[Peace-discuss] Japanese warning

[Stuart Levy]

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 05:58:10PM -0600, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Given the damage to Japanese nuclear reactors from the earthquake, what do
> you think would happen to the nuclear reactor down the road in Clinton, IL,
> if a similar quake should occur along the New Madrid fault?  --CGE

Yes, very good point.

We sometimes hear that nuclear plants are built to withstand
much stronger earth movements than could be expected to happen
in an earthquake, but it's be hard to be sure what will break
under rarely-tested conditions...

Jackie Cabasso, an antinuclear activist who writes to the
UFPJ mailing list, suggests this Irish news site:

>   Here's a link to a site with frequently updated information, including
>   graphics, text, photos and videos about the Japanese earthquake, tsunami
>   and ongoing nuclear power crisis.
>										
>   http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0311/tsunami.html

This currently has updates from as recently as an hour ago
(assuming the times are Greenwich).

There's a 10km-radius evacuation order, displacing 45,000 people,
around two nuclear plants at Fukushima, about 240 km north of Tokyo.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has confirmed it has lost the ability
to control the pressure in some of the reactors at both plants,
due to equipment failures -- including loss of external power sources
(diesel and electric) which would have run the backup cooling systems
for the reactors.

They note that the pressure within the reactors themselves is stable,
but it is rising in the containment vessels surrounding them.

Gas is due to be vented at Fukushima No 1 shortly to ease the
pressure there.  [There will presumably be some radioactive material
in the released gas, but the venting is happening at the order of
the Japanese government.  I assume this is because, if the pressure
simply were left to keep increasing, something would burst and there'd
be no way to limit further releases.]