Va. Quake May Have Exceeded Nuke Plant Design: NRC

REUTERS
Reuters US Online Report Domestic News

Aug 29, 2011 14:44 EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The historic earthquake that shut down Dominion Resources Inc's North Anna nuclear plant last week may have exceeded what the reactor was designed to withstand, the U.S. nuclear regulator said on Monday.


The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it has dispatched an additional team of inspectors to the Virginia plant that was rocked by the 5.8 magnitude earthquake last week, after initial reviews from Dominion indicated the ground motion may have went beyond the plant's design.

The North Anna plant can not be restarted until the operator can show that no "functional damage" occurred to equipment needed for the safe operation, the NRC said.

"The company and the NRC will continue to carefully evaluate information to determine if additional actions may be necessary," the regulator said in a statement.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2011/08/va_quake_may_have_exceeded_nuke_plant_design_nrc.php

great planning!

I'd be worried if I was living near it. O_O

:(

odd grammar for an official Reuters story-- "may have went beyond..."

and surface quakes behave differently than deep quakes... so that don't help.

To their credit... when they first designed it... this tidbit was not known.

And that is ... oh never mind, some folks will accuse me of hype...

:sarcasm:

could get North Anna decommissioned after spewing tritium etc into the environment for so many years. This thing is obsolete. Of course it's in Cantor's district so shhhhhhhh. Nothing to see here.

Reactors 3 and 4 are in the initial phases of construction.

This plant is only getting bigger, not being decommissioned

and only 90 miles from DC. Nothing could be more stupid.