Japan Quake Shakes Up More Than Utility's Structures
The aftershocks of the July 16 magnitude 6.6 earthquake that struck Japan’s Niigata Prefecture seem set to continue to rumble through the country’s nuclear power industry for some time. Its main facilities apparently withstood the shock, but a nuclear powerplant near the epicenter suffered significant damage and leaked trace amounts of radiation. A slow and sloppy response to the crisis and subsequent revelations that the plant may be over an active fault and underdesigned have raised questions about the safety of the nation’s nuclear power infrastructure.
“The people responsible for the nuclear powerplant say the earthquake and the strong ground motions were unexpected, but they could have been predicted,” says Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist at Kobe University who is skeptical about the safety of Japan’s nuclear plants.