This is so easy in retrospect when you know what the failure mode will be.
badthink: the Fukushima backup generators must be placed on a platform to keep them out of the range of a once in a millenium tsunami
goodthink: what happens when a typhoon comes and damages the generator on an exposed platform; an event which happens predictably and far more often than tsunamis. Answer: put the backup generators in the basement of a reactor building behind a large seawall. What catastrophe could put the reactor building completely underwater, and still have the reactor survive?
Yeah, trivial changes to the design can prevent all sorts of disasters, but you have to know what you are trying to prevent in a world of infinite complexity
A large seawall to be sure, but not a particularly tall one. If I recall correctly the seawall was remarkably short relative to maximum expected wave heights on a 100 year time frame.
badthink: the Fukushima backup generators must be placed on a platform to keep them out of the range of a once in a millenium tsunami
goodthink: what happens when a typhoon comes and damages the generator on an exposed platform; an event which happens predictably and far more often than tsunamis. Answer: put the backup generators in the basement of a reactor building behind a large seawall. What catastrophe could put the reactor building completely underwater, and still have the reactor survive?
Yeah, trivial changes to the design can prevent all sorts of disasters, but you have to know what you are trying to prevent in a world of infinite complexity