Earthquake-Causing Fracking to Be Allowed within 500 Feet of Nuclear Plants
By Washington's Blog
Global Research, October 22, 2012
Nuclear Plants Vulnerable to Earthquakes
The American government has officially stated that fracking can cause
earthquakes. Some fracking companies now admit this fact The scientific
community agrees. See this, this, this, this and this.
Earthquakes can – of course – damage nuclear power plants. For example, even
the operator of Fukushima and the Japanese government now admit that the
nuclear cores might have started melting down before the tsuanmi ever hit. More
here.
Indeed, the fuel pools and rods at Fukushima appear to have “boiled”, caught
fire and/or exploded soon after the earthquake knocked out power systems. See
this, this, this, this and this. And fuel pools in the United States store an
average of ten times more radioactive fuel than stored at Fukushima, have
virtually no safety features, and are vulnerable to accidents and
terrorist attacks. And see this.
Indeed, American reactors may be even more vulnerable to earthquakes than
Fukushima.
But American nuclear “regulators” have allowed numerous nuclear power plants to
be built in earthquake zones:
Some plants are located in very high earthquake risk zones:
And they have covered up the risks from earthquakes for years … just like the
Japanese regulators did. For example:
* The NRC won’t even begin conducting its earthquake study for Indian
Point nuclear power plant in New York until after relicensing is
complete in 2013, because the NRC doesn’t consider a big earthquake “a
serious risk”
* Congressman Markey has said there is a cover up. Specifically,
Markey alleges that the head of the NRC told everyone not to write down
risks they find from an earthquake greater than 6.0 (the plant was only
built to survive a 6.0 earthquake)
* We have 4 reactors in California – 2 at San Onofre 2 at San Luis
Obisbo – which are vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis
For example, Diablo Canyon is located on numerous earthquake faults,
and a state legislator and seismic expert says it could turn into
California’s Fukushima:
On July 26th 2011 the California Energy
Commission held hearings concerning the state’s nuclear safety. During
those hearings, the Chairman of the Commission asked governments experts
whether or not they felt the facilities could withstand the maximum
credible quake. The response was that they did not know.This is similar to what
happened at Fukushima: seismologists dire warnings were ignored (and see this.)
Yet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn’t even take earthquake risk into
account when deciding whether or not to relicense plants like Diablo Canyon.
Are They Fracking With Us?
American nuclear regulators are allowing earthquake-inducing fracking to be
conducted mere feet from nuclear power plants.
As the Herald Standard reports:
Chesapeake Energy has a permit to frack just one mile from the Beaver Valley
Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport. Whether that is cause for alarm, experts
can’t say.
>***
>“Hydraulic fracturing near a nuclear plant is probably not a concern
under normal circumstances,” [Richard Hammack, a scientist at the
Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory] said. “If there
is a pre-stress fault that you happen to lubricate there (with
fracking solution), that is the only thing that might result in
something that is (seismically) measurable.”
That’s not very reassuring, given that “lubrication” of faults is the main
mechanism by which fracking causes earthquakes. (Indeed, the point is
illustrated by the analogous fact that leading Japanese seismologists say that
the Fukushima earthquake “lubricated” nearby faults, making a giant earthquake
more likely than ever.)
And as Akron Beacon Journal notes, fracking is allowed with 500 feet of nuclear
plants:
“We’re not aware of any potential impacts and don’t
expect any,” said FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer Young today. “We see
no reason to be particularly concerned.”
>***
>[But]experts can’t say if the proposed well so close to two nuclear power
>plants is cause for concern.
>***
>DEP spokesperson John Poister told the Shale Reporter that there are no
>required setbacks specifically relating to a required distance between such
>shale wells and nuclear facilities, just a blanket regulation requiring a
>500-foot setback from any building to a natural gas well.
Brilliant …
http://www.globalresearch.ca/earthquake-causing-fracking-to-be-allowed-within-500-feet-of-nuclear-plants/5309229
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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