Five close shaves at USA nuclear reactor cores

Nuclear safety: Five recent ‘near miss’ incidents at US nuclear power plants, Christian Science Monitor, 18 March 11, Fourteen safety-related events at nuclear power plants required follow-up inspections from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the NRC reported in 2010. These “near-miss” events “raised the risk of damage to the reactor core – and thus to the safety of workers and the public,” concluded a new report, “The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety in 2010,” by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Here are five of these 14 “near miss” examples:……

Nuclear safety: Five recent ‘near miss’ incidents at US nuclear power plants – Diablo Canyon, California – Emergency systems disabled – CSMonitor.com

March 19, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Potential for disaster in USA’s nuclear reactors and cooling systems

It would not even require a quake or tsunami, only a moderately ingenious terrorist, to breach Shearon Harris’s puny defences and sabotage the cooling systems. A study by the Brookhaven Labs estimates that a pool fire there could cause 140,000 cancers, and contaminate thousands of square miles of land.

Another Fukushima meltdown? In America? Not if, but when | The First Post, Alexander Cockburn, 18 March 11, “…….. President Obama for example, who took plenty of money from this industry for his presidential campaign and used his State of the Union address last January to reaffirm his commitment to “clean, safe” nuclear power. This week, Obama’s press spokesman confirmed that nuclear energy “remains a part of the President’s overall energy plan”. Continue reading →

March 18, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

In nuclear accident, evacuation from Indian Point area would be impossible

Citing plants like the Indian Point nuclear site north of New York City, Mr. Lyman, a physicist and member of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, called it “utterly unrealistic” to expect that an effective evacuation could be undertaken should a disaster like the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last week occur in this country.

Citing Near Misses, Report Faults Both Nuclear Regulators and Operators, – NYTimes.com,By TOM ZELLER JR. March 17, 2011,The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the nuclear power industry in the United States, came under fire from critics on Thursday for recommending that Americans in Japan remain at least 50 miles away from the ailing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant there. Continue reading →

March 18, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Earthquake risks for USA nuclear plants

The Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast figures the probability of an earthquake of 6.7 magnitude or higher is 67 per cent for Los Angeles, 63 per cent for San Francisco.

Another Fukushima? In America? Not if, but when, Alexander Cockburn on the shameful trade-off that keeps nuclear power on the agenda MARCH 17, 2011

Along much of California’s coastline runs the Ring of Fire which stretches round the Pacific plate from Australia, north past Japan, to Russia, round to Alaska, and down America’s west coast to Chile. Ninety per cent of the world’s earthquakes happen round the Ring.

The late great environmentalist David Brower used to tell audiences solemnly, “Nuclear plants are incredibly complex technological devices for locating earthquake faults.”

Apparently acting on this piece of sarcastic wisdom, the US has deployed four nuclear plants near the Ring of Fire faultline, including two active ones in my home state of California.

Forty miles up the road from me, in far northern California we had a boiling water reactor, closed in 1976 because – surprise! – there was an earthquake from a “previously unknown fault” just off the coast. Now all we have are spent nuclear fuel rods in ponds, right on the shoreline, a few feet above sea level, nicely situated for a tsunami, such as the one that disabled the relief diesel generators designed to pump emergency coolant in the Fukushima plant. Three plates meet a few miles west of where I write. We had a 7.1 earthquake in 1992. First moral in the nuclear business: Expect the unexpected.

Further south, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, is the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, planned in 1968 when no one knew about the Hosgri fault, part of the Ring of Fire, a few miles offshore. See moral number one.

Further inquiry established that there’d been a 7.1 earthquake 40 years earlier, offshore from the plant, completed in 1973. The power company – Pacific Gas and Electric – said it would beef up defences. In their haste, the site managers managed to reverse the blueprints for the new earthquake-proofing of the two reactors, and so the retro-fit wasn’t a total success. Second moral in the nuclear business: people do mess up.

Back to the first moral: they recently discovered yet another fault and are now worried about “ground liquefaction” in the event of a big quake. In 2008 there was a terrorist attack by jellyfish which blocked the cold water intake, and the plant was shut down for a couple of days…….

The Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast figures the probability of an earthquake of 6.7 magnitude or higher is 67 per cent for Los Angeles, 63 per cent for San Francisco. Up where I live, in the Cascadia subduction zone, we have a 10 per cent possibility of an 8.0 or 9.0 force quake….

Alexander Cockburn: Another Fukushima meltdown? In America? Not if, but when | News & Politics | News & Comment | The First Post

March 18, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

USA nuclear facilities in earthquake zones

Maps – Nuclear power and earthquake zones overlap in the U.S. | MNN – Mother Nature Network, 12 March 11, Earthquake in Japan raises concerns about what could happen in the U.S. Continue reading →

March 18, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment