By Bri Conn

When thinking about energy, topics that typically come to mind include traditional mining and extraction industries, groundbreaking new generation technologies, and international policy decisions. The glue that helps to bind these areas together is a much less flashy field, but nonetheless critical to our energy infrastructure - risk assessment and management.

INTERFACE CaNRisk researchers attending the 2017 Canadian Nuclear Association Conference. Original image can be found here.

Risk assessment is all about understanding and evaluating potential risks, with the goal of increasing safety and reducing financial risks [1]. Important steps of risk assessment include identifying hazards, developing an understanding or characterization of all hazards, assessing the probability of the hazard occurring, and determining the best course of action to mitigate risks and avoid hazardous situations [1]. Part of the reality of global climate change has been an increase in both the frequency and severity of natural disasters. In order to adapt to this changing reality, all sectors need to increase their resiliency. Resiliency is all about having the ability to withstand and recover from such disturbances, for example increasing the drainage ability of cities to prevent flooding, or designing new buildings to be earthquake resistant [2].

In 2015, a new research institute was created at McMaster to facilitate risk assessment, analysis, and management, with the mission of helping to increase global resilience: the Institute for Multi-hazard Systemic Risk Studies, INTERFACE.

INTERFACE is a multidisciplinary research institute, with professors from numerous engineering departments coming together to study the complex interactions between the built and natural environment systems across the globe. INTERFACE is a product of the ever-increasing interconnectedness of systems across sectors and international borders, which are vulnerable to global disasters. To solve the problems of tomorrow, experts from a wide variety of fields need to work together to create interdisciplinary solutions.

The name INTERFACE is indicative of the areas where much of this risk assessment and analysis work is needed: the interfaces between natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, and the health sciences. Projects that occur at these interfaces present unique and complex challenges.

One such project with which INTERFACE is involved is the Canadian Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Resilience under Seismic Systemic Risk (CaNRisk) program [3]. The CaNRisk program is investigating how to make nuclear power generation safer, by combining McMaster Engineering Physics researchers’ work with nuclear safety, and Civil Engineering faculty expertise related to seismic design, soil, and water systems. This unique combination of expertise is coming together to ensure that reactor safety systems at nuclear power plants are resilient in the face of natural disasters like earthquakes, while minimizing risks of environmental impacts, such as spent nuclear fuel release following a natural disaster [3].

INTERFACE’s director, Dr. Wael El-Dakhakhni explains the need for nuclear resiliency research: “Japan is still struggling with the cascading economic and environmental impacts five years after a powerful earthquake and tsunami caused the meltdown of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, (…) Canada relies on nuclear power as a major component of its overall energy supply mix, but there’s a critical expertise gap that needs to be addressed to guarantee our nuclear infrastructure systems are resilient – that is, remain fully operational, or recover rapidly and safely, following a natural disaster” [3].

Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors experienced meltdown after the Great East Japan Earthquake (magnitude 9.0) and Tsunami occurred in 2011. Original image can be found here. [6]

This project is an excellent example of research at the interface between nuclear science and civil engineering, and it is critical to public safety that such research is conducted. Other recent INTERFACE projects include a simulation of Ontario’s power network to investigate its robustness under random failures and targeted threats, as well as research relating to the resilience of cities’ interdependent infrastructure systems [4] [5].

INTERFACE showcases excellent multi-disciplinary collaboration across the spectrum of science and engineering at McMaster. It is clear that the grand societal issues that the global community is facing - food and water security, effective transportation networks, climate change, and modern energy systems - require complex solutions.

For more information, feel free to check out INTERFACE’s website, and reach out to risk@mcmaster.ca.

References

[1] WHO, “Food Safety - Risk Assessment.” World Health Organization, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.who.int/foodsafety/micro/riskassessment/en/. [Accessed: 24-Nov-2020].

[2] Viatechnik, “Resilient Buildings: The Techniques, Costs, & Benefits.” Viatechnik, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.viatechnik.com/resilient-buildings-the-techniques-costs-benefits/#:~:text=To%20be%20considered%20%E2%80%9Cresilient%2C%E2%80%9D,successfully%20adapt%20to%20adverse%20events.%E2%80%9D. [Accessed: 24-Nov-2020].

[3] D. D’Alvise, “Two Research Projects Awarded $3.3M to Address Automotive Industry and Nuclear Safety Challenges.” McMaster INTERFACE, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://interface.mcmaster.ca/two-research-projects-awarded-3-3m-to-address-automotive-industry-and-nuclear-safety-challenges/. [Accessed: 25-Nov-2020].

[4] M. Ezzeldin and W. El-Dakhakkni, “Robustness of Ontario power network under systemic risks.” Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23789689.2019.1666340. [Accessed: 14-Nov-2020].

[5] M. Haggag, M. Ezzeldin, W. El-Dakhakhni & E. Hassini, “Resilient cities critical infrastructure interdependence: a meta-research.” Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23789689.2020.1795571. [Accessed: 14-Nov-2020].
[6] J. Stracka, “Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster,” Suffolk University SCI-184 Blog: Fall 2015. [Online]. Available: https://sites.suffolk.edu/jstraka/2015/10/30/fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-disaster/. [Accessed: 28-Nov-20200.

McMaster Spotlight: McMaster INTERFACE