nuclear-news

Huge concrete containers of nuclear waste shifted during earthquake

“This indicates that reactors that have these dry casks in these earthquake-prone areas, they’re going to have to do more to protect them from ground motion,”

Quake shifted nuclear storage containers at Virginia plant – The Washington Post, By Brian Vastag,   September 1 Last week’s central Virginia earthquake jolted huge concrete containers holding spent nuclear fuel at the North Anna power plant in Louisa County, shifting some containers one to four inches, said the plant’s operator, Dominion Virginia Power.The containers, called casks, each weigh 115 tons and are filled with bundles of uranium dioxide fuel rods that no longer generate enough heat to produce electricity.
The plant houses 53 casks on two concrete pads. Of the 27 casks on one pad, 25 shifted during the magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck Aug. 23 about 12 miles south of the plant, Dominion spokesman Richard Zuercher said.

“This indicates that reactors that have these dry casks in these earthquake-prone areas, they’re going to have to do more to protect them from ground motion,” said Robert Alvarez of the Institute for Policy Studies, who has extensively studied nuclear waste storage. “One thing is to bolt them to the pads, and that’s not a Home Depot-type job. The pads themselves also need to be examined to see if they’re durable enough.”

Zuercher said that Dominion is conducting its own facility inspections alongside the NRC team. “We have not found anything significant, nothing that affects nuclear safety,” he said. “Both units are offline and in cold shutdown.”

On Aug. 26, Dominion notified the NRC that the earthquake may have shaken the facility more than it was designed to handle. An analysis of “shake plates” that record ground motion is to be completed Friday, Zuercher said, and the company will then determine whether the ground motion exceeded the plant’s design……

Dry casks were designed for temporary storage, Alvarez said, but they have become de facto long-term waste warehouses because the United States has not built a permanent waste repository.

Quake shifted nuclear storage containers at Virginia plant – The Washington Post

September 2, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA