A Questioning
Attitude
By Dale Klein, University of Austin at
Texas.
Dale Klein
Dr. Dale Klein has been associated with
the University of Texas since 1977 in a
variety of administrative and academic
positions as well as a professor of
mechanical engineering (nuclear
program). He served as a presidential
appointee to the Nuclear, Chemical &
Biological Defense Programs at the
Pentagon from 2001
to 2006 and was a
Commissioner of
the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory
Commission from
2006 to 2010
where he served
as Chairman from
2006 to 2009.
Dr. Dale Klein
returned in 2010
as a professor
of mechanical
engineering
(nuclear program)
and as the associate
director of the
Energy Institute at the University of
Texas at Austin. In 2011 he became the
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
at the University of Texas System. He
also serves on the Board of the Southern
Company and Pinnacle West / Arizona
Public Service.
Dr. Klein currently serves as the
Chairman of the Nuclear Reform
Monitoring Committee for the Tokyo
Electric Power Company (TEPCO),
Japan.
Dale Klein’s speech on March 11,
2014 at the Tokyo Foreign Press Center,
Tokyo, Japan.
...Beyond the hospitality that has
been extended to me, and the personal
relationships we have developed, I have
been impressed by the determination of
the Japanese people to meet and over-
come the terrible loss from the Great
Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and the
challenge posed by the accident at Fuku-
shima Daiichi.
At TEPCO, from the most senior
executive to individual workers, one
cannot but be impressed by their
commitment not only to recovery but also
to building a better, safer future.
So, even as we mark the third anni-
versary of the Fukushima accident and
reflect on the intervening years, it is that
future that I want to especially focus
on, as well as the
people who are so
determined to make
it happen. They will
continue to face
many challenges,
and as some recent
experiences dem-
onstrate, improve-
ments must continue
to be made. But it is
future about which
m optimistic, in
part because of the
changes I have seen
at TEPCO, but even
more because of the
growing recognition
I have seen on the
part of Japan’s people that nuclear-gener-
ated power must remain a part of Japan’s
future.
A Japan that tries to survive without
nuclear energy would not be the Japan
of today, and certainly would not be
the thriving, growing, environmentally
responsible Japan that we all want to see
tomorrow.
And we do want to see Japan succeed.
I can tell you from my many discussions
with others in the U.S., and with my
colleagues from other countries such as
Lady Barbara Judge, who is the deputy
chair of our Nuclear Reform Monitoring
Committee, that the world is watching.
And it wants you to succeed because
people understand that if we are to
successfully manage climate change
and reduce our dependence on fossil
fuels, nuclear power will be an important
part of the mix. But they also know that
public confidence in that nuclear power
can be enhanced, or diminished, by what
happens here.
Progress at Fukushima
There has been great progress on
many fronts at Fukushima Daiichi over
these last three years.
The hastily assembled emergency
methods that were being used to cool
reactors in the immediate aftermath of
the accident have given way to safer and
more robust systems. The safe removal
of fuel from the spent fuel pool at Unit
4 was made possible by a combination
of innovative design and meticulous
execution by the workers of TEPCO and
its partners.
And they are making progress,
though not yet enough, on the long-term
challenge posed by groundwater. I remain
concerned about the technical talent to
manage the water issues and the lack of
a long-term plan to the disposition of the
filtered water currently stored in the tanks
at Fukushima.
Progress has also been made in
getting our arms around the main
challenge posed by Fukushima: removal
of the once-molten fuel from Units 1, 2,
and 3.
With all the recent focus on the
management of contaminated water,
and the day-to-day ups and downs
of water leaks, there is a tendency to
divert attention – and resources – from
addressing and solving the main challenge
posed at Fukushima: How do we keep the
molten fuel and the spent fuel cooled and
how do we safely remove molten fuel
from damaged containment vessels? As
most of you know, removing the kind
of molten fuel that exists at Fukushima
Daiichi has never been done before. At
Three Mile Island, the fuel melted but the
containment vessel was not breached.
And at Chernobyl, where there was
no containment vessel for that graphite
reactor, the Soviets just built a concrete
sarcophagus around it...
I do not believe that Japan will
walk away from Fukushima. Everything
I have learned about your values, your
commitment to the environment, and your
determination to meet this challenge tells
me this. Success will come as the result
of many small learnings, and through the
persistence of many individuals acting
44
NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, March-April 2014
