Great East Japan earthquake – the Fukushima accident and implications for the UK nuclear industry
23rd November 2011, EA Technology Ltd, Capenhurst Technology Park, Capenhurst, Chester, CH1 6ES (18:00 start time)
IChemE’s Chester Members Group and Nuclear Technology Subject Group invite you to attend this hot-topic event run jointly with IMechE, IET and ChemicalsNW.
The event is FREE to Chemicals Northwest Members and members of the supporting institutes. A buffet and refreshments are included.
The Great East Japan earthquake of 11 March 2011 was the fourth largest earthquake since 1900. The earthquake and the tsunami it induced killed 15,391 people and 8,171 people are still missing. The estimated total damage is about $250 billion. Infrastructure has been destroyed, there are large scale power cuts, and there are consequential disruptions to the global supply chain in for example cars and electronics. However, it is as the initiator of the world’s second worst nuclear accident, with global ramifications for nuclear power, that the earthquake has received most attention.
The presenters will describe:
– the earthquake and some of its direct effects;
– the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant;
– the lessons for engineers and emergency planners;
– the stress tests applied to both existing nuclear power plants and to Sellafield; and
– the consequences for new nuclear power in the UK from both an engineering and from a government policy perspective. For further details and to book online please click here.
About the speakers
Andrew Coatsworth, Sellafield Ltd, spent almost twenty years in NII (now the Office of Nuclear Regulation), and led NII’s regulation of civil engineering and external hazards aspects of nuclear safety cases, including that of the Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power reactor currently being considered for the UK. During that time Andrew was very active in emergency planning and security aspects, and co-derived the concept of the Intelligent Customer as a regulatory expectation.
Prior to joining NII Andrew led a team to carry out the Sellafield Seismic Damage Assessment as an input to the Sellafield Seismic Site Emergency Plan. In 2011 Andrew joined Sellafield Ltd as Capability Leader for Seismic, External Hazards and Geotechnical Centres of Expertises, and is now contributing to the stress testing of Sellafield, as the company’s response to the Fukushima accident.
Andrew is a Chartered Civil Engineer and a Chartered Geologist.
Alistair Smith, Costain Limited, is the nuclear development director for Costain, one of the UK’s leading nuclear construction companies. Costain is part of the ConstructEnergy consortium currently bidding for nuclear construction contracts in the UK. Alistair is also the chairman of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Power Industries Division and chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association’s Industrial Affairs group. He has been an active member of the nuclear industry for nearly 30 years and has worked on all phases of the nuclear plant lifecycle covering design, construction, operation and decommissioning. He joined Costain earlier this year after working for the respected energy consultancy company Parsons Brinckerhoff and before that he was with the National Nuclear Corporation for 23 years.
