Emergency Response Procedures and Trainings for Nuclear Material Transport Vessels against Earthquakes and Tsunamis

The Great East Japan Earthquake which struck northeastern Japan on 11th March 2011 inflicted enormous damage including at the Tokyo Electric Power Company Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. At that time, Nuclear Fuel Transport (NFT) was unloading Low Level Radioactive Waste containers from a dedicated vessel at a port in the Tohoku area. The port facilities lost power due to earthquake, and the tsunami attacked the port about 30 minutes after the tsunami warning was issued. Thanks to the swift response at the work site, she could evacuate out of the port safely. In order to further enhance the safety of nuclear material transport, NFT together with the electric companies have reviewed the emergency response procedures during earthquakes and tsunamis to incorporate lessons learned from the Earthquake/Tsunami. To allow swift emergency evacuation during future tsunamis, the following major emergency response procedure items were reviewed: - Deliberate procedures for collecting tsunami and earthquake information - Establish a manual for emergency evacuation procedures from ports - Ensure emergency power sources for the cranes in each port In addition, NFT staff in each port have been trained to confirm the effectiveness of the manual for emergency evacuation procedures, the competence of the crew and the operation performance of our vessels. In drill, we assumed that the tsunami warning would be issued during unloading. In addition vessels conducting joint drill worked in cooperation with staff on land in order to assure a safe departure from the port. We have repeated these procedures many times successfully.