A local East Idaho TV news reporter interviewed an official at the Idaho National Laboratory, regarding the safety of the INL’s nuclear reactor during a seismic event. INL’s emergency director Riley Chase made almost the same statements that Japanese officials made right before their nuclear disaster.
“If we were to have a seismic event, the safety systems would shut that reactor down…”, also, “…we have diesel generators that run, and we have battery backed-up systems that will provide and constantly keep cooling…”
I’d like to remind people that this is what the officials said in Japan. Their safety systems and back up systems failed. This is because the quake and tsunami in Japan was much stronger than anyone planned for. The Japanese systems were set up to withstand a 7.9 quake. It is now clear that the event was much, much stronger. I believe if we in Eastern Idaho experienced such a strong event the INL system would fail as well. A major fault line does run through East Idaho, from Salt Lake up to Yellowstone.
On the plus side, the INL reactor is low power, and is run for 6 weeks each time it’s powered up. So hope that the big one hits when the reactor is shut down.
By the way, the INL reactor is not the only nuclear plant in East Idaho. Idaho State University has a graphite reactor on its Pocatello campus. Shouldn’t be much concern, their ANG-201 reactor produces only 5 watts of power (at least that’s the maximum it is allowed to produce).
I have talked to long time building maintenance employees at the University, and they have told stories of the radioactive waste, from ANG-201, being stored in unmarked buildings. The story I heard was that some maintenance employees were on the roof of a building when they were suddenly told to get off the building. They were sent for medical exams, where they learned they were being checked for radiation exposure. Apparently the building they were on was being used to store radioactive waste.
This brings up the issue of radioactive waste. In the United States storage of radioactive waste has become a problem, because no one wants it in their back yard. So what happens to it? Some nuclear plants in California have simply been building up a stockpile of waste on their property. Here in East Idaho, the INL has been dealing with the problem of contaminated waste for decades. If the U.S. experiences a major seismic event near nuclear plants, not only will the reactors become an immediate threat, so will the waste.