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In retrospect: Normal Accidents
Naturevolume 477, pages404–405 (2011)Cite this article
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As Japan strives to overcome the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Nick Pidgeon reflects on Charles Perrow's classic book about why complex technologies fail.
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Nick Pidgeon is professor of applied psychology at Cardiff University, Wales, CF10 3AT, UK.,
Nick Pidgeon
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Correspondence toNick Pidgeon.
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Pidgeon, N. In retrospect: Normal Accidents.Nature477, 404–405 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/477404a
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Francois Diaz Maurin
The fact that the Fukushima accidents are indeed anuclear disaster — in contrast to a natural disaster — should be acknowledged.
This is of importance because, once this is acknowledged, we can focus on the reasons of those accidents (3 distinct core damages, so 3 accidents). It appears that indeed the nuclear industry — being responsible for the design safety — shares a significant responsibility in those accidents. Going further, we can see that those accidents come fromsystemic problems in the reactor design.
This systemic problem in nuclear safety design is briefly discussed on Our Energy Futures:http://ourenergyfutures.org/actualite-nid-1.html
For a more developed discussion, see my article immediately following the accidents:
F. Diaz Maurin, Economic & Political Weekly (Mumbai) Vol. 46, No. 13, pp.10?12 (March 26, 2011). URL:http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/15865.pdf
(article directly accessiblehere )
