Documents indicate earthquake exceeded North Anna specifications
The August 23, 2011 earthquake centered just 4 miles from the North Anna nuclear power plant in Mineral, Virginia has prompted an "augmented inspection team" of the reactor by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission following the initial disclosure that the 5.9 magnitude quake's ground acceleration likely exceeded the design specifications of the nuclear reactor.
The two unit reactor site automatically scrammed following the earthquake that shook most of the East Coast and damaged structures and monuments 90 miles away in Washington, DC when the power plant's electrical switchyard failed to maintain a power connection to the electrical grid. Three of the four emergency diesel generators powered up as needed but a fourth generator failed due to loss of cooling water.
However, one immediate concern focuses on the miles and miles of inaccessible and uninspected buried pipe that carry tritium contaminated radioactive water under the entire reactor complex. While the NRC "augmented" inspection will look over many of the "safety-related" components of the reactors, the federal agency has turned over all of its inspection and enforcement oversight of these inaccessible pipes carrying cancer causing radioactive tritium to a "voluntary initiative" run by the nuclear industry itself. The question of whether or not this radioactive water is now leaking out of broken buried pipes under the reactor complex into groundwater around the Lake Anna area is chiefly up to the industry to self report; a controversy identified by Beyond Nuclear in its 2010 report "Leak First, Fix Later."
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The Washington Post has reported on this story. The Hook in Charlottesville, VA quoted Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear on his concerns about potential damage to underground pipes that carry radioactive materials, as well as underground electrical cables essential for safety and cooling systems.
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Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter was also quoted in a New York Times article entitled "13 Plants Felt Earthquake, but Reactors Were Spared":
“Once again, Mother Nature is warning us that nuclear power is the most brittle of electrical power systems,” said Paul Gunter, director of reactor oversight for the Washington group Beyond Nuclear.