http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-nuclear-20120311,0,115015.story
No more Fukushimas
One year after the Japanese disaster, the fact is that U.S. nuclear
plants still face similar risks
By Gwen L. DuBois
12:00 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2012
The earthquake
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/disasters-accidents/earthquakes/tsunamis/japan-earthquake-tsunami-%282011%29-EVWAN00003.topic>
and tsunami that struck Japan
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/intl/japan-PLGEO000001.topic> one
year ago today precipitated the most serious nuclear disaster since
Chernobyl. A worst-case scenario contemplated the voluntary evacuation
of Tokyo, as the Japanese Atomic Energy Commission feared a meltdown of
the spent fuel pools sitting atop the reactors more than of the reactors
themselves, according to an aide to then-prime minister Naoto Kan
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/politics/government/naoto-kan-PEPLT00007713.topic>.
Spent fuel pools, unlike nuclear reactors, are enclosed in no primary
containment building. The one atop Reactor 4, which also has the
"hottest fuel," sits directly exposed to the elements after an explosion
blew the roof off the building March 15.
Our nuclear plants are no better designed than those in Japan.
Twenty-three are Mark 1 boiling water reactors, identical to Fukushima
Daiichi
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/economy-business-finance/energy-resource-industries/nuclear-power/tokyo-electric-power-co.-ORCRP0000175859.topic>
reactors 1-5. This includes Peach Bottom, 36 miles from Baltimore in
York County
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/us/pennsylvania/york-county-%28pennsylvania%29-PLGEO100100701410.topic>,
Pa.; and Vermont Yankee, notorious for pipes leaking radioactive
tritium, which was relicensed for 20 years on March 10, 2011, over the
objection of Vermonters.
Nor are our plants immune from natural or manmade disasters. Nearly half
of the 104 reactors in the U.S. are near major fault lines. In August, a
5.8 earthquake 11 miles from Virginia's North Anna nuclear power plant,
which is 70 miles from Washington D.C., rattled nerves in Baltimore and
far beyond. The quake caused twice the amount of ground movement for
which North Anna was designed. One backup generator failed. The presence
of a geological fault below the reactors was known and covered up by the
owners and regulators at the time of construction.
Twenty-seven reactors have not made adequate provisions for earthquake
protection, including Indian Point, the nuclear reactor within 25 miles
of New York City
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/us/new-york/new-york-city-PLGEO100100804000000.topic>.
Forty-seven reactors do not meet Nuclear Regulatory Commission
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/environmental-issues/environmental-politics/u.s.-nuclear-regulatory-commission-ORGOV000259.topic>
requirements for fire prevention. Fort Calhoun in Nebraska has remained
off-line since a major flood in June. A recent report by the NRC on
nuclear power safety in the U.S. supposedly redacted a section that
dealt with the precarious state of dams in this country. (Our neighbor
plant at Peach Bottom uses the Conowingo Dam as its water source).
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Any of these events could cause a loss of power, overheating of nuclear
fuel, and a partial or full meltdown. Just as in Japan, an event in the
spent fuel pool would be far worse than one in a reactor. Unlike the
reactor core, which sits in a steel vessel surrounded by a primary steel
and concrete container, the spent fuel pool is surrounded only by the
easily breached secondary structure, which nuclear expert Robert Alvarez
describes as a building "no more secure than a car dealership."
U.S. pools are generally more densely packed than in Japan. Vermont
Yankee's pool contains two to three times the amount of spent fuel as
Fukushima
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/intl/japan/fukushima-prefecture-%28japan%29/fukushima-%28fukushima-japan%29-PLGEO1001007014111648.topic>
Daiichi's Reactor 4, described above. The crowding increases the risk of
initiating a nuclear chain reaction. The NRC does not require backup
generators or batteries. Overheating could cause an explosion breaching
the secondary structure, carrying radioactive material hundreds of
miles. Mr. Alvarez estimated a meltdown of spent fuel in the Indian
Point pool, which has three times the radioactivity of four Fukushima
spent fuel pools, would kill 5,600 people, do $461 billion in damage and
render a large area uninhabitable. (Calvert Cliffs, by the way, has
generated the 10th-largest amount of long-lived radioactivity in the
country --- among the largest concentrations on the planet.)
A National Academy of Science report recommended that fuel be moved to
casks once sufficiently cooled. This has two inherent advantages over
pool storage: "(1) It is a passive system that relies on natural air
circulation for cooling; and (2) it divides the inventory of that spent
fuel among a large number of discrete, robust containers." Critics of
nuclear power agree: After five years, fuel from ponds should be moved
into hardened onsite storage as the best option until the unlikely time
a permanent repository is found.
The U.S. has 65,000 metric tons of nuclear waste, which we leave to our
children in perpetuity. "You don't build a house without a toilet" said
Jitsuro Terashima, president of the Japan Research Institute and a
member of a panel advising the Japanese government. This anniversary is
a good time to rethink how we should view our energy needs: consume
less, manufacture products that are maximally energy efficient, promote
renewables like wind and solar --- and don't make more nuclear waste
until we safely dispose of what we have made.
/Dr. Gwen L. DuBois is a member of Chesapeake Physicians for Social
Responsibility and a founding member of the Crabshell Alliance. Her
email is [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>./
Copyright © 2012, The Baltimore Sun <http://www.baltimoresun.com/>
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