Dangers of earthquakes, floods, to nuclear plants

NRC staff: Reassess earthquake risk at nuke plants, Fox News, September 12, 201 WASHINGTON – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should immediately require U.S. nuclear plant operators to re-evaluate whether their facilities can withstand earthquakes and floods, the agency’s staff said.

A staff report made public Monday identified seven steps the NRC should take “without delay” as it responds to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear plant in Japan.

Most prominently, the report recommended immediate reviews of seismic and flooding risks at the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors. Those risks have come under greater scrutiny in the wake of the Japan crisis and last month’s East Coast earthquake, which caused the ground to shake much more than a Virginia nuclear plant was designed to withstand.

The report also said plant operators should be required to improve their response to prolonged power blackouts or events that damage more than one reactor at the same time, as happened in Japan.

The five-member commission was scheduled to discuss the report on Wednesday.

The 21-page report skipped over several recommendations made by an NRC task force, which called for sweeping safety changes for the U.S. nuclear industry in a July report triggered by the Japan crisis.

The staff report said top NRC officials support all 12 task force recommendations, but believe that the proposals singled out Monday have “the greatest potential for safety improvements in the near-term.” http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/12/nrc-staff-reassess-earthquake-risk-at-nuke-plants/

September 13, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA

1 Comment »

There is another problem the NRC ought to start thinking about: a man-made earthquake. It could be caused by terrorists crashing a jetliner, moving at 500 miles an hour, into or even NEAR a nuclear plant. It could also be caused by someone filling a cave or a storm sewer system with the “right stuff” and causing an explosion.

This is not an unrealistic senario. When I was 14 years old, I got so upset with school bullying and school yard violence, I decided to blow up a town. The scheme involved toilets and gasoline, and was built on my memories of flour dust explosions in grain silos in the Midwest where I grew up. You can read about it at http://scripturalphysics.org/etc/ConsumerExperiences.html#SewersideBomber . Decades later I read about a horrific gasoline blast in Guadalajara, Mexico. It registered 7.0 on the Richter scale at Mexico City, OVER 200 MILES AWAY! This was effectively a man-made earthquake, even though accidental. What if a nuclear plant had been only a few miles away from this kind of explosion? And what if it had been intentionally planned by ADULT terrorists with backgrounds in chemical and combustion engineering, instead being an accident?

Is the NRC sure that nuclear plants are safe from this kind of threat? Even from 14 year old kids? Terrorists will try to hit us in ways we haven’t even thought of.

Comment by Brian Fraser | September 13, 2011 | Reply

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