Bob Cook <[email protected]> wrote:
> I suspect that the optional location of secure generators and supplies of > fuel were found to be too costly by the Nuclear Village decision makers in > Japan. > It would not have cost anything to construct the fuel tanks on the landward side of the reactor building. That would have prevented the outcome. The problem was that this was the largest tsunami in about 1000 years. I don't recall how long, but it was unprecedented, and it was thought to be impossible. There were ancient records of tsunamis on this scale, but people thought these records were exaggerations. There were even stone markers maintained at the high water mark, but people did not believe the water had gone that high. All Japanese reactors are built by the ocean because they use sea water for cooling fluid. They don't have a lot of space or freshwater inland. If they had known this was coming they could have built a seawall large enough to withstand it. - Jed
