-24
Bottom Line: Men and women who have served in the military have a higher prevalence of adverse childhood events (ACEs), suggesting that enlistment may be a way to escape adversity for some. Authors: John R. Blosnich, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System, and colleagues. Background: The prevalence of ACEs among U.S. military members and veterans is largely unknown. ACEs can result in severe adult health consequences such as posttraumatic stress disorder, substance use and attempted suicide. How the Study Was Conducted: Authors compared ...

Enhanced recovery program following colorectal surgery at community hospitals

2014-07-24
Bottom Line: An enhanced recovery program for patients after colorectal surgery appears to be feasible in a community hospital setting after having been shown to be successful in international and academic medical centers. Author: Cristina B. Geltzeiler, M.D., of Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, and colleagues. Background: The fundamental aspects of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programs are guidelines that focus on patient education, optimal fluid management, minimal incision length, decreased use of tubes and drains, opioid-sparing analgesia, ...

Study examines postoperative pneumonia prevention program in surgical ward

2014-07-24
Bottom Line: A postoperative pneumonia prevention program for patients in the surgical ward at a California Veterans Affairs hospital lowered the case rate for the condition, which can cause significant complications and increase the cost of care. Author: Hadiza S. Kazaure, M.D., of the Stanford University School of Medicine, California, and colleagues. Background: Pneumonia is a common infection that accounts for about 15 percent of all hospital-acquired infections and as much as 3.4 percent of complications among surgical patients. How the Study Was Conducted: The ...

New regions of genetic material are involved in the development of colon cancer

2014-07-24
Most research on human cancer genes have been focused on the regions of the coding genome (exons) that are to be translated in the form of amino acids thus proteins. But just before each gene, there is a regulatory region or activator which controls the expression and activity of the adjacent gene. Until now, very little was known of the role exerted such DNA fragment in tumor development. An article published today in Nature in collaboration with the group of Manel Esteller, Director of Epigenetics and Cancer Biology, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), ...

Nano-sized chip 'sniffs out' explosives far better than trained dogs

2014-07-24
Security forces worldwide rely on sophisticated equipment, trained personnel, and detection dogs to safeguard airports and other public areas against terrorist attacks. A revolutionary new electronic chip with nano-sized chemical sensors is about to make their job much easier. The groundbreaking nanotechnology-inspired sensor, devised by Prof. Fernando Patolsky of Tel Aviv University 's School of Chemistry and Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and developed by the Herzliya company Tracense, picks up the scent of explosives molecules better than a detection dog's ...

Detecting concussion-related brain disease in its earliest stages

2014-07-24
Autopsies have shown that some high-profile athletes who suffered repeated blows to the head during their careers have unusual protein clumps in their brains. Those clumps suggest the athletes had a disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Now, scientists are working on tests that might be able to detect CTE in its earliest stages, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. In the article, Lauren Wolf, a senior editor at C&EN, explains that many of these athletes struggled with ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

IOP Publishing and IPEM mandate reporting of sex and gender in research 

Dogs trained to detect trauma stress by smelling humans’ breath

Electronic device thermal management made simpler and slightly better!

Study: Dangerous surgical site infections can be reduced with simple prevention protocol

Genetic testing of patients with atrial fibrillation can alert clinicians to potential development of life-threatening conditions

Artificial Intelligence tool successfully predicts fatal heart rhythm

What progress has China made in agriculture green development over the past five years?

ALMA finds new molecular signposts in starburst galaxy

Open waste burning linked to air pollution in Northwestern Greenland

Google Street View reveals how built environment correlates with risk of cardiovascular disease

Connecting the dots to shape growth forces

Parental avoidance of toxic exposures could help prevent autism, ADHD in children, new study shows

Trends in the incidence of renal replacement therapy due to rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis in Japan, 2006–2021

Olympics not likely to swallow up skateboarding’s subversive nature into its corporate spectacle, study says

Looking after the NHS workforce must be a top priority, say experts

Prolonged use of certain hormone drugs linked to increased brain tumor risk

Delirium a ‘strong risk factor’ for dementia among older people

People experiencing homelessness more likely to develop dementia at younger ages, study finds

Can metalens be commercialized at a fraction of the cost?

Reclaim ‘wellness’ from the rich and famous, and restore its political radicalism, new book argues

Curtin research unlocks supernova stardust secrets

New documents reveal patient safety concerns over strike day cover

UTA hosts Solar-bration watch party for April 8 eclipse

Researchers discover molecule that promotes production of cancer cells in triple-negative breast cancer

New tool provides researchers with improved understanding of stem cell aging in the brain

Around half of people living with HIV in developed countries are now aged 50 years and over and at higher risk of becoming frail and having multiple comorbidities

You are never too old for an STI – more older adults being diagnosed with STIs such as gonorrhea and syphilis

University of Minnesota researchers introduce enhanced brain signal analysis technique

Aston University research center to focus on using AI to improve lives

Robot, can you say ‘cheese’?

[Press-News.org] Fukushima accident underscores need for US to seek out new information about nuclear plant hazards