Page 38 - July-August 2012
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This article is based on a presentation
by David Farr at the Special WANO
Session at the Atomexpo 2012
Conference in Moscow, Russia on June
4, 2012.
Nuclear
Power After
Fukushima
By David Farr, The World Association of
Nuclear Operators.
David Farr
David Farr is the Director of WANO-
Atlanta Centre. Mr. Farr also serves as
the Vice President of the International
Division for the Institute of Nuclear
Power Operations
(INPO) in Atlanta,
Georgia. He has
held these positions
since January 2009.
In his current
position, Mr. Farr
is responsible
for conducting
peer reviews and
providing support
for 131 operating
nuclear units in the
Atlanta Centre.
Mr. Farr joined
INPO in January
2000 and has
served as Vice
President of Plant
and Corporate Evaluations, manager
of engineering and as a team manager.
Prior to joining INPO, he was employed
by Commonwealth Edison Company.
He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute
of Technology, he holds a bachelor’s
degree in nuclear engineering. Mr.
Farr also holds a master’s degree
in management from Northwestern
University.
The public’s view of nuclear power
has certainly changed since Fukushima.
Not only has the public’s view changed,
but utility operators are looking at their
nuclear operations through a different set
of lenses today.
Overview
This article provides an update on
what the US industry has been doing in
response to the Fukushima accident.
Our response represents a new
perspective. We call it “The Way
Forward.” INPO joined with US Nuclear
Utilities, EPRI (the Electric Power
Research Institute) and NEI (the Nuclear
Energy Institute) developed an integrated
response to the accident for the United
States. The response resulted in some
near term actions and the establishment
of a “diverse and
flexible mitigation
capability.” I will
provide these in
more detail in this
article.
The US is
also
working
on
developing
an
emergency
response plan for
providing not only
technical support,
but also equipment
and
materiel
support. This plan
is envisioned to
integrate
federal,
state and local
governments with
the NRC and Utility response capability.
Finally, I would like to provide
briefly about the Fukushima Forum. This
was a meeting jointly hosted by INPO and
WANO in November of 2011. Over 120
participants from more than 20 countries
participated to share their approach in
response to the accident.
A New Perspective
The US industry gained a new
perspective as a result of the Fukushima
accident. Historically, our view had been
that the best way to prevent a tragic event
like Fukushima was to work to ensure
our plants achieved and maintained high
levels of operational excellence. After
Fukushima we learned that because
of beyond design basis scenarios, just
guaranteeing operational excellence
wouldn’t necessarily prevent a tragic
event. Today we believe that Nuclear
Excellence is the sum of two things:
operational excellence and emergency
response excellence.
As an industry we must be ready for
the unimaginable. Events can occur that
will overwhelm even the largest, most
capable company.
Emergency response must be robust,
and ready to address multiple units,
extreme external event, or the loss of
infrastructure
A US Industry Response
The foundation of the US response
is to confirm what we have and prepare
for the beyond design basis event. We
must build on what has been done to date
including:
Lessons from Three Mile Island
•
–EOPs
Lessons from Chernobyl-SAMGs
•
Lessons of Terrorist attack – B.5.b
•
Safety Culture
•
INPO is working to verify conditions
for stationblackout (SBO), severeaccident
management guidelines (SAMGs,) the
security order B.5.b., flooding, and fire
protection.
Previous Nuclear
Accident Response
Our nuclear response strategy before
Fukushima was focused heavily on
prevention, a minor focus on mitigation, a
somewhat stronger focus on response and
then finally stabilization or recovery.
Future Nuclear Accident
Response
The Electric Power Research Institute
(EPRI) is playing a vital and critical role
in the US response. Specifically EPRI is
leading projects in the following areas:
Updating Bases for Severe Accident
•
Guidelines in collaboration with the
PWR and BWR Owners Groups,
GE-Hitachi, Westinghouse, Areva,
the Nuclear Energy Institute, and
INPO,
Developing guidelines to better
•
characterize and assess risk to a broad
range of external events, commencing
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Nuclear Plant Journal, July-August 2012
