[Marxism] more seismology info on Japan's nuclear reactor

[David Walters <dave.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Les, wow...I didn't know that. And you are correct, those issues you 
raise "siting, design, construction, inspection, and maintenance" are, 
generally, those issues I know least about (although I know a little 
about construction/design because that's what I've studied for the last 
year rather intensely).

There are several things we don't know about: the most important being 
*exact* damage done to equipment inside the plant.  Divided two ways, 
the balance of plant equipment (transformers, etc) and the conditions of 
the reactors themselves.  I think most engineers are holding any view 
off the table until all the reports are in, including an IAE team 
report. I suspect it'll be a few weeks until we draw any serious 
conclusions.

So far, the only thing that has been announced by the utility (grains of 
salt applied liberally) is that all the damage was done externally to 
the plant, i.e.: to the balance of plant equipment and that the actually 
"nuclear" part of the plant is just fine. We'll see.

The bigger issue is what to do with a 8 gigawatt, 7 reactor cluster of 
nuclear power plants sitting on a 6.8 earthquake fault? All of Japans 
auxiliary fossil plants are now on line pumping out carbon to make up 
for the short fall in megawatts.

David

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