Post-Fukushima safety enhancements

摘要

March 11 will mark the 10-year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi event, when a 45-foot tsunami, caused by the 9.0-magnitude Great Tohoku Earthquake, significantly damaged the reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In response to this event, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission took actions to evaluate and mitigate beyond-design-basis events, including a new requirement for the staging of so-called Flex equipment, as well as changes to containment venting and improvements to emergency preparedness. The U.S. Department of Energy also addressed beyond-design-basis events in its documented safety analyses. In 2019, the NRC promulgated the new rule, 10 CFR 50.155, Mitigation of Beyond-Design-Basis Events (Federal Register, August 9,2019), to establish regulatory requirements for nuclear power reactor applicants and licensees to mitigate beyond-design-basis events. A detailed description of the post-Fukushima safety enhancements, which is beyond the scope of this article, is available on the NRC public website.