Earthquake-Resistant Nuclear Reactors: Is That Like Swimming With A Water Resistant Watch? (Update: What The Experts Say)

• Water-resistant (without any depth specification). Shoud be considered only splash resistant. Not recommended for any water activity.
• Water-resistant to 30 meters (100 feet). Will withstand splashes of water or rain but should not be worn while swimming or diving.
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The city of Bushehr in Iran is in an area that is known to have earthquakes.
And that could be kind of important, especially after seeing what has happened in Japan.

Kuwait warns of Bushehr disaster: Reactor is in earthquake zone

Kuwait has warned that Iran's new nuclear energy reactor could turn out to be a disaster for the Gulf.

A Kuwaiti geologist has asserted that Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr could be destroyed or heavily damaged in an earthquake. Jassem Al Awadi, a geology professor at Kuwait University, pointed out that Bushehr was located in an earthquake zone.

"The ominous results will be similar to those of the Chernobyl disaster for the whole region," Al Awadi, referring to the massive radiation leak from a Soviet reactor, said.

The warning took place amid a series of earthquakes that rocked Iran in September 2010. Several people were reported killed in the earthquakes, several of which took place near Bushehr.

But don't worry--Iran's nuclear reactor in Bushehr is earthquake resistant!

Iran Assures World Nations of Bushehr N. Power Plant Safety

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed that Iran's first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr complies with the latest safety rules and standards.

"All safety rules and regulations and the highest standards have been applied to the Bushehr (nuclear) power plant," Ahmadinejad told Spanish state television TVE.

Responding to a question on some extra concerns about the safety of the Bushehr power plant against potential powerful earthquakes, specially after the Friday earthquake and tsunami in Japan led to several blasts in Fukushima nuclear power plant, the Iranian president underlined that the Iranian power plan is safe, given the fact that the latest and the highest safety standards have been considered for the construction and operation of the plant.

He also reminded that Japan's power plants were constructed 45 years ago and based on some old standards.

Russia's foreign minister also said on Tuesday that the Bushehr nuclear facility in Iran is resistant to earthquakes.[emphasis added]

I thought that assurances about highest safety standards went out with the Titanic.

When I was a kid and my parents gave me my first watch, they told me that though it was water resistant, I shouldn't wear it when I go swimming--too bad Ahmadinejad's parents didn't warn him about building earthquake-resistant nuclear reactors in areas that are known to have earthquakes.

UPDATE: I received an email from someone who is follows these sort of issues and writes that nuclear engineers seem to be in agreement that the reactor in Bushehr cannot produce the the sort of disaster that we saw years ago in Chernobyl, because the reactor in this case is water cooled as opposed to being graphite moderated--which enabled the Chernobyl reactor to produce its high-energy explosion and spew radiation around the globe.

In the case of Iran, while the Russian-designed reactor doesn't have all of the failsafes of most Western designs, experts say the model has been much improved: under earthquake conditions like those in Japan, the Bushehr reactor would be likely to perform like the Daiichi complex at Fukushima--while key systems might fail, exposure of the core is next to impossible.

The Russians are going to be in Bushehr there to operate the reactor, so at least we don't have to worry about the Iranians trying to run it by themselves.

The Japanese have turned to seawater cooling in this emergency, and since Bushehr is close to the Gulf, that option is available to the Iranians.

While the media is leaving people with the impression that seawater cooling hasn't done any good, there are those among the experts who say that it has made a difference in controlling and mitigating the reactors' responses.

Technorati Tag: Iran and Bushehr and Japan and Earthquakes.