On 11 March 2011 a Tsunami hit the Fukushima Daini Power Plant following a 9.0 magnitude earthquake 70 kilometres off the East Coast of Japan and the world watched as engineers battled to prevent a natural disaster becoming a nuclear catastrophe.

The immediate aftermath led to the cancellation of several nuclear programmes not only in Japan but also in Europe. In the UK major procedural changes were brought about in nuclear power plants in response to the event.

Mark Whitby is well-known as a successful Structural Engineer and designer of buildings and bridges. He was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2001 -2002. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and takes a broad interest in Engineering and its history through groups such as the Engineering Club and Engineering Timelines. He has long taken an engaged but sceptical interest in power generation from renewables to nuclear power. He has been involved in a number of green energy companies and is a member of the Sizewell Stakeholders Group.

The talk will take us though the story that,as a result of a number of recently published investigations, can now be told of how the world came perilously close to an unprecedented nuclear disaster which was narrowly prevented by the incredible courage and ingenuity of the local engineers - a modern equivalent of the Apollo 13 rescue.

The event will include a discussion of the impact of this disaster for UK power generation.

Chaired by Dr Bill Bordass, Useable Buildings Trust