This open access book covers comprehensive but fundamental principles and concepts of disaster and accident prevention and mitigation, countermeasures, and recovery from disasters or accidents including treatment and care of the victims. Safety and security problems in our society involve not only engineering but also social, legal, economic, cultural, and psychological issues. The enhancement needed for societal safety includes comprehensive activities of all aspects from precaution to recovery, not only of people but also of governments. In this context, the authors, members of the Faculty of Societal Safety Science, Kansai University, conducted many discussions and concluded that the major strategy is consistent independently of the type and magnitude of disaster or accident, being also the principle of the foundation of our faculty. The topics treated in this book are rather widely distributed but are well organized sequentially to provide a clear understanding of the principles of societal safety. In the first part the fundamental concepts of safety are discussed. The second part deals with risks in the societal and natural environment. Then follows, in the third part, a description of the quantitative estimation of risk and its assessment and management. The fourth part is devoted to disaster prevention, mitigation, and recovery systems. The final, fifth part presents a future perspective of societal safety science. Thorough reading of this introductory volume of societal safety science provides a clear image of the issues. This is largely because the Japanese have suffered often from natural disasters and not only have gained much valuable information about disasters but also have accumulated a store of experience. We are still in the process of reconstruction from the Great East Japan earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. This book is especially valuable therefore in studying the safety and security of people and their societies.

Advances in Power Boilers is the second volume in the JSME Series on Thermal and Nuclear Power Generation. The volume provides the fundamentals of thermal power generation by firstly analysing different fuel options for thermal power generation and then also by tracing the development process of power boilers in about 300 years. The design principles and methodologies as well as the construction, operation and control of power boilers are explained in detail together with practical data making this a valuable guide for post-graduate students, researchers, engineers and regulators developing knowledge and skill of thermal power generation systems. Combining their wealth of experience and knowledge, the author team presents recent advanced technologies to the reader to enable them to further research and development in various systems, notably combined cycles, USC and A-USC, as well as PFBC and IGCC. The most recent best practices for material development for advanced power system as well as future scope of this important field of technology are clearly presented, and environment, maintenance, regulations and standards are considered throughout. The inclusion of photographs and drawings make this a unique reference for all those working and researching in the thermal engineering fields. The book is directed to professional engineers, researchers and post-graduate students of thermal engineering in industrial and academic field, as well as plant operators and regulators.