Are U.S. nuclear plants prepared to withstand natural disasters equivalent to that of the Fukushima tsunami?

That is the question Arnie Gundersen answers with a resounding “no” in the latest video release from Fairewinds Communications.

We’re well aware of the chaos and delays that followed the Japanese accident, compounding an already grave situation; but what Arnie brings to light is the fact that the Japanese had somewhat better protocols in place for dealing with such a disaster, than we currently have here in the United States.  

The “design basis” in engineering U.S. nuclear plants is founded on a mathematically flawed assumption that the occurrence of natural events of extraordinary magnitude is highly unlikely over the 60-year predicted life-span of any one facility.  As Arnie points out there have recently been four natural events (two earthquakes and two flood events) occurring worldwide in the space of just six months that have each exceeded the “thousand-year event” prediction in terms of magnitude.

Among other fascinating glimpses into the inadequacy of U.S. disaster preparedness, Arnie discusses the computer program, “MACCS 2”, employed by the NRC to predict the impact of natural disasters on a cost/benefit basis. “Cost/benefit” is another way of saying that they are weighing the value of loss in terms of human lives against the monetary cost to the industry of engineering adequate safeguards to withstand maximal force.

For the purpose of this analysis, the NRC has established the value of a human life at three-million dollars, whereas other federal agencies place that value anywhere from five-million to nine-million dollars.

Although the MACC2 program has since been disavowed by its creator, the NRC continues to rely on it to establish regulations for the industry.  As a consequence, the NRC’s disaster planning allows for  human exposures one-hundred times greater than what the EPA recognizes as the limit!  

The NRC has allowed power plants to create “limited liability” corporations, isolating each plant’s liability and limiting it to $10 billion.  In Japan, where Tokyo Electric did not have the protection of limited liability, the cost of the Fukushima disaster alone is estimated at $250. billion and will bankrupt Tokyo Electric, still leaving a massive amount of the cost to be born by Japanese taxpayers.

Those of us who have sustained an interest in Fukushima find it disturbing that clean-up of the contaminated surroundings is predicted to take another several years and will likely have to be repeated periodically for many years after that.   But at least Japan is engaging in some sort of long-term environmental clean-up.  

Using the cost/benefit based computer program, NRC’s  projection for environmental clean-up following such a disaster assumes it would be largely dealt with through one-time burial and simple abandonment.

If you want to add some scary to your Halloween pre-season, have a listen to this chilling video discussion:

Are Regulators And The Nuclear Industry Applying The Valuable Lessons Learned From Fukushima? from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.