Feds: Earthquake may have exceeded Virginia nuke plant's safeguards

[kristopher]

Feds: Earthquake may have exceeded Virginia nuke plant's safeguards
By Andrew Restuccia - 08/29/11 03:27 PM ET

The earthquake that prompted the shutdown of a Virginia nuclear power plant last week may have been more severe than the plant’s reactors were designed to withstand, federal regulators said.
The revelation is likely to put increased pressure on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to quickly implement a series of safety recommendations intended in part to protect plants from major natural disasters like earthquakes.
NRC said Monday that its preliminary analysis indicates that the ground motion caused by the magnitude-5.8 earthquake near the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County, Va., exceeded the maximum level the two reactors at the plant were built to handle.
But the commission noted in a statement Monday that “data is still being collected and analyzed to determine the precise level of shaking that was experienced at key locations within the North Anna facility.”
NRC decided to send ...

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/178627-earthquake-was-more-severe-than-virginia-nuke-plant-was-designed-to-withstand

It is worth noting that the earthquake intensity AT Fukushima (not the epicenter) only exceeded the design spec of those reactors by a relatively small amount also.

[madokie]

1. Has this nuke plant resumed production?

If not then what is the problem

[FBaggins]

2. They need to inspect within the containment

That requires bringing the plant to a cold shutdown.

There doesn't appear to be any damage but wouldn't they look like idiots to just power back up without checking and then have something go wrong?

And now that they think the quake may have exceeded the design basis, the inspections need to be even more thorough.

[Throckmorton]

3. Wrong again,

Operations does weekly full power walkdown inside containment.

They are moving to cold shutdown because the Tech Specs require it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Thanks for the real world info

it helps us peasants understand this better.

I know at the most basic levels they boil water, produce steam and run a turbine... but the fact that the forces may have gone over design spects should be making people go... this could be serious... operative word could... and not try minimize all.