Information Inadequacy in Nuclear Power Plant Accidents

The aim of this study is to compare the cause of the, to date, three onlycommercial nuclear power plant accidents. These are very complex incidents,which have dire impact on society and the environment and therefore benefitfrom further investigation, if there lays a possibility of identifying factors thatcould prevent further accidents in the future. In order to investigate this theactions and decisions that lead up to each nuclear meltdown was identified andcompared.The investigation was based on a qualitative study on three cases of nuclearmeltdown accidents. They are based on text analysis of official reports anddocumentaries on the subject. The theoretical background for this study wasKajtazi’s (2011) work on Information Inadequacy. The study was limited to theevents leading up to the accidents and do not include activities afterwards.The study shows that each case had different underlying reasons. It alsoshows that we seem to have learned something from our previous mistakes, andacted on them accordingly. From the Fukushima Daiichi accident we canrecommend that organizations in charge should take early warnings seriouslyand act upon them as soon as they are presented