Florida Nuclear Plants Could Take a Direct Hit from Hurricane Irma

September 8, 2017

(Washington Post) - Florida’s two nuclear plants are in line for a possible direct hit from Hurricane Irma, but they are braced and ready, the plants’ owners said Friday.

NextEra Energy’s Turkey Point, which stands amid mangroves 25 miles south of Miami, and St. Lucie, located on a barrier island about 125 miles north of Miami, together provide about 13 percent of Florida’s electricity. Natural gas provides the overwhelming majority of the state’s electricity.

Each site has a pair of reactors. Turkey Point’s date back to 1972 and 1973; St Lucie’s were commissioned in 1976. Turkey Point survived Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm that in 1992 passed directly over the nuclear plant. Andrew remains the most destructive hurricane to hit the state. Forecasters say Irma will be near South Florida by Sunday morning.

“We have tried-and-true processes in place,” Eric Silagy, chief executive of NextEra Energy’s Florida Power & Light subsidiary, said.

Silagy said that the reactors would be shut down when Irma draws closer and winds hit Category 1 levels. The shutdown, which takes about 24 hours, reduces the temperature in the reactor. Lower temperatures reduce the amount of power needed for cooling, making the plant safer and less likely to spin out of control in an emergency.

“We have safely operated these plants for over 40 years,” Silagy said.

Nuclear plants are located near lakes, rivers and oceans because they need large amounts of water to cool the reactors. Turkey Point uses an unusual cooling system, relying on canals that cover 6,800 acres.

But during storms that creates hazards. Turkey Point stands just 20 feet above sea level. Essential equipment is 22 feet above sea level, the company’s website says. St. Lucie’s elevation is 15 feet above sea level.

Like other U.S. nuclear reactors, the Florida reactors have been required to improve and reexamine their disaster preparedness  after an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 devastated the northeast coast of Japan, knocking out essential electrical power to a fleet of nuclear reactors at Fukushima.

Flooding from the tsunami disabled backup generators and cut off power, resulting in a partial meltdown and the release of radioactive materials into the ocean and surrounding land areas. The vast majority of Japan’s nuclear fleet remains closed today.

Before Fukushima, U.S. nuclear reactors focused on other perils, such as securing radioactive materials.  The vital components of Turkey Point’s reactors are in buildings with steel-reinforced concrete walls six feet thick. But Fukushima showed that electricity supply could be an Achilles’ heel for reactors. Regulators assumed plants would not need to be without power for more than eight hours, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear power plant safety expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists. However, Fukushima was without power for nine days.

U.S. Military Lost Nuclear Weapons Seven Times: Four Times They Were Never Found

7 times the military lost nukes (and 4 times they were never found)

May 12, 2015

We Are The Mighty - The military makes a big deal out of when a rifle goes missing, not to mention when a nuke disappears. In spite of the fact the program is designed to be “zero defect,” here are 7 examples of doomsday devices wandering off (including a few where they never came back):

1. 1956: B-47 disappears with two nuclear capsules

U.S. Air Force

The first story on the list is also one of the most mysterious since no signs of the wreckage, weapons, or crew have ever been found. A B-47 Stratojet with two nuclear weapons took off from MacDill Air Force Base, Florida on March 10, 1956 headed to Morocco. It was scheduled for two midair refuelings but failed to appear for the second. An international search team found nothing. The U.S. military eventually called off the search.

South Korea Halts 2 Nuclear Plants for Using Control Cables with Fabricated Test Results

SKorea idles 2 nuke plants after cable tests faked

May 28, 2013

AP - South Korea has idled two nuclear power plants after finding that test results for crucial control cables were falsified in a new blow to an industry mired in a graft scandal and safety lapses.

South Korea's trade and energy ministry said Tuesday a company contracted to conduct tests fabricated the results for cables that failed to meet international standards for capacity to withstand changes in voltage and pressure. It warned that the plant shutdowns would result in summer power shortages.

The cables control valves that are responsible for cooling nuclear fuel or preventing the release of radioactive materials during an emergency. Another four nuclear reactors that were either shut down for scheduled maintenance or under construction were also using cables that had failed the tests.

"If these control cables do not operate well during an emergency, we viewed that it would not guarantee to cool nuclear fuels or to shut off radioactive materials," South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said in a statement.

It said the cables, which were in use since December 2011, failed nine of 12 tests pertinent to their operation in a "loss of coolant accident."

Han Jinhyun, vice trade and energy minister, declined to name the company while the government's investigation is ongoing. The ministry will sue the company and also ask prosecutors to launch a probe, he told a press conference.

The revelations add to public worries about nuclear safety and power shortages during the summer when demand is at its peak. They are a new blow to South Korea's ambitions to export its nuclear technology.

With the shutdown of the Shin-Kori No. 2 and Shin-Wolsong No. 1 reactors to replace cables, a total of 10 nuclear plants are now offline.

The minister said it would take around four months to replace the cables and warned "unprecedented power shortages" are expected in coming months.

"There is no means to increase power supply in the short term, so we expect we need to lower demand considerably to weather the crisis," he said.

Last year, the South Korean nuclear industry was rocked by revelations that thousands of components used in nuclear plants had falsified quality certificates. Dozens of employees at state owned nuclear power plant operator, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., were prosecuted for taking bribes from contractors to accept substandard parts and machinery.

The investigation into the cable problems began after the nuclear safety commission received tips through a whistleblowing channel that was set up in the wake of last year's scandal.

"This incident is more serious than previous scandals because it is wrongdoing by a company that is supposed to oversee products," said Kim Ik-jung, a medical professor at Dongguk University who has become prominent as an anti-nuclear activist since the government decided to build a nuclear waste dump in Gyeongju city where he lives.

"Corruption is widespread in the nuclear industry because there is no agency that can truly regulate Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power," he said.

South Korea has 23 nuclear power plants which supply about 30 percent of its energy and plans to add another 11 reactors by 2025.

Power Still Out at Damaged Nuclear Plant in Japan

Power still out at damaged nuclear plant in Japan

March 19, 2013

AP - A power outage has left four fuel storage pools at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant without fresh cooling water for nearly 20 hours, raising concerns about the fragility of a facility that still runs on makeshift equipment.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that pool temperatures at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant were well within safe levels, and that pools would remain safe for at least four days without fresh cooling water. The utility said the reactors were unaffected and no other abnormalities were found.

The cooling system was restored at one of the four pools by mid-afternoon Tuesday, and the systems for the three other pools are expected to resume by Wednesday morning as workers complete repairs and try to determine the cause the problem, TEPCO officials said.

Workers fixed the last of the three switchboards that they suspect as a possible cause of the problem and the utility was preparing a backup system in case the repairs didn't fix the issue, TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono told reporters.

"If worse comes to worst, we have a backup water injection system," Ono said.

Japan's March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plant's power and cooling systems, causing three reactor cores to melt and fuel storage pools to overheat.

The current power outage is a major test for TEPCO to show if it has learned anything from the disaster. TEPCO, which has repeatedly faced cover-up scandals, was slammed by local media Tuesday for waiting hours to disclose the blackout.

Ono acknowledged the plant was vulnerable.

"Fukushima Dai-ichi still runs on makeshift equipment, and we are trying to switch to something more permanent and dependable, which is more desirable," he said. "Considering the equipment situation, we may be pushing a little too hard."

Ono said the utility did not immediately try to switch to a backup cooling system because doing so without finding and fixing the cause could lead to a repeat of the problem. There is a backup cooling system but no backup outside power.

Regulators previously have raised concerns about the makeshift equipment and urged the plant to switch them to a more permanent arrangement. The operator still has to remove melted, fatally radioactive fuel from the reactors before fully decommissioning the plant, which officials say could take 40 years.

Yoshihide Suga, the chief government spokesman, sought to allay concerns.

"In a sense, we have put in place measures that leave no room for worry," Suga told reporters in a regular briefing.

The command center at the plant suffered a brief power outage before 7 p.m. Monday. Electricity was quickly restored to the command center but not to equipment pumping water into the fuel pools.

The temperature in the four pools had risen slightly, but was well below the utility's target control temperature of 65 degrees Celsius, TEPCO said.

4.3 Magnitude Earthquake Reported in Kentucky

4.3 Magnitude Earthquake Reported in Kentucky

November 10, 2012 

Huffington Post - The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting that an earthquake centered in Kentucky also rattled at least eight other states.

The USGS website says the epicenter of the 4.3 magnitude earthquake on Saturday afternoon was about 10 miles west of Whitesburg, near the Virginia line. Residents in both states, as well as West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Georgia, also reported feeling the temblor.

National Weather Service spokesman Jeff Carico said employees at the office in Jackson, which is about 60 miles northwest of Whitesburg, felt the ground shake for about 15 seconds. He says the office has gotten numerous calls, but so far no one has reported any serious damage.

USGS geophysicist John Bellini said the quake is considered "light."

"It's not going to cause any significant damage," he said.

Bellini said people near the epicenter might have pictures fall off walls or books tumble from shelves.

That's exactly what happened at the Blackey Public Library, which is just west of Whitesburg in Letcher County and about 200 miles southeast of Louisville. Library worker Bonnie Asher said she was coming downstairs when she heard a big boom. Asher said the entire building shook and the lights flickered off and on, and at first she thought maybe a plane had crashed nearby.

"It was very scary," she said. "It knocked about 14 books off one shelf."

Otherwise, though, she said it happened quickly and there wasn't any lasting damage.
Whitesburg resident Charlotte Brown said she was at home and talking to a friend at her front door when she felt the ground start to shake – just a little bit at first, then harder.

"It made me nervous," she said, but the shaking lasted only a few seconds and didn't hurt anything.

"It did shake the house and the dishes rattled," she said.

In Tennessee, some workers at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge felt the temblor, but spokeswoman Ryn Etter said there was no impact to the plant.

Tennessee Valley Authority spokeswoman Jessica Stone said no problems from the quake have been reported at any plants operated by the nation's largest public utility.

Officials to Emit Seismic Tests Near California Nuclear Plant

Officials Mull Seismic Tests Near California Nuke Plant

September 30, 2012

AP - Plans to use an array of powerful air cannons in an undersea seismic study near a Central California nuclear power plant have federal and state officials juggling concerns over marine life with public safety.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. wants to use big air guns to emit strong sound waves into a large, near-shore area that includes parts of marine reserves to make three-dimensional maps of fault zones, some of which were discovered in 2008, near its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.

But a state study, mandated by AB1632, signed into law in 2006, found the project is likely to have "unavoidable adverse effects" on marine life and the environment. Biologists, environmental groups and fishermen have opposed using the high-energy air guns, saying the blasts have potential to harm endangered whales, California sea otters and other creatures frequenting these waters.

"I am very concerned about impacts to marine mammals, especially some of the large whales including blue, fin, and humpback whales," said John Calambokidis, an Olympia, Wash.-based marine biologist who has studied Pacific Ocean whales for decades. "There are many uncertainties on the impact of this type of operation on whales, especially since we have not seen this type of large air gun survey off California for a long time."

The $64 million, ratepayer-funded effort to understand seismic threats to the plant has intensified since the disastrous 2011 Tohoku quake and tsunami, which disabled reactors at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Quake experts were surprised by the 9.0-magnitude quake on a fault that scientists did not believe would produce a quake stronger than 8.0.

Although the Japan disaster demonstrated that predicting the strength of a quake on a given fault is an inexact science, PG&E wants to know if the newly discovered faults near San Luis Obispo are connected to existing ones that have already been studied. Seismologists typically use a fault's length to estimate the maximum possible earthquake it can produce.

"People need to understand, we're living in the world post-Fukushima, so we need to go back and review everything we think we know about the seismic threat situation around important structures like this power plant," said Bruce Gibson, a former seismologist who now serves as a San Luis Obispo County supervisor.

"Unfortunately, from an environmental impact standpoint, the only real way to get the images is to put high energy sound into the earth."

If the project gains approval from myriad agencies, scientists would tow up to 18 air guns behind a boat and blast loud sound into the water over a 530-square-nautical-mile area. Hundreds of sensors would be placed strategically on the seafloor, picking up the reverberations and allowing computers to create three-dimensional maps in technology similar to an ultrasound.

The air guns and sensors would be dragged through an area that includes two state marine protected areas — Cambria and White Rock — and is adjacent to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Dozens of endangered and threatened species use these waters.

A similar seismic survey is being planned near the state's other nuclear plant at San Onofre, in San Diego County to the south.

A State Lands Commission environmental impact study found on Aug. 20 there would be "unavoidable impacts" to marine life in the area during the San Luis Obispo testing.

But the commission also concluded the "benefit of the project outweighs the unavoidable adverse impacts," said Jennifer DeLeon, a senior environmental scientist at the commission.

While similar high energy seismic surveys have been done on the Pacific Coast — most recently off Washington — PG&E said monitors there did not observe harm to whales or other marine mammals.
The powerful cannons used in these projects can be fatal to animals that stray too close to them. Also, biologists said the loud noises could drive migrating whales and their calves apart, and that mortally wounded whales often sink in the ocean, so it is difficult to see how the tests affect the creatures.

Efforts to mitigate such impacts will reduce, but not eliminate, harm to animals, according to the company and earth scientists.

"The sound source for the PG&E imaging project is a type that has been used for several decades by scientists and industry," Donna Blackman, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, said in an email. "Known cases of possible impacts on marine mammals are very few. An integral part of using this type of system is to have continuous monitoring for whales within close range of the ship."

PG&E said it is spending $8 million on monitoring for the project, said Mark Krausse, a PG&E director.

"If the ship is coming within 1.1 mile of any mammal, not just a marine or listed, but any mammal, we have to shut down," Krausse told the California Fish and Game Commission on Monday.

PG&E wanted to start work Nov. 1 and continue through Dec. 31 — a time window believed to have lower whale traffic off the Central Coast. But the company has asked for an extension of its hearing before the California Coastal Commission, and other agencies are not expected to approve testing permits by then.

Major environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council oppose the plan, saying adequate seismic research already has been done, and that too little is understood about potential long-term impacts of the air guns on the marine environment.

"The marine protected areas were created (so) marine wildlife could thrive without human interference," said Amanda Wallner of Sierra Club California. "We share concern over earthquake risk at Diablo Canyon. However, we don't believe this is the best way or the only way to determine seismic risks."

Related: 

Most U.S. nuclear plants are on an ocean or one of the Great Lakes or have closed-loop cooling systems that don’t rely as much upon water from nearby rivers or lakes.

Many of the nuclear power plants in the United States are located near dangerous earthquake zones

There are 104 nuclear plants in the United States, and fifteen of them are located in what is known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, a region defined by a fault line of the same name.

Source

Japan Experts Warn of Future Risk of Giant Tsunami

Japan Experts Warn of Future Risk of Giant Tsunami

April 1, 2012

AP - Revised estimates of the potential impact from an earthquake off Japan's southern coast show much of the country's Pacific shore could be inundated by a tsunami more than 34 meters (112 feet) high.

A government-commissioned panel of experts says a tsunami unleashed by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake in the Nankai trough, which runs east of Japan's main island of Honshu to the southern island of Kyushu, could top 34 meters.

An earlier forecast in 2003 put the potential maximum height of such a tsunami at less than 20 meters (66 feet).

The revisions, posted on a government website, are based on new research following last March's magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami, which devastated a long stretch of Japan's northeastern coast and killed about 19,000 people.

Last year's catastrophe, and the ensuing crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, has prompted sweeping reviews of Japan's disaster preparedness, and criticism over apparent failures to take into account potential risks.

The tsunami knocked out power at the 40-year-old coastal nuclear plant, leading to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. Tens of thousands of residents have had to leave the area, and it's unclear whether some will ever be able to move back.

The Fukushima plant was designed to withstand a 6-meter (20-foot) tsunami. The actual surge was 14 meters (45 feet) high.

In other unsettling news, another government report shows that a strong earthquake hitting the Tokyo Bay region could shake the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area — home to more than 33 million people — at the maximum seismic intensity of 7 on the Japanese scale.

The report, issued Friday by the Ministry of Education, came in the form of mapping that shows that much of the Tokyo region would likely experience severe shaking from a magnitude-7.3 earthquake inside Tokyo Bay.

The study prompted calls for Tokyoites to be better prepared for such disasters. Although they live with the constant threat of a major earthquake that experts have long said is overdue for the region, not all living in the region keep recommended water and other supplies on hand.

A report in the newspaper Asahi Shimbun listed troubles that might be expected from a major quake, such as electricity outages that could persist for more than a week and water supply disruptions that could last for nearly a month, based on government estimates.

The revised tsunami forecast for a possible Nankai earthquake says Tokyo could expect waves up to 2.3 meters (7.6 feet) high. But at the coastal town of Kuroshio, on the island of Shikoku, the tsunami could top 34 meters (112 feet), it shows.

The computer modeling for the revised forecasts assumes a high tide for the highest estimates.

California Slammed With Fukushima Radiation

California Slammed With Fukushima Radiation

March 30, 2012

Zero Hedge - The Journal Environmental Science and Technology reports in a new study that the Fukushima radiation plume contacted North America at California “with greatest exposure in central and southern California”, and that Southern California’s seaweed tested over 500% higher for radioactive iodine-131 than anywhere else in the U.S. and Canada:

Projected paths of the radioactive atmospheric plume emanating from the Fukushima reactors, best described as airborne particles or aerosols for 131I, 137Cs, and 35S, and subsequent atmospheric monitoring showed it coming in contact with the North American continent at California, with greatest exposure in central and southern California. Government monitoring sites in Anaheim (southern California) recorded peak airborne concentrations of 131I at 1.9 pCi m−3

Anaheim is where Disneyland is located.

EneNews summarizes the data:

Corona Del Mar (Highest in Southern California)

• 2.5 Bq/gdwt (gram dry weight)= 2,500 Bq/kg of dry seaweed

Santa Cruz (Highest in Central California)

• 2.0 Bq/gdwt = 2,000 Bq/kg of dry seaweed

Simon Fraser University in Canada also tested North American seaweed after Fukushima:

• “In samples of dehydrated seaweed taken on March 15 near the North Vancouver SeaBus terminal, the count was zero; on March 22 it was 310 Bq per kilogram; and by March 28 it was 380 Bq/kg.” -Vancouver Sun
• Seaweed in Seattle also tested positive for iodine-131; levels were not reported -KIRO
• No results after March 28 were reported

In addition, radioactive debris is starting to wash up on the Pacific Coast. And because the Japanese are burning radioactive materials instead of disposing of them, radioactive rain-outs will continue for some time … even on the Pacific Coast.

Of course, the government is doing everything it can to help citizens cover up what’s occurring. We pointed out in January:

Instead of doing much to try to protect their citizens from Fukushima, Japan, the U.S. and the EU all just raised the radiation levels they deem “safe”.

Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says that high-level friends in the State Department told him that Hillary Clinton signed a pact with her counterpart in Japan agreeing that the U.S. will continue buying seafood from Japan, despite that food not being tested for radioactive materials [see this].

And the Department of Energy is trying to replace the scientifically accepted model of the dangers of low dose radiation based on voodoo science. Specifically, DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley Labs used a mutant line of human cells in a petri dish which was able to repair damage from low doses of radiation, and extrapolated to the unsupported conclusion that everyone is immune to low doses of radiation….

Indeed:

American and Canadian authorities have virtually stopped monitoring airborne radiation, and are not testing fish for radiation. (Indeed, the EPA reacted to Fukushima by raising “acceptable” radiation levels.)

So – as in Japan – radiation is usually discovered by citizens and the handful of research scientists with funding to check, and not the government. See this, this, this, this, this and this

The Japanese government’s entire strategy from day one has been to cover up the severity of the Fukushima accident. This has likely led to unnecessary, additional deaths.

Indeed, the core problem is that all of the world’s nuclear agencies are wholly captured by the nuclear industry … as are virtually all of the supposedly independent health agencies.

So the failure of the American, Canadian and other governments to test for and share results is making it difficult to hold an open scientific debate about what is happening.

And it’s not just radiation from Japan. An effort by the Southern California Edison power company to secretly ramp up production to avoid public disclosure may have led to a leak at the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

And see these articles on California radiation exposure courtesy of EneNews:

• Anaheim, CA has highest amount of radioactive fallout of any EPA air monitoring station in Continental U.S. for iodine-131
• Over EPA limit: Cesium levels in San Francisco area milk now higher than 6 months ago
• USGS: Los Angeles area had highest cesium deposition in US after Fukushima
• “Tends to concentrate in the testicles”: 360+ atoms of radioactive sulfur per day may have been inhaled by Californians after Fukushima
• Unprecedented Spike: 1501 atoms of radioactive sulfur per meter³ was detected in California air
• Radioactive sulfur in California spiked to highest levels ever detected: University researchers
• Controversy after US gov’t estimate showed 40,000 microsievert thyroid dose for California infants from Fukushima — Data not released to public — “Very high doses to children”
• Spike in radiation levels for West Coast? “Abnormal” readings on 8 of 18 EPA monitors for California, Oregon, Washington — Devices now “undergoing quality review”
• Nuclear policy expert: “Striking” that radioactive iodine-131 in California rainwater is so far above level permitted in drinking water
• Uranium-234 detected in Hawaii, Southern California, and Seattle

East Coast Earthquake Was Twice What North Anna Nuclear Plant Was Designed to Withstand

East Coast Earthquake: Twice What Nuclear Plant Designed to Withstand

September 10, 2011

USA TODAY - The 5.8-magnitude earthquake last month in Virginia caused about twice as much ground shaking as a nearby nuclear power plant was designed to withstand, according to a preliminary federal analysis.

Parts of the North Anna Power Station in Mineral, Va., 11 miles from its epicenter, endured jolts equal to 26% of the force of gravity (0.26g) from some of the vibrations unleashed by the quake, said Scott Burnell, spokesman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

An NRC document says the reactors' containment structure was built to withstand 12% of the force of gravity (0.12g.) Dominion, the plant's operator, says parts of the plant can handle up to 0.18g.

"It's the things inside the buildings that may have been shaken more than the design called for," Burnell said, adding the buildings themselves appear to have been less affected.

He said the analysis is based on a seismograph reading taken about 30 miles away by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Whatever the final numbers on shaking or ground motion, the plant withstood the jolts, Burnell said, indicating there's a "great deal" of safety margin. "That margin was certainly enough for North Anna this time."

Then "maybe you shouldn't rely on the margin," said Edwin Lyman at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit critical of nuclear energy.

"The jury is still out," he said, on whether the plant was adequately designed.

The two reactors at the North Anna plant, which began operation in 1978 and 1980, have remained closed since the Aug. 23 quake. They automatically shut down after losing off-site power. Backup diesel generators kept their cores cool until electricity was restored several hours later.

Dan Stoddard, Dominion's senior vice president of operations, said Friday that initial readings from the facility's scratch plates and other monitors indicate its shaking during the quake exceeded its design, but he declined to give numbers. Dominion officials plan to brief the NRC today on those findings.

Stoddard said the quake caused "no significant damage" to the facility, based on Dominion's ongoing inspections. He said there were some cosmetic cracks in concrete and floor tiles and 25 of 27 vertical casks holding spent-fuel assemblies moved up to 4.5 inches.

"The plant is safe," he told reporters, adding all radiology readings have been normal.

He said it will be operational again once inspections are complete.

The NRC sent in an augmented inspection team that's slated to continue its work through next week.

Earthquake Could Cause a Severe Accident at a U.S. Nuclear Plant

Earthquake Threat to Nuclear Reactors Far Higher Than Realized

September 2, 2011

AP - The risk that an earthquake would cause a severe accident at a U.S. nuclear plant is greater than previously thought, 24 times as high in one case, according to an AP analysis of preliminary government data.

The nation's nuclear regulator believes a quarter of America's reactors may need modifications to make them safer.

The threat came into sharp focus last week, when shaking from the largest earthquake to hit Virginia in 117 years appeared to exceed what the North Anna nuclear power plant northwest of Richmond was built to sustain.

The two North Anna reactors are among 27 in the eastern and central U.S. that a preliminary Nuclear Regulatory Commission review has said may need upgrades. That's because those plants are more likely to get hit with an earthquake larger than the one their design was based on.

Just how many nuclear power plants are more vulnerable won't be determined until all operators recalculate their own seismic risk based on new assessments by geologists, something the agency plans to request later this year.

The NRC on Thursday issued a draft of that request for public comment.

The review, launched well before the East Coast quake and the Japan nuclear disaster in March, marks the first complete update to seismic risk in years for the nation's 104 existing reactors, despite research showing greater hazards.

The NRC and the industry say reactors are safe as they are, for now. But emails obtained in a more than 11,000-page records request by The Associated Press show that NRC experts were worried privately this year that plants needed stronger safeguards to account for the higher risk assessments.

The nuclear industry says last week's quake proved reactors are robust.

When the rumbling knocked out off-site power to the North Anna plant in Mineral, Va., the reactors shut down and cooled successfully, and the plant's four locomotive-sized diesel generators turned on.

Story: 27 nuclear reactors more vulnerable to quakes

Spent fuel containers shifted

The quake also shifted about two dozen spent fuel containers, but Dominion Virginia Power said Thursday that all were intact.

Still, based on the AP analysis of NRC data, the plant is 38 percent more likely to suffer core damage from a rare, massive earthquake than it appeared in an analysis 20 years ago. That increased risk is based on an even bigger earthquake than the one last week.

Richard Zuercher, a spokesman for Dominion, the plant operator, says the earlier estimate "remains sound because additional safety margin was built into the design when the station was built."

The safety cushion would shrink, though, if the plant's risk is found to be greater.

Story: Safety rules loosened for aging nuclear reactors

Federal scientists update seismic assessments every five to six years to revise building codes for some structures. But no similar system is in place for all but two of the nation's 104 reactors — even though improving earthquake science has revealed greater risks than previously realized. The exception is Diablo Canyon in earthquake-prone California, which has been required to review the risk of an earthquake routinely since 1985.

The NRC does not require plants to re-examine their seismic risks to renew operating licenses for 20 years.

After the March earthquake in Japan that caused the biggest nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, NRC staffers fretted in emails that the agency's understanding of earthquake risk for existing reactors was out of date.

In a March 15 email, for example, an NRC earthquake expert questioned releasing data to the public showing how strong an earthquake each plant was designed to withstand. The seismologist, Annie Kammerer, acknowledged that recent science showed stronger quakes could happen.

"Frankly, it is not a good story for us," she wrote to agency colleagues.

Kammerer's boss, Brian Sheron, who heads the NRC's Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, wrote in a March 14 email that updated numbers showed the government "didn't know everything about the seismicity" in the central and the eastern part of the country.

"And isn't there a prediction that the West Coast is likely to get hit with some huge earthquake in the next 30 years or so? Yet we relicense their plants," he wrote.

The NRC flagged the 27 plants for possible upgrades by calculating the likelihood of a severe accident based on 2008 hazard maps from the U.S. Geological Survey and comparing it to the seismic risk estimated in 1989 or 1994.

Those data were used the last time existing reactors evaluated their earthquake hazards.

The NRC identified the 27 reactors with the greatest risk increase but did not provide the risk numbers. The AP used the NRC's data and methodology to calculate the risk increase for each reactor.

US nuke industry not ready?

The Perry 1 reactor in Ohio tops the list with the steepest rise in the chance of core damage: 24 times as high as thought in 1989. The four other plants with the largest increases include River Bend 1 in Louisiana, up nine times; Dresden 2-3 in Illinois, eight times; Farley 1-2 in Alabama, seven times, and Wolf Creek 1 in Kansas, also seven times. The smallest increase was the 38 percent at North Anna.

Story: Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites

Todd Schneider, a spokesman for First Energy Corp., which operates the Perry plant, said the increase in its seismic risk estimated by the NRC is misleading. He said Perry is capable of withstanding an even larger earthquake than is typical for the region.

Personnel at a handful of other plants, including Indian Point outside New York City and Oconee in South Carolina, have already redone the NRC's calculations, and they show a much lower risk of core damage from earthquakes. Those calculations have not yet been reviewed by the agency, which along with other federal agencies is developing a baseline earthquake risk for every nuclear power plant to use.

The average risk to U.S. reactors of core damage from a quake remains low, at one accident every 500 years, according to the AP analysis of NRC data.

But predicting earthquake probability and damage is dicey; the Japanese nuclear industry was taken by surprise in March when a quake-driven tsunami far surpassed predictions and swamped the Fukushima Dai-ichi site.

The U.S. nuclear industry may not be fully ready, either. Current regulations don't require the NRC to make sure nuclear reactors are still capable of dealing with a new understanding of the threats.

It's not just earthquakes. It is all types of events, including floods, tornadoes and hurricanes, said an NRC official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the agency's recent seismic work.

The worry about earthquakes is not so much direct damage to the reactor vessel, the hardened enclosure where the nuclear reaction takes place, but to water tanks and mechanical and electrical equipment needed when disaster strikes. The failure of those systems could disable cooling needed to prevent meltdowns of radioactive fuel.

Interactive: Population within 10 and 50 miles of nuclear power

In some of the emails obtained by the AP, NRC staffers worried that U.S. reactors had not thoroughly evaluated the effects of aftershocks and the combined impact of a tsunami and earthquake. They suggested plants might need more durable piping as well as better flood barriers and waterproof storage of essential equipment. Staffers talked of a need for bigger supplies of fuel and batteries for extended losses of all electrical power. One email expressed concern about some key pumps at Dresden that might fail in an earthquake.

In a separate problem reported last month, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy acknowledged that its older control rods could get stuck if an earthquake struck when reactors were running at low power. Control rods are needed to stop the nuclear reaction. The manufacturer has alerted the operators of 35 U.S. reactors at 24 sites, who are checking whether replacements are needed.

The AP documented scores of instances of such wear and tear in a range of equipment in a June investigative series showing that safety standards have been relaxed to keep aging reactors within the rules.

Story: What are the odds? US nuke plants ranked by quake risk

'We had no idea'

When the NRC ran preliminary calculations of quake risk last year, it was the first time the agency had reassessed the threat since most plants were built.

"The plants were more vulnerable than they realized, but they weren't unsafe. We look at rare, rare events," said Kammerer, the NRC seismologist.

Plants built a generation ago were designed to withstand an earthquake larger than any known to have occurred in the area.

But since then, scientists have been able to better estimate the earthquakes that are possible. And in some cases, those rare quakes could be larger and more frequent than those the plants were designed for.

"If they met a certain level, they didn't look any further," Gregory Hardy, an industry consultant at Simpson, Gumpertz and Hegger in Newport Beach, Calif., said of some of the industry's earlier assessments. "Forty years ago, when some of these plants were started, the hazard — we had no idea. No one did."

Story: Senators demand congressional probe on nuke safety

Seismologists inside the agency didn't recognize that increasing earthquake risk was an issue until operators started applying to build new reactors at existing plant sites in the central and eastern United States in 2003.

Those applications included a thorough analysis of the risk posed by earthquakes, which is required for all new nuclear power plants.

In some cases, the result was much higher than risk calculations performed by the industry in the early 1990s as part of a broader assessment of worst-case disasters.

"We did have some idea that the hazard was going up" in the period between the late 1990s analysis and the applications for new reactors, said Clifford Munson, a senior technical adviser in the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactors.

But Munson said some of the research indicated that there was disagreement on whether the ground motion predicted would damage nuclear power plants.

Kamal Manoly, another NRC senior technical adviser, said,

"There was nothing alarming (enough) for us to take quick action."

But a task force requested by President Barack Obama to make U.S. safety recommendations after the Japanese accident has questioned that. Its three-month review concluded that existing reactors should re-examine their earthquake risk more often.

Some operators are expressing caution about the NRC's initial analysis, and say their own early calculations show that their facilities are at much lower risk. The differences between the calculations of government and industry have prompted some to call for a third-party review.

Story: US nuclear evacuation plans haven't kept up with population

"It sort of defies logic to ask the regulated entity to do the seismic analysis to determine whether upgrades are necessary or relicensing is appropriate," said California Sen. Sam Blakeslee, a geophysicist who pushed a bill through the Legislature giving the California Energy Commission a role in assessing seismic risk, particularly at Diablo Canyon. "There needs to be a more arm's length relationship in getting this technical information."

There will always be uncertainties, experts say.

"If all these plants were subjected to large earthquakes, that's the only way anybody can say for sure. But the only ones we know of are in Japan," said Hardy, referring to the quake that struck in March and another in 2007 that damaged the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.

"There is a pretty good technical feeling that U.S. plants are going to be safe," Hardy said, "but there is just a question of how much work it will take to show it."

Nuclear Power Plants in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania Taken Offline Due to Earthquake; East Coast Earthquake a Nuclear Wake-Up Call for U.S.

Nuclear power plants in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania were taken offline due to power outages after the earthquake

Anna Nuclear Plant Forced to Vent Steam Following Power Failure from Virginia Earthquake

The Anna nuclear power plant, hit by the Virginia Earthquake, was forced to release steam after losing electricity and a generator used to cool the plant failed.

August 24, 2011

Alexander Higgins - Earlier today two of the nuclear power plants at the epicenter of today’s 5.9 earthquake were taken offline due to a power outage. The cooling functions at those plants were switched to run off emergency backup generators. 1 of the 4 generators failed within minutes despite an earlier NRC inspection and certification the generators were fit to use in the event of an emergency like today.

Backup Generator Cooling Nuclear Power Plant Shutdown By Virginia Quake Fails

The NRC is now reporting one of the four back up generators that has been shutdown at the epicenter of the 5.9 Virginia earthquake has failed.

There has been a series of unusual events at nuclear power plants across the nation from North Carolina to Virgina following today’s 5.9 earthquake that struck with an epicenter near Mineral, Virginia’s Anna nuclear power plant.

The earthquake caused power outages at the Anna plant which forced workers to shutdown the reactors and switch to emergency backup generator’s to cool the nuclear fuel rods at the reactor. While the NRC supposedly tested and certified the safety and functionality at the nuclear plant following the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the NRC is now reporting that one of the backup generators at the plant failed just moments after being started.

As reported earlier the media initially ignored reporting on the status of the Anna nuclear power plant near the epicenter of today’s Virgina earthquake.

Media Silent On Fate Of Anna Nuclear Plant At Epicenter Of 5.9 Mineral Virginia Earthquake

A massive 5.9 earthquake, the largest ever [for the area] in recorded history, which has been felt across the U.S. from Colorado to Massachusetts, has an epicenter near Mineral Virginia’s Anna Nuclear Power Plant.

Read more…

Soon after the media began reporting on the status of plant saying the plants electrical power had been cut-off and the spent fuel pools at the reactors were being cooled by power supplied by emergency backup generators at the nuclear plant.

Two Nuclear Reactors Taken Offline, 9 Declare Unusual Events, After Virginia Earthquake

After raising the question on why the media was being silent on the fate of the Anna Virginia nuclear reactors we learn the earthquake has taken 9 nuclear plants offline.

Read more…

CNN is now reporting that, according the NRC, one of the four emergency generators providing electricity to cool the reactors has failed. The generator failure even comes after the NRC reviewed them and said they were in ready working order following the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan.

[...]

Read The Rest

Now CNN reports that the nuclear power plant was forced to vent steam into the atmosphere, which I assume was step needed to relieve pressure inside the overheating reactor to prevent a hydrogen explosion like the ones that occurred at the Fukushima nuclear reactor.

CNN reports on the release of steam from the Anna nuclear plant, in which they oddly quote a county spokesperson instead of an official from the plant, or an official from the NRC.

The earthquake triggered the automatic shutdown of a nuclear power plant less than 20 miles from the epicenter after it lost electricity. The quake signaled “unusual events” at 12 other nuclear facilities across the East Coast and Michigan, U.S. authorities reported.

Dominion Virginia Power said both reactors at its North Anna plant shut down after the first tremors. [Louisa County spokeswoman Amanda] Reidelbach said the plant vented steam, but there was no release of radioactive material. Dan Stoddard, senior vice president of nuclear operations for Dominion, said there was no damage to the spent fuel pool.

Officials were restoring full power to the site, which was operating on diesel generators. Stoddard said that might happen by late Tuesday, but that was before the evening aftershock. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was monitoring the plant.

[...]

Source: CNN

CNN did not report on why was the plant forced to release steam when NRC officials reported the plant was in stable condition and operating normally on the back up generators.

Energy News posted the following photo of the reactor venting steam.

Venting Of Steam From Anna Nuclear Reactor Credit - WAVY

Diane Sawyer talks with nuclear expert Michio Kaku:

Sawyer: [...] When you have to go to the backup to the backup that doesn’t sound good.

Michio Kaku, Physicist: Not good at all. We just dodged a bullet on this one. There are 4 backup pumps, one of them is out… if all four go out then you are on the road to a full scale meltdown [...]

The EPA radnet radiation monitors in the area, which display radiation data controlled and supplied by the government, has not shown any radiation spikes in the areas surrounding the epicenter of the earthquake.

The original Mineral Virginia earthquake has been followed by four aftershocks so far. Experts warn that aftershocks continued for weeks following the 5.9 earthquake that hit nearby Blacksburg in 1897.

The following aftershocks have been officially reported by the USGS.

At 2:46:50 pm, a 2.8 magnitude aftershock was felt in Louisa. According to the USGS, the epicenter was five miles southwest of the Town of Mineral and approximately one mile from the center of the original earthquake (37.931°N, 77.935°W). Read the USGS report on the first aftershock here.

At 3:20:26 pm, a 2.2 magnitude aftershock was recorded approximately eight miles southwest of Mineral. Read the USGS report here.

At 8:04:36 pm, a 4.2 magnitude aftershock once again hit near the Town of Mineral. According to the USGS, the epicenter was approximately six miles south of Mineral along Route 522/Cross County Road (37.917°N, 77.891°W). You can find the USGS report on the strongest aftershock so far, here.

At 12:45:26 am Wednesday, a 3.4 magnitude aftershock was recorded seven miles south of Mineral (37.925°N, 77.994°W). It had a depth of three miles. Information on the fourth aftershock can be found here.

Here’s a recap of reported damages, injuries and disruption cited from the CNN article quoted above.

A strong earthquake in Virginia shut down a nearby nuclear power plant Tuesday afternoon and sent out seismic waves felt by millions from Georgia to northern New England. Three aftershocks were reported by Tuesday evening.

-No major injuries or extensive damage were reported after the 5.8-magnitude earthquake.

-The quake prompted evacuations of office buildings and the precautionary closing of monuments in the nation’s capital.

- A surge in calls by cell-phone users after the event affected service in many areas,

- Most federal buildings in Washington had reopened by late Tuesday afternoon

- The U.S. Capitol was cleared for employees to come back to get their belongings, for a limited time.

- Conflicting reports on Washington Monument leaning.

- Helicopter inspection initially reported monument structurally sound.

- Secondary inspection revealed cracking in the stones at the top of the monument.

- Washington Monument grounds reopened with 100 foot exclusion zone outside the plaza.

- The Lincoln and Jefferson memorials reopened Tuesday evening.

- Witnesses reported a number of buildings were evacuated as far away as North Carolina and New York/

- The quake, which was recorded at 1:51 p.m., was shallow — just 3.7 miles deep

- The magnitude was initially reported as 5.8, then revised to 5.9, and then revised again back to 5.8.

- Relatively minor damage in a few Virginia counties, including Louisa, nearest to the epicenter.

- Several school buildings had damage, as did town hall buildings, and an unspecified number of minor injuries reported in the Louisa county.

- Knocked down two chimneys at parcel-shipping business in Louisa county.

- A 5.9 event occurred in 1897 near Blacksburg which was followed by weeks of aftershocks

- Three 5- to 8-foot pinnacles broke from the central tower at Washington’s National Cathedral where other pieces that broke and fell on the surrounding lawn.

- Smithsonian Institution suffered cracks in interior walls

- The geography of the Eastern Seaboard, an underlying bedrock which is largely a solid sheet, helped transmit the shock from the Carolinas to New England.

- Eastern Seaboard geology causes a lot more travel out of earthquake waves than in California

- Shockwaves extended to downtown New York, where court buildings were evacuated.

- Quake felt across New York city but no reports of injuries and “virtually no reports of damage.”

- Quake felt on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, where President Barack Obama was playing golf, but Obama did not feel the earthquake

- Eearthquake slowed but didn’t halt major transportation services.

- Service at major airports initially disrupted by resumed normal operations 75 minutes after the earthquake struck.

- John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark-Liberty International Airport, control towers were evacuated

- Amtrak resumed service between Washington and Baltimore at normal speeds following inspections.

5.8 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Louisa, Virginia, Home of the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant

Nuclear Plant Loses Electricity in Temblor

August 24, 2011

Wall Street Journal - Tuesday's 5.8-magnitude earthquake created a state of emergency at the North Anna nuclear-power station in central Virginia, causing it to lose electricity and automatically shut down, although generators restored power.

The North Anna Power Station declared an "alert" status, which is the second lowest of four emergency situations.

Jim Norvelle, director of media relations for Dominion Resources Inc., operator of the North Anna plant, said its workers inspected the switch yard, through which electricity enters and leaves the installation, and believe problems there caused the nuclear plant to lose access to grid power. When the plant lost access to grid power, it automatically shut down.

Mr. Norvelle said the four diesel generators at the plant, 40 miles northwest of Richmond, can furnish enough electricity to run vital safety systems indefinitely at the two-reactor site. Electricity is needed to keep the reactor cores covered with coolant and to keep safe temperatures in spent fuel pools. Problems in both those areas led to the near-meltdown of reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, following a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

It will be at least several days before the North Anna plant is returned to service, the company said. First, workers must make sure there was no earthquake damage. That requires a thorough inspection of many systems. Then a slow and orderly process is followed to return reactors to service.

"As far as we know, everything is safe," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman David McIntyre.

Twelve additional nuclear plants in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina and Michigan declared "unusual events," the lowest of four emergency situations. They included Calvert Cliffs, the closest nuclear plant to Washington, D.C. The plant remained stable at 100% of capacity, said Mark Sullivan, a spokesman with Constellation Energy Nuclear Group LLC, which owns the plant.

The Calvert Cliffs plant is in Lusby, Md., about 50 miles from the city limits of the nation's capital.

Mr. Sullivan said that as part of normal procedure, employees were performing increased observations and instrumentation monitoring.

Meanwhile, at the Indian Point nuclear-power plant north of New York City, officials said some minor shaking was felt, but the facility was still online and operating at full power.

Update; D.C. Earthquake: Spires Damaged, Buildings Shake

Washington Monument Tilting Due to DC Earthquake:


The rare earthquake that rattled the US east coast yesterday has cracked the top of the iconic Washington Monument, prompting officials to close the building indefinitely.

August 23, 2011

AP - The most powerful earthquake to strike the East Coast in 67 years shook buildings and rattled nerves from South Carolina to Maine on Tuesday. Frightened office workers spilled into the streets in New York, and parts of the White House, Capitol and Pentagon were evacuated.

There were no immediate reports of deaths, but fire officials in Washington said there were at least some injuries.

The National Cathedral said its central tower and three of its four corner spires were damaged, but the White House said advisers had told President Barack Obama there were no reports of major damage to the nation's infrastructure, including airports and nuclear facilities.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered magnitude 5.8 and was centered 40 miles northwest of Richmond, Va.

Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station, in the same county as the epicenter, were automatically taken off line by safety systems, said Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The earthquake came less than three weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and in both Washington and New York it immediately triggered fears of something more sinister than a natural disaster.

At the Pentagon, a low rumbling built until the building itself was shaking, and people ran into the corridors of the complex. The shaking continued there, to shouts of "Evacuate! Evacuate!"

The Park Service closed all monuments and memorials on the National Mall, and ceiling tiles fell at Reagan National Airport outside Washington. All flights there were put on hold.

In lower Manhattan, the 26-story federal courthouse, blocks from ground zero of the Sept. 11 attacks, began swaying, and hundreds of people streamed out of the building.

The New York police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, was in a meeting with top deputies planning security for the upcoming anniversary when the shaking started. Workers in the Empire State Building spilled into the streets, some having descended dozens of flights of stairs.

"I thought we'd been hit by an airplane," said one worker, Marty Wiesner.

Another, Adrian Ollivierre, an accountant, was in his office on the 60th floor when the quake struck:

"I thought I was having maybe a heart attack, and I saw everybody running. I think what it is, is the paranoia that happens from 9/11, and that's why I'm still out here — because, I'm sorry, I'm not playing with my life."

New York District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance was starting a news conference about the dismissal of the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, when the shaking began. Reporters and aides began rushing out the door until it became clear it was subsiding.

On Wall Street, the floor of the New York Stock Exchange did not shake, officials said, but the Dow Jones industrial average sank 60 points soon after the quake struck. The Dow began rising again a half-hour later and finished the day up 322 points.

In Washington, the National Cathedral said cracks had appeared in the flying buttresses around the apse at one end

. "Everyone here is safe," the cathedral said on its official Twitter feed. "Please pray for the Cathedral as there has been some damage."

Shaking was felt as far south as Charleston, S.C., and as far north as Maine. It was also felt on Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, where Obama is taking summer vacation and was starting a round of golf when the quake struck at 1:51 p.m. EDT.

Obama led a conference call Tuesday afternoon on the earthquake with top administration officials, including his homeland security secretary, national security adviser and administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

By the standards of the West Coast, where earthquakes are much more common, the Virginia quake was mild. But quakes in the east tend to be felt across a much broader area.

"The waves are able to reverberate and travel pretty happily out for miles," said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough.

More than 12 million people live close enough to the quake's epicenter to have felt shaking, according to the Geological Survey. The agency said put the quake in its yellow alert category, meaning there was potential for local damage but relatively little economic damage.

The USGS said the quake was 3.7 miles beneath the surface.

The last quake of equal power to strike the East Coast was in New York in 1944. The largest East Coast quake on record was a 7.3 that hit South Carolina in 1886. In 1897, a magnitude-5.9 quake was recorded at Giles County, Va., the largest on record in that state.

A 5.8-magnitude quake releases as much energy as almost eight tons of TNT, about half the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The earthquake that devastated Japan earlier this year released more than 60,000 times more energy than Tuesday's.

The Virginia quake came a day after an earthquake in Colorado toppled groceries off shelves and caused minor damage to homes in the southern part of the state and in northern New Mexico. No injuries were reported as aftershocks continued Tuesday.

On the East Coast, Amtrak said its trains along the Northeast Corridor between Baltimore and Washington were operating at reduced speeds and crews were inspecting stations and railroad infrastructure before returning to normal.

In Charleston, W.Va., hundreds of workers left the state Capitol building and employees at other downtown office buildings were asked to leave temporarily.

"The whole building shook," said Jennifer Bundy, a spokeswoman for the state Supreme Court. "You could feel two different shakes. Everybody just kind of came out on their own."

In Ohio, where office buildings swayed in Columbus and Cincinnati and the press box at the Cleveland Indians' Progressive Field shook. At least one building near the Statehouse was evacuated in downtown Columbus.

In downtown Baltimore, the quake sent office workers into the streets, where lamp posts swayed slightly as they called family and friends to check in.

Around Mineral, Va., a small town close to the epicenter, people milled around in their lawns, on sidewalks and parking lots, still rattled and leery of re-entering buildings. There was least one aftershock.

All over town, masonry was crumpled, and there were stores with shelved contents strewn on the floor. Several display windows at businesses in the tiny heart of downtown were broken and lay in jagged shards.

Carmen Bonano, who has a 1-year-old granddaughter, sat on the porch of her family's white-frame house, its twin brick chimneys destroyed. Her voice still quavered with fear.

"The fridge came down off the wall and things started falling. I just pushed the refrigerator out of the way, grabbed the baby and ran," she said.

Twitter and Facebook lit up with reports of the quake.

"People pouring out of buildings and onto the sidewalks and Into Farragut Park in downtown DC," Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist, posted on Twitter.

John Gurlach, air traffic controller at the Morgantown Municipal Airport in West Virginia, was in a 40-foot-tall tower when the earth trembled.

"There were two of us looking at each other saying, 'What's that?'" he said, even as a commuter plane was landing. "It was noticeably shaking. It felt like a B-52 unloading."

Immediately, the phone rang from the nearest airport in Clarksburg, and a computer began spitting out green strips of paper — alerts from other airports in New York and Washington issuing ground stops "due to earthquake."

Magnitude 5.8 Quake Shakes East Coast

August 23, 2011

Los Angeles Times - A powerful earthquake rattled Washington, D.C., today, prompting evacuations of the Capitol, the Pentagon and many other area office buildings.

Authorities said the quake was 5.8 on the Richter scale, and the epicenter was near Fredericksburg, Va. Early reports said the quake was felt up and down the East Coast.

That appears to be the largest quake on record for this area. Before today, the largest occurred last July, a 3.6 quake that hit near Rockville, Md., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The North Anna nuclear power plant is located near the quake’s epicenter in central Virginia, northwest of Richmond.

The quake shook the New York Stock Exchange and early reports suggest it was felt as far north as Toronto.

On Capitol Hill, alarms sounded, lights flashed and staffers were ordered to evacuate office buildings.

"I'm feeling homesick,'' said Jeffrey Solsby, a congressioanal staffer and native Angeleno, said from the parking lot outside his House office building. He described the evacuation as orderly.

He saw sections of plaster that had cracked in stairwells.

"I could see dust stirred along the train tracks that run through southwest Washington."

"Considering it feels exactly like Southern California, I suppose you call call this East Coast earthquake weather."

"A couple of people were in doorframes. But the first instinct was surprise because you just really don't expect earthquakes in this araa ... but I'll tell you having lived through Sept. 11 here ... knowing it is an earthquake, it takes away the uncertainty of Sept. 11 that was so prevalent.''

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) tweeted:

"My DC staff describes remarkable shaking of the Rayburn Bldg.''

Seismologist Lucy Jones of the U.S. Geological Survey told CNN that the quake was,

"Not completely unprecedented, but it's one of the largest that we've had there."

“I would think that leaking gas and the risk of fires would be very significant,” Jones said.

Quake Rocks Washington Area, Felt on East Coast

August 23, 2011

AP - A 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., shook much of Washington, D.C., and was felt as far north as Rhode Island, New York City and Martha's Vineyard, Mass., where President Barack Obama is vacationing.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was half a mile deep. Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Chapel Hill, N.C. Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

It was centered near Louisa, Va., which is northwest of Richmond and south of Washington.

Obama and many of the nation's leaders were out of town on August vacation when the quake struck at 1:51 p.m. EDT. The shaking was felt on the Martha's Vineyard golf course as Obama was just starting a round.

The East Coast gets earthquakes, but usually smaller ones and is less prepared than California or Alaska for shaking.

At Reagan National Airport outside Washington, ceiling tiles fell during a few seconds of shaking. Authorities announced it was an earthquake and all flights were put on hold.

At the Pentagon in northern Virginia, a low rumbling built and built to the point that the building was shaking. People ran into the corridors of the government's biggest building and as the shaking continued there were shouts of "Evacuate! Evacuate!"

In New York, the 26-story federal courthouse in lower Manhattan began swaying and hundreds of people were seen leaving the building. Court officers weren't letting people back in.

The quake came a day after an earthquake in Colorado toppled groceries off shelves and caused minor damage to homes in the southern part of the state and in northern New Mexico. No injuries were reported as aftershocks continued Tuesday.

In Charleston, W.Va., hundreds of workers left the state Capitol building and employees at other downtown office buildings were asked to leave temporarily.

"The whole building shook," said Jennifer Bundy, a spokeswoman for the state Supreme Court. "You could feel two different shakes. Everybody just kind of came out on their own."

In Ohio, where office buildings swayed in Columbus and Cincinnati and the press box at the Cleveland Indians' Progressive Field shook. At least one building near the Statehouse was evacuated in downtown Columbus.

In downtown Baltimore, the quake sent office workers into the streets, where lamp posts swayed slightly as they called family and friends to check in.

Social media site Twitter lit up with reports of the earthquake from people using the site up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard.

"People pouring out of buildings and onto the sidewalks and Into Farragut Park in downtown DC...," tweeted Republican strategist Kevin Madden.

"Did you feel earthquake in ny? It started in richmond va!" tweeted Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill tweeted that her staff in Washington was in an "emergency location. Hope everyone is ok."

John Gurlach, air traffic controller at the Morgantown Municipal Airport was in a 40-foot-tall tower when the earth trembled.

"There were two of us looking at each other saying, 'What's that?'" he said, even as a commuter plane was landing. "It was noticeably shaking. It felt like a B-52 unloading."

Immediately, the phone rang from the nearest airport in Clarksburg, and a computer began spitting out green strips of paper — alerts from other airports in New York and Washington issuing ground stops "due to earthquake."

Read More...