In early 2011, an earthquake hit the Northeastern part of Japan and tsunami ensued. The tsunami breached a nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company at Fukushima Daiichi. The damage caused to the plant ignited interest in safety of nuclear power plants. In the United States, the electricity generation industry conducted in depth reviews of the Fukushima disaster in order to fortify its nuclear plants from similar misfortunes. Based on the findings established from the review, nuclear plants have taken measures in the last five years to ramp up safety. To verify the safety of nuclear plants in the country, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted a rigorous check on all plants in the country and declared them safe (Wheeler par.3). However, the commission felt that there was need to ensure that the plants could withstand natural catastrophes more severe than the tsunami. As a result, a set of safety regulations referred to as flexible coping capability, or simply FLEX, were recommended. The FLEX safety regulations are based on lessons learnt from the Fukushima incident and they provide efficient and effective guidelines that enhance the safety nuclear plants in case they are affected by natural disasters.
The FLEX approach to safety in nuclear power plants
The FLEX safety strategy addresses all the challenges faced in the Fukushima plant due to the tsunami. The response strategy is named FLEX because it provides for backup equipment that can be used for various applications as opposed to traditional safety equipment that are only applicable to a given safety application (Fukushima Response par.3). The FLEX in an improvement of the multilayered safety systems and is intended to counter any unforeseen safety issue that can arise due to abnormal activities.
The major safety challenge faced at Fukushima was the failure of the cooling system due to power loss. To prevent a similar problem in plants in the United States, plants have been equipped with additional cooling equipment. These include diesel generators to act as power backup in case power fails and diesel driven pumps that do not require electrical energy for operation. Other equipment includes ventilation fans, hose pipes, cables, fittings, battery banks and their charging systems, and satellite communication gear (Fukushima Response par.4). The FLEX equipment is positioned on separate locations on a plant away from the normal multilayered facility equipment to ensure that they can be accessed even if the plant is compromised.
The FLEX approach is aims at supplementing traditional safety equipment in a nuclear plant with portable equipment that can be brought to the site within a short time after an accident has occurred. Also, the design of the FLEX program is site specific and varies from plant to plant. As such, the type of safety equipment and measures taken in a given nuclear plant depends on the nuclear reactor design and the type of radiation containment used. Other considerations include the environmental factors around the plant such as the terrain, presence and the nature of a water body, and the climatic conditions in the region. The environmental conditions determine the likelihood of floods, earthquakes, or storms that can destroy a nuclear power plant (Fukushima Response par.3). Figure 1 below depicts a nuclear plant with FLEX equipment positioned on and off the plant site.
Figure 1: Image showing the showing the safety provisions of the FLEX program in nuclear power plants. Source: Nuclear Energy Institute.
FLEX preparedness by companies in the United States
In the United States, almost all of the nuclear plants have embraced the FLEX safety system. Also, those plants that have not implemented the safety programs have scheduled to have it in place by the end of 2016. Adoption of the FLEX program entails installing the onsite equipment and training the plant workers on the use and integration of the safety equipment in addressing emergency situations (FLEX: The Industry Strategy to Enhance Safety par.4). The FLEX program is subject to ongoing evaluation and has provisions for revisions to update it on hazards arising from seismic activities and severe flooding.
The FPL Fukushima response committee’s spokesperson, Rudy Gill, asserted that his team focused on the lessons that they could learn from the Daiichi plant to improve safety on the plants operated by the firm. The team wanted to ensure that its nuclear plants would withstand extreme external conditions such as the ones witnessed in Japan. On the other hand, PSEG Nuclear Fukushima response team focused on acquisition of FLEX equipment for installation in the company’s plants. PSEG Nuclear Company opted to store and install the equipment on various locations to protect it from damage that may arise from floods or seismic activity (FLEX: The Industry Strategy to Enhance Safety par.5). The different storage locations would ensure that if one set of equipment got damaged, an alternative set was available for use.
Conclusion
The diverse and flexible (FLEX) approach to nuclear power plant safety is derived from lessons learned from the Daiichi plant. The Fukushima plant was hit by a tsunami that was occasioned by an earthquake. The plant lost power, which impaired the cooling system causing the reactor to melt. The FLEX approach is to improve nuclear power plant safety in case of natural disasters which cause the loss of power. FLEX equipment are therefore aimed at delivering power and water to the reactor as an alternative to the traditional cooling system. The equipment used to achieved this include diesel generators and diesel pumps, battery banks complete with charging systems, and other supporting equipment such as hoses cables. The equipment are mounted or stored in a separate location from the plant to avoid then likelihood of damage by natural agent, such as floods, present on the plant location. The FLEX equipment is a backup to the traditional cooling equipment in a nuclear power plant reactor and is used to prevent overheating and possible radiation leakage.
Works Cited
“FLEX: The Industry Strategy to Enhance Safety.” Safety First. Nuclear Energy Institute, 2011. Web. 22 April 2016.
“Fukushima Response.” Nuclear Energy Institute. n.p. 2015. Web. 22 April 2016.
“Operators of U.S. Nuclear Energy Facilities Use FLEX Strategy to Respond to Fukushima.” Safety First. Nuclear Energy Institute, 2011. Web. 22 April 2016.
Wheeler, Timothy. “Nuclear plants gear up with FLEX to prevent disaster.” The Baltimore Sun. LUSBY, 5 June 2015.
