SPECIAL FEATURES:
Email
Nuclear power and earthquake zones overlap in the U.S.
Earthquake in Japan raises concerns about what could happen in the U.S.
Fri, Mar 11 2011 at 1:43 PM
Related Topics:
IN THE ZONE: Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant in California sits within the most active earthquake zone in the United States. (Photo: emdot/Flickr)
Nuclear power is under the microscope as much of the world watches the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and the resulting tsunamis.
Fires near Japanese nuclear power plants are forcing evacuations and concerns for all the obvious reasons. Those concerns have traveled across the Pacific to California, where nuclear power plants are being shut down.
Let’s take a look at which nuclear power plants sit in the seismically active areas of the United States.
Generally, this concern is focused on the West Coast of the United States, because that's where most of our large earthquakes have occurred. There are no nuclear power plants in Hawaii or Alaska, but there are four nuclear reactor sites along the West Coast — one nuclear reactor site in Washington, two in California and one in Arizona. Here's a link to an interesting site, nukepills.com, where you can see the location of all nuclear power plants as well as the theoretical fallout zones.
Below, you can see the locations of the power plants, minus the fallout zones:
Now, these are just the power plants. There is a whole other issue with non-power nuclear reactors. These aren’t power plants, but research facilities such as universities where smaller-scale reactors are located. In all, there are eight of these sites along the West Coast. One is in Arizona, four are in California, two are in Oregon and one is in Washington. In all, the United States has 36 of these smaller sites, which can be seen below:
As you can see, most of the nuclear power plants and research facilities lie in the middle of the country. A good number that lie the West Coast are in the most seismically active parts of the nation, as this map from the United States Geological Survey shows:
Over the course of history, the concerns surrounding the nuclear industry have been focused on accidents that occurred despite safety regulations. This is what caused Chernobyl, and what has been blamed for the cause of Three Mile Island. While earthquakes and tsunamis can't be controlled, we can control what we know. And these maps allow us to know where the risks lie when it comes to nuclear industry and earthquakes.
Maps: Top map: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Second map: Nukepills.com; bottom map: USGS.gov.
The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.
You might also like:
Sign in with one of these accounts to add your comment.
EDITORS' PICKS
Advertisement
TODAY'S MOST POPULAR ON
- Man tattoos puppy, faces backlash
- Tornado survivor finds dog during live TV interview
- 15 famous people who mysteriously disappeared
- The squirrel that wears many hats
- 'Gay' dog rescued from Tenn. animal shelter
- The 8 happiest dogs on YouTube
- What causes tornadoes?
- 9 habits that may do more harm than good
- 13 natural remedies for the ant invasion
- 10 false facts most people think are true
From our sponsor
NEWSLETTER
Advertisement
The cost of nuclear power and the dangerous energy it provides for people is not cost effective. It is not the wind or the rain or the sun. Millions of years ago, people survived without factories that destroy the environment and contaminate the Earth.
People are quick to consider the costs of mining and processing materials for fission reactions but totally ignore the process of producing photovoltaics and turbines. You make more pollution making them- let alone maintaining vs the entire production, only reason nuclear costs more on any level is because of the red tape caused by misguided tree huggers.
Do you even know what a pebble bed reactor is?
Nuclear Power is a dangerous source of energy. It is not cost effective at all. It is not the wind or the sun or the rain. Close a nuclear power plant.
Are there studies that show that we could move to only renewable sources? Please link - in the face of all this "we must" and "we should" I'd like to know more about if we can...
Nuclear Power is a dangerous source of energy. It is not cost effective at all. It is not the wind or the sun or the rain. Close a nuclear power plant.
http://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-power-plant-world...
Do you realize you just said "there are several thousand nuclear powerplants..."?
If you count every reactor ever built, active and inactive, including for submarines, warships and research, you could not possibly come up with a number of several thousand. What you've foisted on us is an amazing, baldfaced lie.
A BIG ONE earthquake is expected for the US in the next thirty years. But it can happen tomorrow.
Someone with a clear mind and who is willing and able to learn from the actual Japanese example could draw only one conclusion. Shut those nuclear facilities
in this dangerous area down. As soon as possible.
Julian
Reactors are designed with regard to high seismic requirements. There will certainly be lessons to be learned from Japan's experience that can/should be shared among the 103 power stations in the US, which collectively supply about 20% of our electric power. We can be smart about how we respond without doing a "knee-jerk" reaction.
[4:22 a.m. ET, 6:22 p.m. Tokyo] The Tokyo Electric Company said four workers were injured in an explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. NHK said the injured workers were in the process of cooling a nuclear reactor at the plant by injecting water into its core. Walls of structure blown off. Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano has confirmed a radiation leak and says the government is stockpiling iodine as part of a contingency plan.
Why on God's green earth would you even consider building on a fault line? Because it can be done safely - as evidenced by the nuclear plants in Japan, which survived the quake without harming anyone.
[4:22 a.m. ET, 6:22 p.m. Tokyo] The Tokyo Electric Company said four workers were injured in an explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. NHK said the injured workers were in the process of cooling a nuclear reactor at the plant by injecting water into its core. Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano has confirmed a radiation leak and says the government is stockpiling iodine as part of a contingency plan.
Video:http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/youtube.htm?v=pg4uogOEUrU
No comments made about Arkansas Nuclear One? It lies about 150 miles west of the New Madrid Fault, which is an extremely volatile fault line and has been extremely active over the last few years.
It's right across the lake from a state park too. Nothing like climbing out of the tent to a nice peaceful view of the cooling tower. Oh, and, as if that wasn't bad enough, that's a dry county.
Essential safety components and systems in Nuclear plants have to meet strict seismic standards. It's good to focus on safety, but unnecessarily inciting fear does no one any good.
I suggest people read 10CFR100.23. This pertains directly to geological and seismic factors of a reactor site. Here is a link: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part100/part100-0023.html
Or, go back to your paranoia.
Pages