Quake/Tsunami

[tw]

From the NY Times of 19 Mar 2011 is a perfect example of why 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. Especially when management has no idea how the work gets done. Or in this case, how a nuclear reactor works.

Executives May Have Lost Valuable Time at Damaged Nuclear Plant
Nuclear experts said that executives thought they had enough time because the reactors had shut down automatically after the earthquake, and that they did not realize the risk posed by the spent fuel rods, which are highly radioactive and still emitting heat. ...
They failed to cool the reactors on the day of the earthquake, March 11, and even after a hydrogen explosion the following day, they waited more than four hours to start dousing the reactors with seawater. They did not even try to put water into the spent fuel pools for several days. ...
a former senior operator at a Pennsylvania power plant with General Electric reactors ... the crucial question is whether Japanese officials followed G.E.'s emergency operating procedures. Those procedures are "crystal clear" on how to determine when reactors should be flooded, ...
The procedures prescribe specific actions based on variables like reactor temperature and pressure, data Tepco has not yet released.
A former Tepco executive told The Wall Street Journal on Saturday that the company had hesitated to ruin the plant with seawater. A Tepco spokesman told The Journal that the company, "taking the safety of the whole plant into consideration, was trying to judge the appropriate timing to use seawater."

And what point does MBA thinking become obvious? Required actions were obvious had decisions come from where the work gets done.

"They could have reacted earlier, but this is a relative thing,” he said, pointing out that they were focused on the reactors rather than the spent fuel pools. "Economically, it is tough to decide to use seawater."

Logically it was a simple decision. Again why top people must come from where the work gets done - not from the finance department, educated in economics, from business schools, or the public affairs office.

Though partial fuel melting has already occurred in each reactor, ...

and still some insist no melting happened. First melting was all but obvious on Saturday.

All four plants lose power on Friday. All except battery power that was available for less than one day. No problem. New wires can be connected in one-half day. But bean counters in top TEPCO management needed six days to make a decision. Sounds just like the George Jr administration.

Nuclear failures directly traceable to humans who did not do their job.

The fuel rods that were in active use and the spent fuel stored at the facility will take years to completely cool and will require watering for years to stay under control.

Knowledge learned even from Three Mile Island. Had those TMI damaged pumps failed anytime that first year, then nothing was available to avert a Fukushima event. A lesson about how close Pennsylvania came to a serious nuclear event. And how much worse Three Mile Island 2 could have been had Carter and an NRC director not taken that plant away from incompetent management at Metropolitan Edison. An example of how responsible top management does its job.

85% of the time. TEPCO management is another example of stupidity that was also directly traceable to top management after Katrina. (So dumb as to go to a campaign fund raiser in Southern CA and then to John McCain's birthday party as people were dying in New Orleans.) What happens when top management comes from business schools (as George Jr was educated). Or remains in denail like a Catholic Church Cardinal. In all cases, top people should be making public aplogizes for not doing their jobs. And resigning.

Fukushima is another trophy repeatedly proven in history. 85% of all problems are directly traceable to people educated in lying about their incompetance.

TEPCO management will blame any and everything but themselves. The GE operation procedures were clear. But it might increase costs. So they did what any bean counter type would do. Hesitate. Even take six days to decide to connect new wires.