Maybe we’ll have our own nuclear disaster instead of having to import them from Japan! I wonder if they also designed these for a 5.8 earthquake followed in the same week by a hurricane?
The magnitude 5.8 earthquake that shook the East Coast on Tuesday was centered near a nuclear power plant, raising concerns that the facility could have been damaged.
North Anna Power Station, located about 10 miles from the epicenter, is running its safety systems on backup generators after the quake knocked out the plant’s outside power source.
[…] McIntyre said the NRC was closely monitoring the situation at the plant, which is owned by Dominion Power. An NRC resident inspector has been working with power company officials to inspect the facility and its complex systems for any cracks or other damage. So far, he said no damage had been found.
The quake hit along a fault in the Appalachian Mountains that has seen modest seismic activity in the past.
The North Anna plant reported an “alert” after the quake struck. An alert is the second most serious of four status positions for a nuclear plant.
The other 10 plants on the East Coast are listed in the least serious stage of warning, reporting an “unusual event,” and are generating electricity and operating normally, McIntyre said. An unusual event triggers an immediate inspection for cracks, he said.
The North Anna plant was designed to withstand a 5.9 to 6.1 quake.
The quake came “uncomfortably close” to that maximum, said Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that advocates stronger regulation of nuclear power.
GOP also shut down seismic monitoring in the region, about a decade ago.
Nuclear power plants are unsafe at any speed. Yet Obama wants to build 100 more of them within the next ten years. Obama’s presidency is just one giant freak show.
Article fail: The fault line is not anywhere near the Appalachian Mountains. It’s in the northern part of the central Virginia seismic zone, which is in the Peidmont region of Virginia. The Appalachians (Blue Ridge) are 40 miles to the west. I know this because I live there.
North Anna is 12 miles from the epicenter and is located on a lake (Lake Anna), formed by an earthen dam, that was specifically created as a source of cooling water for the reactors.