nuclear-news

Safety concerns over USA nuclear reactors, after earthquake

Tuesday’s quake, which was felt along the East Coast as far north as Canada, was the region’s largest since a 5.9 quake hit New York State in 1944…..

Quake raises safety concerns as nuclear plant shut, By Eileen O’Grady and Joshua Schneyer, HOUSTON/NEW YORK   Aug 23, 2011  (Reuters) – The largest earthquake to hit the East Coast of the United States in 67 years raised concerns on Tuesday about the safety of the country’s nuclear power plants.

The 5.8 magnitude quake’s epicenter was just a few miles from the two-reactor North Anna nuclear power plant operated by Dominion Resources in Mineral, Virginia, 80 miles southwest of Washington.

The plant lost power and automatically halted operations after the quake. While a Dominion spokesman reported no “major” damage to the facility, three diesel generators were required to kick in and keep the reactors’ radioactive cores cool. A fourth diesel unit failed.

While nuclear power plants can operate safely on back-up power, failure of generators was a key reason for the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant after a 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami in March.

“Nuclear power plants lose a significant margin of safety when they’re forced to rely on these emergency back-up systems,” said Paul Gunter, director of reactor oversight at Beyond Nuclear, an anti-nuclear lobby group…..

some experts expressed concern about the narrow margin between the design metrics and the quake’s size.

“It was uncomfortably close to design basis,” said Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which has pushed for stronger nuclear regulations.

“If Fukushima wasn’t a wake-up call, this really needs to be to get the NRC and industry moving to do seismic reviews of all the nuclear power plants in the country.”

Tuesday’s quake, which was felt along the East Coast as far north as Canada, was the region’s largest since a 5.9 quake hit New York State in 1944…..

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/24/us-quake-usa-nuclear-dominion-idUSTRE77M8C120110824

August 25, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA