East Coast earthquake poses significant engineering challenges
Tuesday’s earthquake in Virginia shut down two nuclear reactors. Seismic activity in the US is unlikely to cause a meltdown, but it poses significant engineering challenges.
The nuclear plants are all older than Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima plants that melted down after the March earthquake in Japan. About one third of the reactors in the US are boiling water reactors, using the same technology as the Fukushima Daiichi reactor in Japan.
Lynn Sykes, a noted seismologist with Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said in an interview that he’s particularly concerned about Entergy’s Indian Point Plants in Buchanan, N.Y., as well as FPL’s Seabrook Plant in Seabrook, N.H.
“We have to see how badly these North American plants have been shaken,” said Sykes. “These plants were not designed to withstand an earthquake of this magnitude.”
The Eastern Seaboard plants could also face potential risk from Hurricane Irene from power failures or flooding that could hamper operations.
