Arragonis -
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Originally Posted by Arragonis
This plant (and all the others in japan) survived the "largest quake recorded ever" and shut down safely. This plant had problems because power from outside needed to keep the cooling systems running failed due to the effects of the wave.
It wasn't actually effected by the wave itself.
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I think I understand the distinction you are trying to make. For instance, the containment vessel was not effected by the wave. However, the health of the reactor depends on the cooling system. No cooling system => meltdown => no reactor. Radiation has not been released to the environment (except to relieve pressue), but all you have left is a pile of radioactive sludge.
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The obvious safety review result is to make sure that the cooling systems have local power provided from generators installed which will probably run on fossil fuels - oil and diesel.
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To my knowledge that is exactly what they had in Fukushima. The design flaw was locating the generators in the basement where they were flooded by the wave. Hindsight tells you to locate them nearby, preferably above a worst-case-scenario tsunami.
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Then of course you have to ensure these backup systems have fuel which has not "gone off" (remember petrol/diesel does not age well so you cannot store it forever) and that they can be replenished before they run out - which means that the local oil storage/refining/importing facility is intact, the tankers/pipelines are still running and the roads are usable.
So it all comes down to oil in the end.
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In the USA they found out that one of the reactors similar to the Fukushima design had backup diesel generators in disrepair for the last 20 years. A safety system suffering from neglect :
How nuclear reactor design played a role in Fukushima crisis - Boing Boing
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Anon(ymous comment)
For everyone who thinks that he regulations in US are better so we shouldn't worry: Fermi 2 Nuclear Plant from Michigan (which is the same exact design as Fukushima), the emergency diesel generators in 2006 were discovered to have not been operable for 20 years. From 1986 to 2006, the emergency diesel generators at Fermi 2 Michigan, wouldn't have been operable if called upon.
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(Apologies for the weak source, but you can confirm this elsewhere)
So it's not just design, it's also oversight.
CarloSW2