| > The plant lost electrical connection to the grid, of course it had an emergency shutdown. Otherwise they'd have had to have found some other method of dissipating megawatts of electricity. A nuclear power plant always has an immediate shutdown in case of a strong earthquake: 'Japanese nuclear power plants are designed to withstand specified earthquake intensities evident in ground motion (Ss), in Gal units. The plants are fitted with seismic detectors. If these register ground motions of a set level (formerly 90% of S1, but at Fukushima only 135 Gal), systems will be activated to automatically bring the plant to an immediate safe shutdown.' http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-... > The fact that other plants have not been restarted is at least as likely to be political as it is technical. The words 'likely to be political' is no category in nuclear safety. Take this example from 2008: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C/Tepco_counts_earthquake_... 'Tepco's announcement yesterday included a section dedicated to the effects of the magnitude 6.8 Niigata-Chuetsu-Oki earthquake, which violently shook the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant on 16 July 2007. All seven of the reactors remained safe during the event, which caused huge damage to the region and several deaths. However, checks to establish the units' safety to return to service are proving very lengthy, and could continue into the latter part of 2008. The ongoing inspections at Kashiwazaki Kariwa are to cost ¥122 billion ($1.13 billion) in FY2007. In addition, ¥25 billion ($233 million) will go on civil engineering repairs while a geological survey of the site is to cost a total of ¥2 billion ($18 million).' Just the inspections after a safe shutdown for that nuclear power plant did cost more than 1 billion USD... |