WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee and a senior Democratic member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, today called for more information on the seismic safety features that are included in nuclear reactors currently in operation in the United States. In the wake of the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the lawmakers sent a letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Greg Jaczko requesting information on the safety-significant structures, systems, and components of America’s nuclear reactors, including power plants’ ability to sustain cooling function during a total station blackout, a situation that is affecting the Japanese reactors in distress.
 
“We are concerned that these reactors may not have the features necessary to withstand the sort of catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that has crippled several reactors in Japan and caused a meltdown and release of the highly radioactive materials contained within them,” wrote Reps. Markey and Capps in the letter. “We are concerned that San Onofre, Diablo Canyon, and possibly other nuclear reactors located in seismically active areas, are not designed with sufficient levels of resiliency against the sort of earthquakes scientists predict they could experience.”
 
According to analysis prepared Rep. Markey staff, there are eight nuclear reactors located on the seismically active West Coast of the U.S., and twenty-seven nuclear reactors located near the New Madrid fault line in the Midwest. There are additionally thirty-one nuclear reactors in the U.S. that are of the same Mark 1 or Mark 2 design as those currently imperiled in Japan, and twelve of these are located in seismically active zones.
 
A copy of the letter to the NRC can be found HERE .
 
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