The Japan Nuke Disaster Could Happen in Miami Dade County. By Geniusofdespair

The Miami Herald Op Ed piece claims the Japan disaster at Fukushima could happen at Turkey Point. The authors say that the cascade of events in Japan, causing widespread radiation leaks, was the result of 3 electrical system failures and because the emergency generators failed. They say:

Turkey Point is just as reliant as Fukushima on offsite electricity, emergency electrical generators and batteries. Vulnerable equipment includes transmission lines, the switchyard, the cable spreading room and the control room. Electrical failures can be caused by accidents (explosions, fires, hurricanes, flooding) and by manmade incidents (sabotage, terrorism, hostile military actions).

Currently, Florida Power & Light (FPL) is trying to secure the permits and licenses to build two new nuclear reactors at the Turkey Point site, in addition to the two reactors already there.

These proposed reactors, essentially, are experimental. They are based on new designs from Toshiba/Westinghouse that have never been tested or operated commercially at full scale. This new reactor design, the AP1000, has drawn substantial criticism on safety issues. One major issue is that the steel inner-containment structure is barely strong enough to keep radioactivity from escaping during a “design basis accident.” This leaves little margin for error when the steel containment structure eventually corrodes and loses strength. Such corrosion is a common problem in older reactors.

Aside from safety they point to economic issues:

At a time when governments, businesses and families are struggling to reduce their debts, it is irresponsible to ask American taxpayers to provide billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees for unsafe nuclear power plants — plants that private investors will not fund because they are just too risky.


As the stomach turns, remember the Japanese Nuke Reactors have been leaking radioactivity since March (over 6 months now), here is recent news about Fukushima's Nukes:

Japanese officials said they have found, for the first time, small amounts of plutonium from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant as far as 28 miles away. At a Tokyo news conference, federal officials announced the first discovery of leaked plutonium outside the immediate vicinity of the power plant, as well as radioactive strontium in 45 spots as far as 50 miles from the reactors, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Yomiuri Shimbun said plutonium was found in six locations, all within the evacuation zone. It can take as long as 24,000 years for plutonium isotopes to degrade and lose half their radiation, the Journal said.

The government report said both elements were found at "extremely low" levels and recommended officials concentrate more on cleaning up high concentrations of radioactive cesium in the area. The cleanup cost at the nuclear site alone is estimated at $5 billion for the coming year, the Journal said.