(NRC) Virginia quake may have exceeded nuclear plant design

[Ruby the Liberal]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The historic earthquake that
shut Dominion Resources Inc's (D.N) North Anna nuclear plant in
Virginia last week may have shaken the facility more than it
was designed to withstand, the U.S. nuclear regulator said on
Monday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it had sent a
special inspection team to the plant rocked by the
5.8-magnitude quake, after initial reviews from Dominion
indicated the ground motion may have exceeded North Anna's
design parameters.

The plant cannot be restarted until the operator can show
no "functional damage" occurred to equipment needed for safe
operation, the NRC said.

-snip-

It will probably take about three or four weeks before the
team's preliminary findings are released, NRC spokesman Roger
Hannah said. He would not speculate on how long the plant might
be closed, saying it would depend on the team's assessment.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/29/usa-dominion-quake-idUSN1E77S18420110829

[Ghost Dog]

1. It's logically impossible to prove a negative. It will only be possible here to prove

that every item that is tested appears to be positively functioning adequately, safely, seperately and in conjunction with the rest of the parts, the whole...

So, they'd better be required to run those tests on every critical or potentially critical component very thoroughly... and then fire the whole thing up and see what happens.

Or, of course, just play safe and scrap it now.

[Recursion]

2. It's logically quite easy to prove a negative

It's empirically difficult, though