nuclear-news

Identifying nuclear reactors that are in dangerous locations

In China 19 of the 27 reactors are being built in areas identified as dangerous.

Scientists pinpoint nuclear plants in high-risk zones http://www.powerengineeringint.com/articles/2012/10/scientists-pinpoint-nuclear-plants-in-high-risk-zones.html 19/10/2012 By Diarmaid Williams  Scientists in the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium have produced a pioneering study, which shows nuclear power plants that are located in zones affected by tsunamis.

The scientists have identified ‘potentially dangerous’ areas that are home to completed nuclear plants or those under construction. By highlighting high-risk zones, they hope that further plans can be implemented to head off similar disasters.  We are dealing with the first vision of the global distribution of civil nuclear power plants situated on the coast and exposed to tsunamis,’ explained José Manuel Rodríguez-Llanes, co-author of the study and researcher at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

To inform their analysis, the authors used historical, archaeological, geological and instrumental records as a base for determining tsunami risk.

Based on these data, 23 nuclear power plants with 74 reactors have been identified in high-risk areas.

Despite the fact that the risk of these natural disasters threatens the entire western coast of the American continent, the Spanish/Portuguese Atlantic Coast and the coast of north Africa, it is the eastern Mediterranean and areas of Oceania, especially in south and south-east Asia, that are at greater risk due to the presence of atomic power stations.

In China 19 of the 27 reactors are being built in areas identified as dangerous.

October 24, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, safety