In March 2011 Japan suffered one of the worst natural disasters in its history when a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country. This led to a serious nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi site with repercussions felt across the international community.
Mike Weightman, then Chief Inspector of nuclear installations and head of the Office for Nuclear Regulation, reported on the implications for the UK nuclear industry following a request from the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
On this webpage you will find the Fukushima reports and associated news as well as information about 'Stress Tests' carried out in the wake of events at Fukushima.
Reports
- Progress in implementing the lessons learnt from the Fukushima accident (February 2016)
- Progress in implementing the lessons learnt from the Fukushima accident (October 2014)
- Final report
- Implementation report
- Interim report on the Japanese earthquake and tsunami: Implications for the UK nuclear industry
Government response to Dr Weightman's report on Fukushima
Charles Hendry, Minister of State for Energy, made a Written Ministerial Statement to the House on 1 December to announce the Governments response to Mike Weightman's final report on Fukushima.
National action plans - reports to ENSREG
This report is the UK's Regulators National Action Plan (NAcP) for implementation of post Fukushima lessons learned produced in response to ENSREG's Action Plan.
It provides details of the current status and, where appropriate, the planned completion time of each individual item under points for each individual item from ENSREG's compilation of recommendations and suggestions.
'Stress tests'
In the wake of events at Fukushima, on 24-25 March 2011 the European Council EC requested a review of safety at all European nuclear power plants (NPP) and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) produced a specification and a plan for this review based on preliminary work carried out by the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA). The reviews are commonly referred to as the 'stress tests'. Every nuclear power generating country in Europe agreed to carry out safety stress tests under request of the European Council. The tests, completed by licensees, involve a targeted reassessment of each stations safety margins in light of extreme natural events, such as earthquake and tsunami.
Given that the European Council stress tests only focus on NPPs HM Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations decided to extend the stress test process to all other licensed nuclear installations within the UK.