nuclear-news

How Many Potential Fukushimas in US?

Nuclear Perceptions Fight Reality OpEd News,   By William Boardman, 22 Oct 12,  FUKUSHIMA FREAKOUT OBSCURES REAL ACCIDENT THAT GOES ON AND ON   “……How Many Potential Fukushimas in US?  After discussing the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant surrounded by flood waters in 2011, with five

full-to-capacity dams upstream, Gunderson commented: “Yet the NRC was basically telling everybody, don’t worry be happy.  You know, the probability of a dam failing is pretty low, but so is the probability of a 60 foot high tsunami hitting Fukushima.  We know that low-probability events happen.  And the NRC and Tokyo Electric both basically don’t want to admit that these events can happen.  And we’ve got 34 different Fukushimas in the United States — one third of the nuclear fleet is in danger of an upstream dam failing.”

Currently four U.S. nuclear power plants have been shut down for extended periods of one to four years, while ratepayers continue to pay the operating costs of plants that aren’t operating.  The two shut down reactors at San Onofre in California are costing ratepayers $50 million a month just to maintain the opportunity to re-start the reactors on short notice.

Worldwide, about 60 of the world’s 434 so-called safe, clean, reliable, inexpensive nuclear power plants are shut down, some forever.

“It just shows that the people we’re counting on to protect us, the regulators and the people that own these power plants, can’t be trusted,” Gunderson concluded.  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Nuclear-Perceptions-Fight-by-William-Boardman-121022-931.html

October 23, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA