Active Faults and Nuclear Regulation - Background to Requirement Enforcement in Japan

This book reviews the active faults around nuclear power plants in Japan and recommends an optimal method of nuclear power regulation controlled by the Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan. The active faults around nuclear power plants have been underestimated in Japan since the latter half of the 20th century. However, based on the lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, the book sheds light on why the risks of active faults were underestimated, and discusses the optimal scientific method of assessing those risks. Further, the author shares his experiences in the new standard for nuclear regulation creation team and in the active fault survey at the Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan. This book is a valuable resource for students, researchers, academic and policy-makers, as well as non-experts interested in nuclear safety.

Yasuhiro Suzuki is a professor at the Disaster Mitigation Research Center of Nagoya University, Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1984 and received a doctoral degree in 1992. He joined Nagoya University as an assistant professor, and then moved to Aichi prefectural University and worked as a lecturer, and then an associate professor there. He was appointed to his current position in 2004. Yasuhiro Suzuki is currently a member of the Science Council of Japan and a member of the long-term evaluation subcommittee of the Earthquake Research Committee of Japan, and joined the regulation standard creation team of the Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan (NRA) as an external expert. His main research interest is tectonic geomorphology research on active faults and tectonics.