The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

Major Nuclear Reactor Accidents Presentation Series, presentation 3

with Jeremiah Noser-Muñoz and Devlin Harvey
Friday, May 2 2025, 10:00 am
6-051 VTRC, Arlington 
440 Goodwin Hall, Blacksburg

In March 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was struck by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami, resulting in the second largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The lasting ramifications brought changes to the nuclear industry internationally relating to regulations and operational procedures. The accident has served as a learning opportunity to improve safety standards and regulatory frameworks and to gain a better understanding from previous mistakes. This presentation focuses on the reactor technology, accident timeline, evaluations of mitigation efforts, regulatory effects, health/environmental impacts, and social repercussions.

Jeremiah Noser-Muñoz is a first-year master’s student in the Nuclear Engineering program at Virginia Tech. He also obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Virginia Tech, with minors in Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering. He has been conducting research in the Multiphase Flow & Thermal-hydraulics Laboratory (MFTL) under Dr. Yang Liu since the Fall 2022 semester. His research focuses on machine learning applications for two-phase flow, mainly concerning droplet detection in annular flow. He also works as an intern at Jensen Hughes and provides safety analysis and probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) for nuclear plants around the world.

Devlin Harvey is a second-year master’s student in Nuclear Engineering. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Tech. His advisor is Dr. Yang Liu, and he has worked in Dr. Liu’s lab for over three years. His research focuses on x-ray densitometry and the measurement of film thicknesses in two-phase annular flows. He will defend his thesis on May 12th. Following his defense, he will attend the University of Tennessee as a part of the Bredesen Center, a collaboration between UT and Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), where he aims to work on nuclear fusion blankets.