Thursday, September 1, 2011

Virginia Earthquake - Nuclear waste casks play the hokey-pokey

Article

The giant rusty barrels of nuclear waste did a little dance in Virginia.  They shifted as much as 11 cm.

This probably indicates a PGV of 40-60 cm/s on soft soil, since they invariably put these things on the worse foundation possible.  Of course we'll never know what the plant actually experienced, but I'm sure it was around 5-10 cm/s.

It reminds me of an old decrepit nuclear plant near Toronto.  They put the nuclear waste in rusty barrels, propped up on rusty stilts, on a swamp.  Since we determined they would fall with any earthquake, we actually had to show that the barrels would hold.  Would make a fine mess.


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