Thousands of citizens are in nuclear lockdown in their homes near a Japanese nuclear power plant in some stage of nuclear meltdown just days after the horrific 9.0 magnitude earthquake (4th largest in recorded world history) and the accompanying tsunami. Backup systems and safety devices are failing and the plant is now leaking a health threatening level of radiation.
As the news of this nuclear threat has grown steadily worse over the last few days, one has to ask, "How many nuclear power plants and facilities in the United States are located in earthquake zones?" Or more to the point, one might ask, "Could a nuclear meltdown happen in the United States after a powerful earthquake like that in Japan?"
To get the answer to the first question, let's look at a few maps. The first is a map of active nuclear power reactors in the United States (Courtesy the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - NRC), the second a map of earthquake risk zones in the United States:
Very quickly you will notice that there are 4 nuclear power plants located in California in the highest earthquake risk area in the United States. You will also notice that there are numerous areas in the Midwest and the East that have nuclear power plants and are located in earthquake danger zones.
It actually doesn't make me thrilled to find that there are 11 nuclear power plants in Illinois, my home state. Just see this map or go to my previous blog post on the threat of catastrophic earthquakes in the Central United States to see why this makes me concerned.
California isn't the only state with a risk of devastating earthquakes. Many millions of people in the United States live in proximity to nuclear power plants that are built in earthquake zones. This should make me and many others think about what we have done to prepare for the possibility of a radioactive leak from one of these power plants in the event of an earthquake or other devastating event or accident.
So this leads us to the question of, "Is it is possible that we could suffer a meltdown in the United States?" Well, Three Mile Island nuclear accident already got us dangerously close. Could an earthquake trigger a radioactive leak in the United States? I'm quite sure, in an extreme case like we are seeing in Japan, that it could. One need not be an expert to realize that there was a reason that the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in California shut down as a precaution when the tsunami from the Japanese earthquake threatened the West Coast. Earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear power plants are just not a good combination.
To get a more authoritative answer, we turn to Joe Cirincione, a recognized nuclear power expert. He says, "Could this happen in the United States? Yes, this could happen in the United States." According to Cirincione, Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California is "a classic case of a very large nuclear reactor in an area that's seismically active... A large earthquake could knock that reactor out. You could see a core meltdown scenario at that reactor as well."
The bottom line is that, despite all the safety measures and precautions, under the right scenario, we could indeed see a "Japanese Style" nucelar power plant meltdown in the United States. This is just another reason why all of us need to be prepared to evacuate our homes and businesses or shelter-in-place in the case of an emergency or disaster.
Every Life Secure
