Fukushima: There Are Lessons to Be Learnt, on Both Sides

Abstract: On Friday March 11, at 2.46pm (5.46am GMT), an earthquake of magnitude between 8.9 and 9.1 (Richter scale) hit the superficial submarine crust, about 10 km below sea level and about 120 km south-east of the east coast of Japan. Minutes later, a tsunami wave of up to 10 m reached the north-east coast of Japan. Less than two hours later, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced that over 4 million households were without power because of the quake-induced power generation and transmission failures. In particular, TEPCO stated that units 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and units 1 to 4 at Fukushima Daini stopped automatically because of the quake. This was the beginning of the worst nuclear accident of the last two decades (the Tschernobyl tragedy dates back to 1986).