March 18, 2011

Nucclear Crrisis folloowing Toohoku Pa
acific Occean Earrthquakee
Ourr Respon
nsePresideent

Yonnezo Tsujiikura

We offeroour deeepest cond
dolences to all those affected
aby the tragic chain of events
followwing the deevastating earthquake
eand tsunam
mi that stru
uck Tohoku region on MarchM
11, 2011.
a Dai-ichi andaDai-ni Nuclear PowerP
Plantts have beeen stupend
douslyThe Fukushima
aged by thee 9.0-magnittude massiv
ve earthqua
ake and subbsequent tsu
unami.
damai operationn were autoomatically shutdowns
a designed,, and emerg
asgency
Theirr reactors indieseel generatorrs were putt into motioon. However, they weere soon stopped and alla AC
poweer sources werew
lost, inncluding off
ff-site powerrs. Despite the furthest effort too cool
the reactor corres and restore theirr safety funnctions, larrge amoun
nt of radioa
activeposing gen
neral publicc andmateerials have been releeased into the environment, exp
invollved partiess to radiatioon.
hese situatiions and in accordance
e with the prrovisions off Article 15 ofo theIn reesponse to th
Act on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency
y Preparedness, the primepeand more than 200,0000 people wereminister declarred a nucleear power emergency,
ain indoors oro evacuatee.
orderred to remathitt Fukushim
ma Dai-ichi Nuclear
NPower Plant b
beyond estimmate;
The disastrous tsunami
nitude of th
he colossal quakeq
is larrger than thet original estimate aand the heig
ght ofmagn
tsuna
ami observeed in neighbboring city ofo Soma excceeded 7.3 m.
mn the unavaailability of emergency diesel geneerator as weell as emerg
gencyThis resulted ino seawaterr for coolinng purposess. This meeant that parts
pof saffety functio
ons touse of“shuttdown,” “coool,” and “coontain” werre unavailab
ble. Speciffically, the losses of cooolingfuncttions have led to seriously damaaging situa
ations, inclu
uding the fu
fuel rods fa
ailure.
Furthermore, not only the fuels conta
ained in thee reactor coore but alsoo those storred inhbeen damaged.
dspent fuel pool haveve been ma
ade to reducce the presssure inside the contain
nment
Moreeover, whilee efforts hav
vesseel, concernss for the “coontainment” function against
araddioactive ma
aterials/ray havealso emerged.
Also, rea
actor build
dings housing contain
nment vessels have been
upted by sev
veral hydrogen explosiions.
corru

Much
h are left too be dealt withw
in severral technica
al fields, inccluding colllecting/anallyzing
inforrmation, giv
ving approp
priate advices, and offe
ering usefull informatioon to the ge
eneralpubliic. To pulll these thin
ngs togetheer, each meember of thhe AESJ h
has been se
ervinghis/hher roles witth all sincerrity.
mples includ
de our expeert groups working
wfor the “Team 110”1, launnched in 201
10 forExam
the purpose ofo clarifyin
ng crucial informatio
on, and th
he continu
ual update
es onnical inform
mation. Wh
henever requested, we will continnue toradiooactivity-rellated technoffer our guidan
nce to the utmost
uexteent, as welll as our con
ntribution tto the socieety bynizing, and analyzing informationin on radioacctivity, eartthquake, annd thecolleccting, organway incidents happened.
h the lessons learned frrom these events, proposals and recommenda
ations need to beWith
refleccted on thetmeasurres/policies of releva
ant institu
utions and administrrative
organnizations. We are committed too offering fu
urthest sup
pport with our expertiise inacademic and teechnical fiellds.
nced commu
unications, we strive tto provide meansm
Throoughout theese activities and enhan
for thhe society too better undderstand nu
uclear energ
gy.
w continue to support all concerned partiess who have beenb
makin
ng every posssible
We willeffort to get thhings undeer control. Also, we would likee to expresss our hea
artfelt
pathy for all those whoo have been forced to ev
vacuate theeir homes.
symp
h acknowled
dge Fukush
hima nuclea
ar crisis as the worst nuclear dissaster in history.
WithAccordingly, meembers of th
he AESJ in various fiellds has joineed togetherr to deal witth thew
the recconstructionn of fundam
mentals of safetyssystem, since nu
uclearcrisiss, starting withenerg
gy has prov
ved itself th
he indispen
nsable technnology soluttion for eneergy issues.. We
herebby express our new resolutionr
to continue to serve our roles ass contributo
ors toeconoomic develoopment.

1

Noote: “Team 110” is th
he group ofo experts established
d in the P
Public RelaationsCommittee of th
he AESJ to offer
oreadilyy available assistance to disseminnate indepen
ndent
opiniions and informationn for acute emergency
y at nucleear facilitiees (has bee
en in
opera
ation since February 2010).
2