Post Fukushima, we owe it to ourselves and our children to focus on our own backyard nuclear reality -- Los Alamos.
What is becoming much more evident is that the location of Los Alamos, which may once have been a sentimental memory for Oppenheimer, in reality is an earthquake prone fault zone, built on the side of one of the biggest calderas in the world.We don't know exactly why the earthquake frequency is going up --is it 'fracking' (which is also happening in New Mexico), or is it the volcano itself ? or what?--fact is that the earth is stirring in a different way than before and it is affecting Los Alamos...
...In the last few months the public is becoming aware that Los Alamos' current plutonium processing facility, PF-4 , is substandard and earthquake prone. PF-4 is a nuclear facility, currently involved in pit production and in MOX fuel production for commercial nuclear power plants as well.
In a study of earthquake hazards of PF-4 the facility didn't meet the safety requirements in 13 out of 15 criteria. Like certain Lab insiders from LANL, we at the Los Alamos Study Group have become convinced that this facility will never come into compliance with seismic safety standards.
One of the items that failed were some 157 'glove boxes' -- relatively small containment areas where plutonium is being handled. To just bring these glove boxes into compliance will cost between $100.000 on the low side and on the high side $850,000 per box. That one high end glove box upgrade costs about as much as the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra is in debt, and they were shut down because of it...
For those not familiar with the term Pit Production - a Pit is an orange size plutonium metal sphere that can make a Nuclear Weapon Bang for the Buck !And for us out here it would not be a bad thing if the PF-4, pit and MOX production would never pass the safety standards - an environmental impact statement (EIS), because of the seismic activity in Los Alamos area, and would never be build out there ! While we strive for a Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power Free Future.
Ak Malten, Pro Peaceful Energy Use
No comments:
Post a Comment