Learning how to learn from failures: The case of Fukushima nuclear disaster

In this work, it is argued that learning from failures and safety competence should be an important part of the curriculum of Engineering and Management students. The case of Fukushima will be used to illustrate how to learn about learning from failures using multi-models inspired by reliability and risk analysis in order to investigate disasters. This type of analysis can offer richness to our understanding of the root causes and provide insight into policy making and support decisions for resource allocations for prevention of such disasters. The analysis is based on a workshop related to learning from failures where students and practitioners were first given a brief about the related theory of reliability analysis and decision science, followed by introduction of the analytical techniques that can be used (such as FTA, RBD and AHP). They were then given a brief in the form of a narrative of the accident from investigation reports, and they were then divided into small groups with the task to perform an analysis of the disaster followed by presentation of recommendations in the form of a written report and an oral presentation. Finally, a set of generic lessons and recommendations are provided in order to prevent future system failure.