Abnormal Normal Accidents

By Sally Raskoff

The huge earthquake that hit northern Japan and the tsunami that followed it twenty minutes later created a terrible tragedy in that country. The loss of life added to the loss of property and communities creates a situation hard to imagine for those of us watching from a distance, particularly with additional concerns about a nuclear disaster and the spread of radiation.

The sociological concept that keeps coming to my mind is sociologist Charles Perrow’s “normal accident.”

Perrow coined the term to signify the inevitable situation that occurs when a tightly coupled and interactively complex system breaks down. “Tightly coupled” refers to a system in which the parts are highly interdependent, they have major impacts on each other when change occurs and those impacts happen quickly.

“Interactive complexity” refers to complicated systems in which processes lead to yet other processes, many of which may be unidentified and unplanned. The example he uses is primarily of the “high-risk technology” of nuclear plants. The many cases of normal accidents he recounts typically involve not only technological breakdowns but also operator error that exacerbates the problems.

Many organizations that use high-risk technologies have paid attention to Perrow’s work and the concept of “normal accident” so that they may perhaps design in some added safeguards against them. NASA is one such organization.

While it remains to be seen how the nuclear plant situation in Japan will resolve, let’s see if what has happened in the first few days can be explained by Perrow’s theory.

The problem began when the earthquake shut down the active reactors at the plant. (Three of the six had been shut down for maintenance.) Flooding from the tsunami wiped out the generators that kept the cooling pumps running. This situation resulted in the core melting down in three reactors with explosions and fires damaging the housing and other internal equipment. Continuing explosions within the chambers prompted evacuations of workers and there have been some evidence of radiation leaks in the surrounding areas.

After nine days, power was restored and repairs began. Radiation contaminated food grown in farms surrounding the area and traces of radioactive iodine were found in Tokyo’s water supply.

Does this fit the model of a “normal accident” even though the earthquake and tsunami were certainly not “normal” events?

Nuclear power plants are tightly coupled systems in which each process is linked to another as seen when the cooling pumps failed, a chain reaction of events resulted in fires, explosions, and radiation leaks. So we have interactive complexity. Although workers attempted to fix the systems, the chain reactions of failures happened quickly and at times unexpectedly from what we’ve seen reported.

We’ll need more information to see if operator error was involved, although part of the theory of “normal accidents” suggests that no human operator could possibly keep up with the accident chain of events since they happen so quickly and so unexpectedly. At this level, operator error isn’t an opportunity to blame the workers for the problem or lack of solution; it’s simply part of the complex puzzle that makes such a high tech system.

Perrow’s theory highlights the normality of accidents when we have such high-risk technologies. That accidents will happen is a given. What we do in response to knowing this will happen becomes important.

Interestingly, a number of countries have decided to close or scale down their own nuclear power plants as a response to this event. This is interesting considering they didn’t make such a decision after the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 or even after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

The previous two events had operator errors involved that contributed to the events, while this one was prompted solely by a natural event and we’ve yet to hear about any operator errors. We may realize that we have trouble designing out natural events such as earthquakes. However, we continue to think we can design out operator error even though Perrow’s theory suggests otherwise.

Comments

[lily]

It is sad to see this happen to Japan, considering that they had all of their major buildings and cities prepaired for natural disasters. In my government class we have been disscussing this and we are told that the government does not seem to help that out considering that they are a step or two behind the natural disasters and in telling their people about the radiation leaks in the food and water.

[Compensation for accident at work]

this is very sad news , but accidents happened abnormally in the accident many people loss their homes ,car ,bus and also their family really its bad for all.

[built on your lot homes]

I had been reading a few of the articles right here but everyone provide great information and I needed to leave just a little remark to support a person as well as wish you a good continuation. Wishing you the best of luck for those your own blogging efforts.I truly appreciate the time you absorbed writing this article.

[Intraocular lenses]

The events of japan affects entire world not only the Japanese people, the effects could not be seen right now but in time we will see the repercussions in our health and not only.

[Debbie P]

I agree that this is a very unfortunate event, because earthquakes are still coming even after the first massive one had hit. Though this may be just directly affecting Japan, it is affecting the world as well. Car companies are suffering in lack of the car parts and business that they are receiving, and businesses that interacted with Japan. This really shows that the world is interconnected, even though it may not directly affecting one another, it'll have some impact because of all the ties and dependency on each other.

[Carol]

Very detailed and informative post. I hope that they would be able to finally contain the leakage. My greatest commendation to the heroic efforts of the plant engineers. My thoughts and prayers go to the people who are affected by this disaster.

[Lynnea Laessig]

This string of tragedies in Japan has lead to social change across the globe. Because of this natural disaster, individual nations world wide are being brought together to help Japan and it's citizens.

[Diane Moen]

The earthquake and following tsunami in japan are natural occurences, however they're not normal happenings-that is they don't happen every day. The Love Canal incident in 1979 is an example of Americans' lackadaisical attitude of the time towards taking care of our planet as well as our naivte about the greed of large corporations. The accident at Chernobyl was more serious in its destruction and the effect on human lives is ongoing. But Russia is a long way from America and as the saying goes "out of sight out of mind". The effects of the radiation contamination will be felt for a long time to come.

[Phoenix Car Accident]

Interesting point. I believe we should turn to alternate energy resources if possible. For years, we have been greatly dependent on nuclear sources when it comes to energy even if it poses risks.

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[happy wheels]

Thanks for another informative web site. Where else could I get that type of info written in such an ideal way? I have a project that I’m just now working on, and I have been on the look out for such information.

[Tracy]

Normal Accidents is a concept introduced by sociologist Charles Perrow to describe accidents that occur in complex systems due to their inherent nature. These accidents are not the result of human error or malfeasance but stem from the interaction of tightly coupled, complex components within systems. In such systems, small failures can cascade into larger, more serious consequences. It is possible that in high-risk environments, unexpected accidents might happen even with safety measures in place, pointing to the complexity and unpredictability of modern systems. In a similar context, understanding pedestrian accident liability may involve recognizing the potential for accidents due to various factors, including distracted driving, poor infrastructure, or unforeseen pedestrian behavior.