Nukes and Tsunami

[Jean Mcmahon]

Japan's Quake Could Have Irradiated the Entire US

By Harvey Wasserman, Editor

NukeFree.org

Had the massive 8.9 Richter-scale earthquake that has just savaged Japan hit off the California coast, it could have ripped apart at least four coastal reactors and sent a lethal cloud of radiation across the entire United States. (http://nukefree.org/ace-hoffman-computerized-graphic-what-if-chernobyl-h... ) 

The two huge reactors each at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon are not designed to withstand such powerful shocks. All four are extremely close to major faults. 

All four reactors are located relatively low to the coast. They are vulnerable to tsunamis like those now expected to hit as many as fifty countries.

[Jean Mcmahon]

[NukeNet] Meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 appears to have started..A Tokyo Channel 12 TV news item just said that radioactivity is 70 times higher than normal around the Fukushima I (Daiichi) Plant Unit 1 and 1000 times higher than normal in the control room. Cesium has been detected around the site. Water is below the level of the fuel rods. There is a possibility of damage and "a high possibility that meltdown has begun".

Please note that besides the situation at Fukushima, we are also concerned about the state of the Onagawa nuclear power plant about which there is no news except that the nearest towns were totally inundated by tsunamis.

[Jean Mcmahon]

BREAKING NEWS. Fact sheet on Fukushima reactors and aftermath of Japan earthquake. Updated 2:30 pm, Sunday, March 13. Core is uncovered at Unit 3; Tokyo Electric Power calls it "a considerably serious situation."

There are currently 23 General Electric Mark I reactors in the U.S.--the design that exploded at Fukushima. A top Atomic Energy Commission official first proposed banning this design nearly 40 years ago. List/fact sheet. Updated, includes license renewal information.

Link to video of press conference in Japan by Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (in Japanese with English translation), March 13, 2011. from NIRS

[Jean Mcmahon]

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-13/nuclear-renaissance-threatened-as-japan-fights-meltdown-at-quake-hit-plant.html

Nuclear Renaissance Threatened as Japan’s Reactor Struggles