It’s now more than a hundred days since the massive quake, the tsunami, and the Fukushima meltdown, but the western media hardly mention it any more. The only consolation in this deafening lack of extended interest is a growing measure of concern that floods and wild fires the USA could damage American nuclear facilities. I suppose that’s something, but damn…
“Just 100 days after a deadly earthquake and tsunami devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, concerns are being raised about several U.S. nuclear stations that are facing natural disasters of their own. Rising floodwaters from the Missouri River are threatening to damage Nebraska's Fort Calhoun Station and Iowa's Cooper Nuclear Station, while a raging forest fire is advancing towards the Los Alamps Nation Laboratory in New Mexico. The Los Alamos lab has been shut down since Monday, one day after a wildfire was sparked in the Santa Fe National Forest, while Fort Calhoun has been closed since mid-April for routine refueling. It remains closed, as floodwaters have crept up to 306 metres above sea level – 2.4 metres short of the plant's threshold "design base". Floodwaters at Cooper station are also below shut-down levels, "and the river would have to rise several feet even beyond that to reach a point where we'd be talking about Cooper's design base," Nuclear Regulatory Commision (NRC) spokesperson Scott Burnell told IPS. Still, many are comparing the United States' readiness for a disaster with Japan's emergency response in March.” (Click here for more)
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The secret word is Cobalt
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1 comment:
As far as media attention goes--there is not fundamental difference between the new media and MTV. Both have the attention span of a gnat. Once the new top story arrives the disaster is simply ignored. New Orleans, Haiti, Joplin, the list goes on and on.
Now as for nukes--We had that discussion before. They are not designed for impossible to occur disasters. And if they fail ultimately we pay.
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