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Invasor
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Posts: 7638
Location: On the road
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 Posted: Sun, 1st Apr 2012 19:20 Post subject: Onagawa nuke plant saved from tsunami by one man |
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| Quote: | While the town of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, was hit hard by the March 2011 tsunami, the nuclear plant it shares with the equally devastated city of Ishinomaki survived. The reason it did so, I discovered in a March 7 article in the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper, is mostly down to the personal strength and tenacity of one Yanosuke Hirai, who passed away in 1986.
There is a lot for us to learn from one episode involving Hirai, especially now as "stress tests" on idled nuclear reactors are conducted in a general atmosphere of public distrust. To help us understand Hirai's contribution, I turned to 82-year-old Tatsuji Oshima, who worked under Hirai at Onagawa plant operator Tohoku Electric Power Co.
According to Oshima, Hirai's true value as a person was in his sense of duty that made him "take responsibility for the results of his decisions." He wasn't the sort to believe that everything would be all right "as long as people keep to set standards." Rather, though he paid careful attention to regulations, compliance was never his goal. Hirai was the kind of manager and engineer to exceed regulations and do the checks needed to get to the heart of a problem.
The breakwater that proved so inadequate to the task of protecting the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant from the ocean was 10 meters high. The one defending the Onagawa nuclear plant is 14.8 meters tall, and it turns out Hirai had to fight a one-man war to get it built. The reason he was so determined was his careful study of the past, which revealed that in the year 869 a massive tsunami had hit the spot where the Onagawa plant now stands.
(...)
Hirai was apparently the only person on the entire project to push for the 14.8-meter breakwater, while many of his colleagues said that 12 meters would be sufficient and derided Hirai's proposal as excessive. Hirai's authority and drive, however, eventually prevailed, and Tohoku Electric spent the extra money to build the 14.8-meter-tall shield. Some 40 years later, on March 11, 2011, a 13-meter-high tsunami slammed into the coast at Onagawa.
Another of Hirai's proposals also helped save the plant during the disaster. Expecting the sea to draw back before a tsunami, he made sure the plant's cooling system was designed so it could still draw water for the reactors.
The tsunami that Hirai anticipated came 25 years after his death, and we can say that he was absolutely right. What made him so implacable and gave him such a strong sense of responsibility?
"Corporate ethics and compliance may be similar, but their cores are different," says Oshima from his home in Sendai. "From the perspective of corporate social responsibility, we cannot say that there is no need to question a company's actions just because they are not a crime under the law." |
Source.
I wonder how rare stories like this are, and how unsafe our tech really is...
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MAD_MAX333
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Posts: 7020
Location: Toronto, Canada...eh
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| Posted: Sun, 1st Apr 2012 21:38 Post subject: |
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wow that was a very interesting read man. thank god for that guy... and i think it comes down to money.. however on somethings like a nuclear reactor they should stop nickle and dimeing...
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