earthquakes can teach asset management
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8/3/2019 Earthquakes Can Teach Asset Management
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Japan’s Earthquake Teaches AssetManagement
Recap Of Friday’s Earthquake andTsunami Events
Friday afternoon 80 miles off the coast of Japan,
the 5th largest earthquake since 1900 rockedthe Island nation and then immediately sent a
tsunami across the Pacic Ocean. Combined, the twoevents have left over 3,000 dead, tens of thousandsmore unaccounted for, eradicated coastlines andhave brought Japan to the brink of nuclear disaster.
Some of the facts and statistics behind Japan’shorrifcnatural disaster include:
• The ground shook for 2.5 minutes in com-parison to 15 seconds for the San Franciscoearthquake of 1989
• There have been 240 aftershocks greaterthan 5.0 MMS including a 7.1 MMS, 31 over6.0 MMS. By comparison the devastatingearthquake in Haiti last year was a 7.2 MMS.MMS is the replacement to the Richter scale
• The earthquake released energy equivalent
to 425 megatons of TNT, by contrast thelargest thermonuclear warhead tested wasonly 50 megatons which is approximately 3times a small atomic bomb.
• It is estimated that part of Islands of Japanshifted up to 8 feet on average over 300miles. Japan is about the size of Californiaand 1.5 times as large as Great Britain.
• The Earth’s axis moved approximately 6.5inches
• Over 40,000 buildings damaged or des-troyed by earthquake, tsunami or re in theTohoku region alone. This number couldincrease by 10 times after all areas are sur-veyed.
• The tsunami generated waves in excess of 33 feet and had the entire Pacic Ocean onalert.
• Multiple nuclear energy plants had tsunamicaused power failures causing cooling sys-tems to stop. Normal emergency proceduresshut down 11 of Japan’s 54 reactors withoutmajor incident except for the FukushimaDaiichi plant. Although the Fukushimaplant has already had two explosions aChernobyl type disaster is highly unlikely.
• Almost 2 million people are without poweror water and entire towns have been wipedoff the map.
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Japan’s Earthquake Teaches Asset Management
A Quick Geology Lesson
The Islands of Japan are part of the great Ring of Fire which is an area that surrounds the Pacic
Ocean. The Ring of Fire accounts for 90% of theworld’s earthquakes as well as 75% of the world’svolcanoes. The west coast of the United States andAlaska are part of this very active Ring of Fire.
The reasons for the earthquakes and subsequenttsunamis is that this part of the globe has the mostactive plate tectonics which is the movement and col-lisions of crustal plates. In the simplest of terms, thePacic Ocean is getting smaller as the land massesmove toward each other or slide by each other. Thefriction (stress) caused by this movement builds upand then snaps like a twig when the rock cannotbear any more stress.
The release of energy when theland masses jerkcauses the earth-quakes. Should
the movement occur underwater, the displacement
of earth may causes tremendous energy waves toform (like dropping a ball into a bucket of water).These waves can travel at 500 kilometers an houracross oceans. When the waves approach a landmass, the waves slow down, become compressedand the height of the wave grows resulting in a surgeof water.
The USA and the Ring of Fire
The USA has thousands of miles of coastland onthe Ring of Fire. Earthquakes have rattled Califor-nia, Washington and Alaska since records startedbeing kept. In fact the 1964 earthquake near PrinceWilliam Sound is the second largest recorded since1900 as it measured 9.2 MMS with a TNT equivalentof 948 megatons. By comparison, the 1906 San Fran-cisco was estimated to be about an 8 MMS.
The major difference between the Japan and theUSA is that the geology is different, with most ear-thquakes occurring on land making the likelihoodof a tsunami far less likely. The similarity is thatthe west coast has nuclear power plants that canbe impacted by earthquakes.
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Japan’s Earthquake Teaches Asset Management
What USA Nuclear Plants CanLearn from Japan
There is a lot of misinformation about the impactof the earthquake in Japan’s nuclear plants. Earlyreports had a potential meltdown occurring, laterreports indicate that although damaged the nuclearplants are following emergency protocols and undercontrol. The biggest problem seems to be occurring
at one of the Fukushima plants that has seen seve-ral explosions in the outermost shell over the lastfew days.
Despite the confusion over the information avai-lable to the outside world, Japan has actually reactedvery well and experts on Boiling Water Reactorsindicate there is no danger of a nuclear explosion.Two excellent resources are
There are no man-made structures on earth built towithstand 425 megatons of TNT explosive energy.Anything at ground zero when this much energyis released is history. Similarly, a wall of water candestroy even the best built buildings. When a naturaldisaster of this magnitude occurs there is going tobe extreme damage and casualties.
How Japan Minimized Earthquake
Disaster Impact
The best any country can do is to be as best preparedas possible for disasters. Preparation was the key toavoiding deaths upward of 100,000 or even a milliondeaths. Preparation is the reason the power plantsand other buildings were not destroyed.
Top 5 Reasons Japan is better prepared than the
USA
1. Early warning systems.
“Seismometers detect the rst shockwave…Computers analyze the wave and estimate howpowerful the second one will be…If that waveis estimated to be more powerful than a certainthreshold (greater than 5 on the local scale),
an alert is issued… It is simple enough, but itis a critical step so that companies, utilities,petrochemical plants, rail operators and otherscan shut down facilities and minimize damage.Make no mistake the warning is issued mereseconds before the earthquake actually occurs.But it is just enough to make a difference forthose further away from the seismic center aswell as initiate a ripple effect across the globe. “
Source: Smart Planet
1. Practice and drilling of emergency actionplans. Japan was able to issue shutdownorders to all nuclear plants within just a fewminutes.
2. System redundancy. Japan’s nuclear powerplants have multiple levels of redundancythat should prevent total system failures of aging utility plants.
3. Stricter building standards, buildings aredesigned to withstand earthquakes of higher magnitudes by incorporating spe-
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Japan’s Earthquake Teaches Asset Management
cial dampening systems, spring systems aswell as other technologies to reduce seismicwave susceptibility.
4. Nuclear Power plant assets are added regu-larly in Japan versus the USA which has notbegun building a new nuclear reactors since1974. Older assets require more preventivemaintenance and are not built as well asnew assets.
The Enterprise Asset ManagementConnection
Mother Nature cannot be beat, however, an EAM can help provide the system tools needed to shutdown quickly, restart faster as well as minimizethe loss of life. It works by creating a database of assets that gives utility, municipal and plant mana-gers complete knowledge of where their assets areand what condition they are in.
Asset management starts by collecting asset detailsuch as location, description, serial number, vendorand maintenance history so that asset managersalways know where their assets are and in whatcondition they are in. This information is then usedto create inspection and maintenance checkliststhat can be used for:
Pre Earthquake Preparation
Asset and procedure checklist can be used for emer-gency drills as well as to make sure redundant assetsare secure or functioning properly. By schedulingthe inspection of assets on a regular basis there isless chance of having an asset fail at a crucial timedue to aging.
Earthquake Alarm
Most notable is the shutdown checklist (time al-lowing)
Handling the Earthquake Aftermath with
an EAM
After an earthquake, inspection checklist can beused to identify damaged, destroyed or missingassets. An EAM will help organize and automatework management including the scheduling of re-pairs, replacement of assets. Work is accomplishedfaster by eliminating paper ow through the use of
handheld mobile devices.
Similar articles include:
Our hearts go out to those affected by this terribleevent. Do you want help the earthquake victims? TheAmerican Red Cross is accepting donations eitheronline or via text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10from your phone.
disaster management, EAM, energy
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