Science of Tsunami Hazards (May 2023)
EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI SAFETY OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS – Case Study: The San Onofre Nuclear Plant in California, USA
Abstract
Tsunami Society International The present study addresses briefly the safety and design requirements of nuclear power plants from earthquakes and tsunamis that may affect the structure or cooling systems of their reactors, and which may result in additionally and longer term destructive impacts on nearby communities and marine life due to the additional release of radioctivity - as was the case with the 11 March 2011 Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant in Japan, as well as with the release of radioactivity by other nuclear power plants by tsunamigenic earthquakes in other parts of the world. The vulnerability of nuclear power plants to earthquakes and tsunamis was specifically examined by the author in conducting a comprehensive study of historic earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as by an extensive air and land field survey of Southern California, undertaken under contract with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRC), and the U. S. Army Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC), in connection with the licencing of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant near San Clemente in California, and of subsequent attempts to licence the additional Units 2 and 3 of the same facility of the Southern California Edison Company (the licensee). The present evaluation is also based on historical records extended back in time for determining earthquake and tsunami events when California was still under Spanish control under Gaspar de Portolá before California was annexed by the United States as a State of its Union. Also researched were archives in Seville, Spain.
