Automation Could Have Saved Fukushima

摘要

The ex-core level measurement will approximate the in-core level only so long as the fuel rods are covered by water. In the previous articles, I described how automation could have prevented the Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents. Now I will do the same for Fukushima, but because of its importance, I will devote more than one article to it. In this first article I will concentrate only on the measurement of the water level in the reactor. If the Fukushima level detectors had operated correctly, and if the operators had flooded the reactors as soon as the earthquake was detected and would have started the venting of the hydrogen as soon as the fuel rods were uncovered, the hydrogen explosions would have been prevented.