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March 11th, 2021 marks the ten-year anniversary of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station accident in Japan. The accident has had a tremendous impact on people’s lives locally, globally and within the nuclear engineering community at large. Over the past ten years, the region has achieved a remarkable recovery, thanks to extensive restoration work performed in the area and a strong focus on environmental mitigation efforts. Currently, efforts are still underway to decommission the power plants and to revitalize the economy, as well as overcome socioeconomic and psychological challenges in the region.
In parallel, the nuclear industry has done extensive analysis on the accident progression in the reactors and on how the consequence could have been mitigated with different strategies and measures. A series of new analyses have provided detailed understanding of what happened in the reactors. These analyses led to a suite of measures to enhance reactor safety implemented in the current fleet of Japanese nuclear reactors as well as the improved regulatory structure. At the same time, the US nuclear power plants and relevant regulations have been upgraded to address similar risks. In addition, the accident has prompted a series of innovations in nuclear engineering to prevent similar accidents and to make nuclear energy safer.
This 10-yr anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on the accident, its environmental and health consequences, as well as its impact on nuclear reactor safety and regulations. It also gives us a moment to think more broadly about the interactions between nuclear energy, the environment and society. Lessons learned from the Fukushima accident and its aftermath will drive the future of nuclear energy.
Sharing a book that may be of interest to participants and interested parties:
"Reflections on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident"
by the late Professor Joonhong Ahn
https://www.springer.com/gp/
Photo Credit to Mr. Kazuma Obara
The event is scheduled for Thursday, March 11th, 1pm-5pm
Register by Wednesday 4pm PST to receive zoom details.
AGENDA
1:00 – 1:15pm: Introduction
1:15 – 2:45 pm: Panel Discussion 1
What happened in the reactors? How thas he accident changed nuclear power plants and industry?
Panelists:
Naohiro Masuda, Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited
Joy L. Rempe, Rempe and Associates, LLC
Bill Kastenberg, UC Berkeley
Per Peterson, UC Berkeley
Facilitator: Raluca Scarlat, University of California Berkeley
2:45 – 2.50 pm: Break
2:50 – 3.10 pm: Carmine Emanuele Cella, University of California, Berkeley
3.10 – 3:15pm: Break
3:15 – 4:45 pm: Panel Discussion 2
What is the impact on the environment and society? How did they recover?
Panelists:
Kai Vetter, UC Berkeley
Naomi Hirose, TEPCO
Kimiaki Saito, JAEA
Paul Dickman, Argonne National Laboratory
Facilitator: Haruko Wainwright, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
4:45 – 5:00 pm: Concluding Remarks, Student Essay Competition
Photo Credit to Mr. Kazuko Yajima
Enter an essay or any form of original art reflecting on the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident, which began on March 11, 2011. Submissions can focus on the history of the event or on the impact that the event has had on shaping the future such as "How should this event be remembered?" or "How do you remember this event?".
Two $500 prizes will be awarded. The work will be judged on its level of research, creativity, and analysis,
The contest is open to graduate and undergraduate students in all fields. Submissions can be made by single authors or collaborating authors. For collaborating authors, the prize will be divided among the co-authors.
The deadline to submit your work is 9:46 pm PST March 10, 2021.
The Moderators:
Raluca Scarlat is an assistant professor at UC Berkeley, in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. Professor Scarlat has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from UC Berkeley and a B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Cornell University. Scarlat’s research focuses on chemistry of and corrosion in high-temperature inorganic fluids and their application to energy systems. Scarlat’s research includes safety analysis, licensing and design of advanced nuclear reactors and engineering ethics.
Haruko Wainwright is a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and adjunct professor in nuclear engineering at UC-Berkeley. She has a master in statistics and PhD in nuclear engineering at University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on contaminant transport modeling, spatial data integration, and uncertainty quantification. She has worked on various research topics in both nuclear engineering and environmental sciences, including nuclear waste, groundwater contamination, Fukushima radiation monitoring, and climate change impacts on ecosystems.
Speaker/Panel Bios
Naohiro Masuda
Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited
Naohiro Masuda is a Representative Member of the Board, the Executive President and CEO of Japan
Nuclear Fuel Limited(JNFL). He started his career as an electrical and I&C engineer at FukushimaDaini
NPS(2F) and was in charge of Unit 2-4 construction works. In 2005, he become the plant manager of
the 2F site, and then as Site superintendent in 2010. On March 11, 2011, he achieved the successful
recovery of all 4 units responding to the earthquake and tsunami. An exemplary effort, saving the Daini
plant from meltdown. In 2014, Masuda was named President of Fukushima Daiichi Decontamination
and Decommissioning Engineering Company, and Chief Decommissioning Officer(CDO). As Executive
Vice President of the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc., he was in charge of Disaster
Prevention and Safety, and Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games Project.
In 2018, Naohiro Masuda was decorated with the French National Order of Merit “Chevalier.”
Joy L. Rempe
Rempe and Associates, LLC
https://www.energy.gov/ne/
www.rempellc.com
Dr. Joy Rempe has over 30 years of experience in the areas of reactor safety and instrumentation
performance. Prior to retiring as a Laboratory Fellow at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), she
founded an instrumentation development and deployment laboratory that supported a wide range of
applications, including irradiation testing in U.S. and international facilities. During her tenure at INL, she
also led numerous severe accident research efforts for U.S. and international organizations, including
post-accident inspection and analysis efforts to support the Three Mile Island Unit 2 Vessel Investigation
Program and efforts to investigate in-vessel retention in advanced light water reactors. As Principal of
Rempe and Associates, LLC, Dr. Rempe provides consulting assistance to U.S. and international
organizations.
Dr. Rempe has authored or co-authored over 400 peer-reviewed journal publications, book chapters,
technical reports, and peer-reviewed conference papers on reactor safety, severe accident phenomena,
high temperature testing, and in-pile instrumentation. She is an inventor/co-inventor on four patents.
Dr. Rempe received NRC and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
recognition awards for achievements accomplished in the TMI-2 Vessel Investigation Project; and in
2011, she was awarded a US DOE Secretarial Honors Award for her contributions in the US response to
the events at Fukushima. Dr. Rempe is a Fellow in the American Nuclear Society, Since 2010, she has
served on the U.S. NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards on which she is currently Vice-
Chairman. Previously, she served as co-chair of the U.S. DOE Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee, Chair
of the ANS Thermal Hydraulics Division, and Member of the ANS Board of Directors. She holds MS and
PhD degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS degree in
Nuclear Engineering from the University of Missouri – Rolla.
Bill Kastenberg
University of California Berkeley
https://nuc.berkeley.edu/
Per Peterson
University of California Berkeley
https://nuc.berkeley.edu/
Kai Vetter
University of California Berkeley
https://nuc.berkeley.edu/
Naomi Hirose
TEPCO
Naomi Hirose is the former President / CEO whose service at the Tokyo Electric Power Company
(TEPCO) spans four decades. He joined the company in 1976, having gained an appreciation for
the energy industry following the 1973 Oil Shock, and worked in a number of management
positions from 1992 to 2005, including corporate planning, sales, marketing, and customer relations.
Mr. Hirose became an executive officer in 2006, and in 2008, conceived and spearheaded a campaign
promoting the economic and environmental benefits of electrification, called “Switch” that was a
Japan-first. In 2010, he re-energized the company vision for global expansion. Immediately after the
3.11 Fukushima Accident, Mr. Hirose dedicated himself to create the system for Nuclear Damage
Compensation. After becoming President and CEO in 2012, he led the company in addressing a
number of highly complex issues such as water management and decommissioning plans for the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, compensation for the accident and Fukushima revitalization,
and keeping TEPCO competitive while facing the deregulation of Japan’s electricity market.
He currently serves as Senior Adviser. Mr. Hirose received his B.A. in Sociology from Hitotsubashi
University in 1976, and his MBA from Yale School of Management in 1983.
Kimiaki Saito
Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)
Dr. Kimiaki Saito has studied characteristics of environmental radiations for a long time, and developed
dose evaluation methods for external radiations in the environment using anthropomorphic phantoms
and Monte Carlo simulation. After the Fukushima accident, he has been engaged in national projects
for large-scale environmental monitoring, and published various data on the features of contamination in
Fukushima.
Paul Dickman
Argonne National Laboratory
https://www.anl.gov/profile/paul-t-dickman
Paul Dickman is a Senior Policy Fellow with Argonne National Laboratory focusing on nuclear energy,
nonproliferation, and national security policy. For over thirty-five years Mr. Dickman has been involved
in the forefront of nuclear energy and national security programs in the U.S. and internationally. He has
held senior managerial positions at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of
Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. He holds leadership positions in the American
Nuclear Society and the World Council on Isotopes, advises organizations on risk communication,
and serves as an advisor to the Japanese Government on the decommissioning of the Fukushima
accident site.
Carmine Emanuele Cella
UC Berkeley
http://www.carminecella.com/
Carmine Emanuele Cella is an internationally acclaimed composer with advanced studies in applied
mathematics. He studied piano, computer music and composition and he got a PhD in musical
composition at the Accademia di S. Cecilia in Rome and a PhD in applied mathematics at the University of
Bologna entitled On Symbolic Representations of Music (2011).
From 2007 to 2008, Carmine-Emanuele Cella had a research position at Ircam in Paris working on audio
indexing. In 2008 he won the prestigious Petrassi prize for composition, from the President of the Italian
Republic Giorgio Napolitano and he has been nominated member of Academie de France à Madrid for
2013-2014 at Casa de Velazquez. In 2015-2016 he has conducted research in applied mathematics at
École Normale Supérieure de Paris with Stéphane Mallat and he won the prize Una Vita Nella Musica
Giovani at Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In 2016, he has been in residency at the American Academy in
Rome, where he worked on his first opera premiered in June 2017 at the National Opera of Kiev. Since
January 2019, Carmine is assistant professor in music and technology at CNMAT, University of California,
Berkeley.