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Legitimate fears about the safety of USA nuclear plants

Why Recent Earthquakes Should Make You Worry About Nuclear Power, By  | August 24, 2011, BNet A 5.8 magnitude earthquake — the largest to hit the East Coast in nearly seven decades — caused the shutdown of two nuclear reactors located less than 15 miles from the epicenter of the temblor. The back-up diesel generator system worked as designed (well, except for the one with the coolant leak), and by late Tuesday night operator Dominion Resources had restored offsite power.

Yet instead of putting folks at ease, the incident actually raises legitimate fears about the safety of U.S. nuclear power plants.

Consider, for starters, the fact that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has taken more than six years to develop new safety standards to address higher-than-expected seismic risks. It turns out that seismic risks to nuclear plants in the eastern United States were greater than the NRC had previously realized, iWatch.org reported.

North Anna, a twin-reactor nuclear facility about 85 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., was one of four plants with a seismic hazard higher than previously thought. (It’s also the plant with the coolant leak that shut down one of its backup diesels.)……http://www.bnet.com/blog/clean-energy/why-recent-earthquakes-should-make-you-worry-about-nuclear-power/6199

August 25, 2011 - Posted by | safety, USA

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