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SPEAKER 1: For me, there
are three big lessons
to learn right now from
the Japan situation.
The first is that we need
to think about follow
on consequences, as well
as the primary event.
In Japan, the nuclear
power plant situation
is a follow on consequence of
the earthquake and tsunami.
And what that means is,
for planning purposes,
for preparedness,
we need to think
about the follow on events
that could be closely tied
to the primary or
initiating events.
With respect to a power
plant, for example,
we need to think about
loss of power as a follow
on to an earthquake
and a tsunami.
The second big lesson learned
is that sometimes, it's
the simplest technology that
can come back to bite you.
In Japan, with the nuclear
power plant situation,
the situation was
really triggered
by a loss of electricity
and by the failure
of the backup
generators to kick in.
And those backup generators,
very simple technology--
because they didn't kick in,
the pumps failed to deliver,
on a continuous basis, cooling
water to the reactor core.
We can learn from that
in the United States,
that we need both the
sophisticated technology
and the simple
technology to work
and we need backups
that are both
targeted at the sophisticated
and the simple technologies.
So the third big
lesson learned is
construct scenarios to
test your preparedness that
really cover the full
range of possibilities.
And this third lesson
is really a consequence
of the first two lessons.
So think about
scenarios that you're
going to use to exercise
preparedness that
are realistic, but
realistic doesn't mean,
oh most probable to occur.
Realistic has to include things
that are less likely to occur,
but more catastrophic.
If you look at what
happened in Japan,
it isn't the case, for example,
with the nuclear power plant--
that it wasn't built to
withstand any tsunami, it was.
It just wasn't
built to withstand
a tsunami of this magnitude.
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