Synopsis
The consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in March 2011 sparked a debate about the nuclear safety. While releases of large amounts of radioactive materials resulted in no casualties due to radiation, the impact particularly on local communities is substantial and manifold. Although local communities want to be ensured that effective actions are being taken to allow them to go back to their normal life as early as possible, the lack of understanding for the transport of radioisotopes in the environment and eventually the uptake in humans as well as in the biological effects of low dose radiation has made it difficult for various stakeholders to develop concerted efforts to accelerate recovery. These challenges are compounded by the eroded public trust for government and operators.
To address this need, currently, a new multi-disciplinary initiative is carried out by scientists at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to provide the necessary guidance for effective assessment and remediation efforts, and to provide trusted, un-biased and nuclear-industry-independent perspective to build trust with local and global communities. UC Berkeley and LBNL have world-leading expertise and capabilities in measuring and assessing the distribution of relevant radioisotopes, in modeling and predicting their interactions and transport, and to ultimately estimate and mitigate their impact on the environment and human health.
In order to achieve a resilient society, society’s exogenous and endogenous conditions and needs prior to, during, and following a disaster must be appropriately responded while monitoring changes in conditions and varied needs for resilience born by different stakeholders with a suite of appropriate performance measures. Public participation and feedback must be implemented not only for determining a right set of measures but also in planning engineering design and risk management. Mines Paris Tech has been actively developing an innovative approach, called “Resilience Engineering,” as a new paradigm of safety, focusing on interactions and integrations of engineering efforts with a society.
Based on such on-going initiatives, there are two emerging questions: (1) how integration between understanding for natural scientific processes and understanding for a society at different scales and regions can be achieved for the objective of accurate monitoring, and then ultimately (2) how such accurate monitoring and public participation can and should be integrated in decision-making processes for achieving a resilient society.
To address such questions and to develop a research plan, we plan to host a two-day international workshop, as titled above. In this workshop, first, we share various observations about "damages" in a severe nuclear accident, and then address the central questions: How can we utilize knowledge of natural science and engineering in monitoring system’s exogenous and endogenous conditions with a suite of performance measures that reflect different needs of resilience by different stakeholders after an accident, and in developing recipes that enable a resilient society? The discussion will focus on (1) state of the art for measurement methodologies and (2) challenges that must be overcome. Then, on the second day, three roundtable sessions are arranged to identify and discuss future research questions.
To address this need, currently, a new multi-disciplinary initiative is carried out by scientists at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to provide the necessary guidance for effective assessment and remediation efforts, and to provide trusted, un-biased and nuclear-industry-independent perspective to build trust with local and global communities. UC Berkeley and LBNL have world-leading expertise and capabilities in measuring and assessing the distribution of relevant radioisotopes, in modeling and predicting their interactions and transport, and to ultimately estimate and mitigate their impact on the environment and human health.
In order to achieve a resilient society, society’s exogenous and endogenous conditions and needs prior to, during, and following a disaster must be appropriately responded while monitoring changes in conditions and varied needs for resilience born by different stakeholders with a suite of appropriate performance measures. Public participation and feedback must be implemented not only for determining a right set of measures but also in planning engineering design and risk management. Mines Paris Tech has been actively developing an innovative approach, called “Resilience Engineering,” as a new paradigm of safety, focusing on interactions and integrations of engineering efforts with a society.
Based on such on-going initiatives, there are two emerging questions: (1) how integration between understanding for natural scientific processes and understanding for a society at different scales and regions can be achieved for the objective of accurate monitoring, and then ultimately (2) how such accurate monitoring and public participation can and should be integrated in decision-making processes for achieving a resilient society.
To address such questions and to develop a research plan, we plan to host a two-day international workshop, as titled above. In this workshop, first, we share various observations about "damages" in a severe nuclear accident, and then address the central questions: How can we utilize knowledge of natural science and engineering in monitoring system’s exogenous and endogenous conditions with a suite of performance measures that reflect different needs of resilience by different stakeholders after an accident, and in developing recipes that enable a resilient society? The discussion will focus on (1) state of the art for measurement methodologies and (2) challenges that must be overcome. Then, on the second day, three roundtable sessions are arranged to identify and discuss future research questions.
Organizers
Department of Nuclear Engineering, UC Berkeley | Center for Japanese Studies, UC Berkeley
Institute for Resilient Communities, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | MINES ParisTech
Sponsor
Resilience Engineering Research Center, University of Tokyo
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