Risk Management - Essay Example

Ionising radiations from nuclear power plants ‘can damage DNA, causing cancer and inherited mutations’ (McCoy 2011, p. 41). The risk of mutation and cancer is proportional to exposure to radiation (p. 42). In addition, ‘radiation [can] kill and injure thousands’ and ‘contaminate and render uninhabitable large tracts of land’ (p. 42). Unfortunately, the Fukushima nuclear accident happened because the plant had been designed on the basis of incorrect assumptions about the risks of the region (McCoy 2011, p. 42), in particular, that earthquakes greater than 7.

9 on the Richter scale, and tsunamis higher than 6.7 metres were improbable. According to Takashi Shoji (2011, Slide 10), the highest Tsunami that the plant was designed to withstand was 5.7 metres; clearly, the design had significantly underestimated the risk of tsunamis and earthquakes. The reasons for the underestimation are unclear. The region sits on a number of known geological faults, and it is widely believed that several other faults also lie undetected; indeed, most severe earthquakes originate from these kinds of geological faults (McCoy 2011, p. 42). Moreover, Japan lies on the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental plates meet and create a string of volcanoes and seismic hotspots’ (Furitsu 2011, p. 29); in addition, 20 percent of the world’s major earthquakes have been found to have occurred in Japan (Furitsu 2011, p. 29). There were also risks associated with the reputation of the group who managed the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) did not have a good reputation for transparency and reporting a true picture of risks (Boulton 2011, p. 57). For example, its 2002 safety reports on three nuclear power plants ‘were apparently faked’ (p. 57).