"Quake risk to US reactors worse than once thought; About one-fourth might need safety modifications" September 02, 2011|By Dina Cappiello and Jeff Donn, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The risk that an earthquake would cause a severe accident at a US nuclear plant is greater than previously thought, 24 times as high in one case, according to an Associated Press analysis of preliminary government data. The nation’s nuclear regulator believes a quarter of America’s reactors might need modifications.
The threat came into sharp focus last week, when shaking from the largest earthquake to hit Virginia in 117 years appeared to exceed what the North Anna nuclear power plant northwest of Richmond was built to sustain.
The two North Anna reactors are among 27 in the eastern and central United States that a preliminary Nuclear Regulatory Commission review has said may need upgrades. That is because those plants are more likely to get hit with an earthquake larger than the one their design was based on. Just how many nuclear power plants are more vulnerable will not be determined until all operators recalculate their own seismic risk based on new assessments by geologists, something the agency plans to request later this year.
The NRC yesterday issued a draft of that request for public comment.
The review, launched well before the East Coast quake and the Japan nuclear disaster in March, marks the first complete update to seismic risk in years for the nation’s 104 existing reactors, despite research showing greater hazards.
The NRC and the industry say reactors are safe as they are, for now.
Do you know HOW TIRED I AM of REAL THREATS being MINIMIZED while CONTRIVED CRAP like "terrorists" and "global warming" is SO URGENT?
But e-mails obtained in a more than 11,000-page records request by the Associated Press show that NRC experts were worried privately this year that plants needed stronger safeguards to account for the higher risk assessments.
The nuclear industry says last week’s quake proved reactors are robust....
Yeah, NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!
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Also see: Main Omissions by the Boston Globe
Yeah, cancer is leaking into the Connecticut River and the Globe didn't think it was newsworthy.
What a PoS paper.
