Friday, December 2, 2011

Just having generators in the basement caused Japan disaster

Article

This report seems to contradict other reports which showed significant events after the shaking and before the tsunami.  But the level of shaking was very low, about 20 cm/s and should not have caused damage to the heavy safety systems.  Doesn't mean other systems didn't get bunged up.  I would love to see the ground motion records, but being Japan -- not in my lifetime.

Somehow this is important for the nuclear industry, and this is being touted all over the place.  Having the backup generators in the basement is great for seismic shaking, but unfortunately not all places conform to this wonderful layout.  :)

When I was with some mythical power company, seems like a dream, nobody cared about the seismic capacity of the electrical systems - weren't safety systems.  Now I wonder....

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