Today at the teacher’s workshop, Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, scientist-in-residence at CNS, discussed nuclear fission and the related nuclear safety issues. We learned that even when a reactor is shut down, which Fukushima power plant operators did when the tsunami hit Japan, fuel remains hot and radioactive for a long period of time.

Ferenc discussed the difference between “criticality incidents” and “non-criticality incidents” at nuclear reactors and examined three case studies: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima.

Questions for teachers to think about in guiding student projects include:

1. What are the similarities in response between the accidents?
2. Given that the political systems were so different, why were there still serious problems in response?
3. How do we improve risk communication during an accident?
4. How do we prevent this from happening again?
5. What is the role of industry? Regulators? Civil society? How do we build trust?