Assistant Professor Carmine Cella has been invited to present at the symposium Fukushima 10 years, organized by the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory. Professor Cella's talk will focus on how art and music can transform such dramatic events into creative processes. More information below.
 

Mini-Symposium: Fukushima 10 years

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, the efforts are still under way 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-year 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, environment and society. Lessons learned from the Fukushima accident and its aftermath will drive the future of nuclear energy.

Agenda: March 11th, 2021

1:00 – 1:15pm: Introduction
1:15 – 2:45 pm: Panel Discussion 1: What happened in the Fukushima Daiichi NPP? How have nuclear power plant designs, safety culture, and regulations changed in the past 10 years?

Joy L. Rempe, Naohiro Masuda Bill Kastenberg Per Peterson

Rempe and Associates, LLC Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited University of California Berkeley University of California 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 was the impact on the environment, public health and society? How is the recovery in the past 10 years?

Kai Vetter Kimiaki Saito Paul Dickman Naomi Hirose

University of California, Berkeley Japan Atomic Energy Agency Argonne National Laboratory Tokyo Electric Power Company

Facilitator: Haruko Wainwright, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 4:45 – 5:00 pm: Concluding Remarks, Student Essay Competition