Nuclear meltdown: "It can't happen here"

With Japan's many troubles with first the earthquake, then the tsunami and now the many, many problems with the Fukushima nuclear power plant, we keep hearing from the nuclear and government officials over there that "everything's still safe" and "everything's still within acceptable exposure levels", etc., as I've written earlier.

Same in the US--we just keep hearing how we're fine and yes, they've detected nuclear radiation from Japan but that it's all at acceptable levels.

The third wave of this, in the bigger picture, is that all the officials--again, government and nuclear industry, both, worldwide--keep telling us that nuclear power is safe and it makes sense and it's okay, blah, blah, blah.

Oh, yeah?  It's really that "okay"?

A report out yesterday finds possibly otherwise, at least in a significant number of these plants worldwide:

More than one in 10 nuclear power plants at risk from earthquakes

Many stations are in countries that would be less able than Japan to cope with disasters

By Jonathan Owen, The Independent, UK

Scores of nuclear power plants worldwide are at risk from tsunamis or earthquakes similar to the natural disasters that crippled Japan's Fukushima reactors, according to new research. Many at-risk plants are in countries less able to cope with a disaster than Japan, experts have warned.

Seventy-six operating power stations in Japan, Taiwan, China, South Korea, India, Pakistan and the US are located in areas close to coastlines deemed vulnerable to tsunamis.

Of 442 nuclear power stations globally, more than one in 10 are situated in places deemed to be at high or extreme risk of earthquakes – in Japan, the US, Taiwan, Armenia and Slovenia – according to a new study by the analysts Maplecroft.


Helen Hodge, Maplecroft's natural hazards analyst, said: "Although Japanese nuclear facilities are particularly exposed, other countries could also face similar risks. South Korea, Taiwan, southern China, India, Pakistan and the west coast of the US have operating or planned nuclear facilities on tsunami-exposed coastlines, while nuclear sites in areas of high or extreme risk of earthquakes can be found in western US, Taiwan, Armenia, Iran and Slovenia."

See?  Nothing to worry about at all.

Link:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/more-than-one-in-10-nuclear-power-plants-at-risk-from-earthquakes-2260817.html