The week of July 30th, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a select group of foreign experts will examine the Onagawa nuclear plant in northeastern Japan. Woody is honored to be a member of this team. For more information and the video, please visit IAEA to assess quake resistance at Onagawa plant by NHK …
Author Archives: Woody
Not losing to the rain
With all of the disarray in the nuclear village of Japan, there had to be a story of someone doing something right. I finally found one: Tōhoku Electric Power Company, called Tōho Den, which is located in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, which runs the Onagawa nuclear power plant.
Why did the Onagawa NPP survive the disaster of March 11? It experienced the highest ground shaking of all of the NPP in Japan and also survived a 13m tsunami.
The story begins in 1968 when Hirai Yanosuke joined the costal planning committee for the construction of the Onagawa NPP. Hirai-san was a former VP at Tōho Den and a former head of technology research at the Central Research Institute of the Electric Power Industry. He died in 1986.
Hirai-san was apparently the only person on the entire project to push for the 14.8-meter breakwater. Many of his colleagues said that 12 meters would be sufficient, and they derided Hirai-san’s proposal as excessive. Hirai-san’s authority and drive, however, eventually prevailed, and Tōhoku Electric spent the extra money to build the 14.8m tsunami wall. Some 40 years later, on March 11, 2011, the 13m tsunami struck the coast at Onagawa.
Special Panel Discussion I: Fukushima Accident, Issues and Lessons
On March 19th, at the Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference in Busan, Korea, Woody was a guest speaker on a special panel session, “Special Panel Discussion I: Fukushima Accident, Issues and Lessons”.
Sumimasen
On March 19th, 2012, I gave a presentation at the Pacific Basin Nuclear Power Conference in Pusan, Korea. In that presentation I used a slide from the ANS Summer meeting in 2011. This slide indicated that a study by TEPCO in 2006 showed that the recurrence frequency of a tsunami greater than 5.7m was higher …
Woody at the PBNC
On March 19th, at the Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference in Busan, Korea, Woody was a guest speaker on a special panel session, ” Special Panel Discussion I: Fukushima Accident, Issues and Lessons”. Click here for the presentation.