Earthquake and flood design of nuclear power plants in view of the reactor accident in Fukushima

The earthquake and the following tsunami in 2011 in Japan have caused disastrous consequences with thousands of deaths and additionally partial core meltdown in several units of the nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi including the release of radioactivity into the environment. The design of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants against earthquake and tsunami was based on a occurrence probability of 10-3/a. In Germany the design of nuclear facilities is based on occurrence probabilities of 10-5/a for earthquakes and 10-5/a for floods. The national evaluation by the RSK has confirmed the high safety level of German nuclear power plants.