This book—the culmination of a truly collaborative international and highly interdisciplinary effort—brings together Japanese and American political scientists, nuclear engineers, historians, and ...physicists to examine the Fukushima accident from a new and broad perspective. It explains the complex interactions between nuclear safety risks (the causes and consequences of accidents) and nuclear security risks (the causes and consequences of sabotage or terrorist attacks), exposing the possible vulnerabilities all countries may have if they fail to learn from this accident. The book further analyzes the lessons of Fukushima in comparative perspective, focusing on the politics of safety and emergency preparedness. It first compares the different policies and procedures adopted by various nuclear facilities in Japan and then discusses the lessons learned—and not learned—after major nuclear accidents and incidents in other countries in the past. The book's editors conclude that learning lessons across nations has proven to be very difficult, and they propose new policies to improve global learning after nuclear accidents or attacks.
•Disaster recovery in Futaba County, Fukushima, socially and ecologically complex.•Analysis of ecosystem services in municipal recovery plans of Futaba County.•Cultural ecosystem services significant ...in restoring sense of pride post-disaster.•Traditional ecosystem practices may balance participation with technical approaches.•Need technical competence post-disaster to realise nature-based solution benefits.
This research evaluates the contribution of nature-based solutions to urban resilience in post-disaster situations. Post-disaster recovery planning is an opportunity to ‘build back greener’ by fostering ecosystem approaches towards social and ecological resilience. Yet understanding of specific post-disaster resilience benefits which nature-based solutions provide is still emerging. This paper contributes to this field through evaluation of how ecosystem approaches bring resilience benefits in Futaba County, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. Content analysis is undertaken on disaster recovery plans produced by the 8 municipalities in Futaba County. The ecosystem services included in each plan are identified, as well as the extent to which municipalities are capable of assessing the services provided. This is supplemented with insights from field visits and wider documentation produced by the municipalities. The analysis shows that cultural ecosystem services feature especially strongly within the plans, and that these cultural services are critical to recovering sense of identity and pride post-disaster. However, the analysis also indicates that municipalities may lack the technical competence to assess ecosystem services, especially in a post-disaster setting where resources are stretched. One implication from the research is the need for further consideration in other empirical contexts of how cultural services – especially citizen participation – can be integrated with more technical approaches to post-disaster ecosystem management. A second implication is that whilst ecosystem approaches offer post-disaster resilience benefits, these should be an aid to recovery and not a substitute for long-term support from national governments.
Countries around the world continue to implement safety improvements and corrective actions based on lessons learnt from the 11 March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This ...report provides a high-level summary and update on these activities, and outlines further lessons learnt and challenges identified for future consideration. It focuses on actions taken by NEA committees and NEA member countries, and as such is complementary to reports produced by other international organisations.
Defence in depth (DiD) is a concept that has been used for many years alongside tools to optimise nuclear safety in reactor design, assessment and regulation. The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power ...plant accident provided unique insight into nuclear safety issues and raised questions about the tools used at nuclear power plants, including the effectiveness of the DiD concept, and whether DiD can be enhanced and its implementation improved. This report is intended primarily for nuclear regulatory bodies, although information included herein is expected to be of interest to licensees, nuclear industry organisations and the general public.
In Odaka, a town affected by the nuclear disaster, the number of buildings was reduced compared to before the disaster. The tendency of the transformation of vacant lots after demolition is ...influenced by the structure of the town center. After the evacuation order lifted, there were several efforts to care vacant lots as gardens. In addition, weeding of lots owned by absentee landlords is being carried out by self-governance association, weeding company and volunteers. Residents have expanded the scope of care to vacant lots that they do not own in response to changes in the physical environment of the town.
This open access book presents the findings from on-site research into radioactive cesium contamination in various agricultural systems affected by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident ...in March 2011. This fourth volume in the series reports on studies undertaken at contaminated sites such as farmland and forests, focusing on soil, water, mountain, agricultural products, and animals. It also provides additional data collected in the subsequent years to show how the radioactivity levels in agricultural products and their growing environments have changed with time and the route by which radioactive materials entered agricultural products as well as their movement between different components (e.g., soil, water, and trees) within an environmental system (e.g., forests). The book covers various topics, including radioactivity testing of food products; decontamination trials for rice and livestock production; the state of contamination in, trees, mushrooms, and timber; the dynamics of radioactivity distribution in paddy fields and upland forests; damage incurred by the forestry and fishery industries; and the change in consumers’ attitudes. In the series of this book, a real-time radioisotope imaging system has been introduced, a pioneering technique to visualize the movement of cesium in soil and in plants. This is the only book to provide systematic data on the actual change of radioactivity, which is of great value to all researchers who wish to understand the effect of radioactive fallout on agriculture. In addition, it helps the general public better understand radio-contamination issues in the environment. The project is ongoing; the research groups from the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences of The University of Tokyo continue their work in the field further to evaluate the long-term effects of the Fukushima accident.
Before the Fukushima disaster unfolded in 2011, Japanese government and energy company officials were aware of the warning signs and risks of a potential crisis at the reactor site. They failed to ...use safety mechanisms or update regulations over time to address the vulnerabilities of the power plants. Because interest groups had led the public to believe the power plants were completely safe, the plants were run with little accountability. Following this disaster, Japan established a new nuclear regulatory commission and nuclear regulatory authority in and implemented new regulatory mechanisms. These efforts have been limited, however, and have shifted the issue from regulation to implementation. The enormous cost of meeting new safety protocols has created new barriers for restarting the power plants under updated regulations, but the energy demands of the country will remain. The tension between managing operational risks and meeting public energy needs will test the public and private sectors' ability to sufficiently revamp the nuclear industry and prevent crises in years to come.
Introduction Japanese Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) are pivotal in disaster response, especially during nuclear crises. The objective of this study was to identify factors associated with ...anxiety among Japanese DMAT personnel when handling contaminated patients during nuclear disasters. Materials and methods In this cross-sectional study, 609 Japanese DMAT members from Kyushu and Okinawa, Japan, were surveyed. Multivariate binomial logistic regression was used to determine anxiety predictors. Results Of the 276 respondents, 77.2% expressed anxiety about managing contaminated patients. Women and younger team members expressed the highest level of anxiety associated with handling contaminated patients during nuclear disasters. Conclusion This study revealed heightened anxiety among female and younger Japanese DMAT personnel regarding the handling of contaminated patients during nuclear disasters. Targeted training addressing these concerns is essential for effective disaster response.
Responses to trauma can involve complex meaning-making processes and the perception of ambiguous threats. This study sought to explore response trajectories to a nuclear disaster and their ...intertwining courses with ecological factors (Trajectories intertwining with Life—TiL) from adolescence onward among a non-evacuated population. Four women and four men (mean age 20) who were adolescents during the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima (mean age 14), and who grew up outside the restricted zone participated in the study. Semi-structured life story interviews were conducted in the form of in-depth qualitative inquiries. A holistic analysis was employed to identify the TiL patterns following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in the overall context of the stories and to reveal important themes throughout adolescence. Four TiL patterns were found: three trajectories corresponding with those identified in prior research and one newly identified trajectory. The perceived, distal, and continuous threat of radiation played a central role in all patterns and exerted secondary impacts throughout the lives of non-evacuated adolescents. The study’s implications shed light on rarely studied response trajectories to ambiguous Potentially Traumatic Events (PTEs) throughout adolescence and point out the benefits of using a life story approach to this end for the first time.
PDF
