The accident occurred at the nuclear plant of Fukushima after the 11 of March 2011 powerful earthquake in Japan has clearly shown that the impact of earthquakes on industrial plants and life-lines may trigger events that could produce relevant hazardous scenarios or critical inoperability of safety facilities. An important question arises from that experience: can an earthquake provoke serious accidents even in Italy? In order to answer to this question, a critical reading of the earthquake of L’Aquila impacts on industrial facilities and life-lines, as they appeared to the rescue services immediately after the event, will be here presented with some considerations in terms of lessons learned, useful also for preventative risk mitigation purposes. Even if the 6.3 MW 2009 L’Aquila earthquake is classifiable as moderate, L’Aquila and its surroundings, located in the near-field area of the earthquake, have been affected by a level of ground motion able to provoke significant damage to industrial facilities and life-lines present in that area. Few days after the earthquake, a team of researchers of the University of Udine, supported by engineers of the Italian National Fire Department, investigated and analyzed the damage occurred on industrial facilities and life-lines in order to individuate the major and recursive criticisms and to obtain useful lessons learned for safety improvement (Grimaz and Maiolo, 2010).
Can the earthquakes trigger serious accidents in Italy? Some Lessons from the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake
GRIMAZ, Stefano;
2011-01-01
Abstract
The accident occurred at the nuclear plant of Fukushima after the 11 of March 2011 powerful earthquake in Japan has clearly shown that the impact of earthquakes on industrial plants and life-lines may trigger events that could produce relevant hazardous scenarios or critical inoperability of safety facilities. An important question arises from that experience: can an earthquake provoke serious accidents even in Italy? In order to answer to this question, a critical reading of the earthquake of L’Aquila impacts on industrial facilities and life-lines, as they appeared to the rescue services immediately after the event, will be here presented with some considerations in terms of lessons learned, useful also for preventative risk mitigation purposes. Even if the 6.3 MW 2009 L’Aquila earthquake is classifiable as moderate, L’Aquila and its surroundings, located in the near-field area of the earthquake, have been affected by a level of ground motion able to provoke significant damage to industrial facilities and life-lines present in that area. Few days after the earthquake, a team of researchers of the University of Udine, supported by engineers of the Italian National Fire Department, investigated and analyzed the damage occurred on industrial facilities and life-lines in order to individuate the major and recursive criticisms and to obtain useful lessons learned for safety improvement (Grimaz and Maiolo, 2010).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
