Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Fault lines under Higashidori plant are active




Ryuta Koike ‘Nuclear watchdog: Fault lines under Higashidori plant are active’ Feb 19, 2013 The Asahi Shimbun http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201302190051

[Excerpted] Geological fault lines that run beneath Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Higashidori nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture are almost certainly active, according to an expert panel of the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

The assessment was part of a draft report presented when the panel met on Feb. 18. The panel also called for further studies on the activity of two separate fault lines that extend directly beneath the plant's key facilities. Tohoku Electric, meanwhile, continues to argue that the faults are inactive....

...Apart from these fault lines, a smaller fault runs directly beneath the nuclear reactor building, while another cuts across a coolant water intake channel and other key safety equipment...

Majia here: The article explains that Japanese government laws prevent building/operating a nuclear power plant directly on top of an active fault.

So, the battle now ensues in Japan about whether all the faults found under nuclear power plants are active or not.

Who can really say with absolute certainty whether a fault is truly inactive?

Japan is not the only country with nuclear power plants sitting directly on top of earthquake faults.

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in California sits atop or immediately adjacent to fault (see here).

San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant doesn't need an earthquake to have a meltdown, given the poor state of its equipment and the history of management problems there, 

but is conveniently located near major faults in Southern California .... including the San Andreas ... 

Humans are ruled by death.

 

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