Earthquake risk clouds Paducah's nuclear future (KY)

[jpak]

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110425/NEWS01/304250130/Earthquake-risk-clouds-Paducah-s-nuclear-future?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Retired engineer Ralph Young had hoped this would be the year that Kentucky's General Assembly would ease its restrictions on nuclear plant construction, clearing the way for a plant near his hometown of Paducah.

But a bill to do just that died in committee — and that was in the days before the massive March 11 earthquake in Japan caused a tsunami that washed into a nuclear plant there, setting off serious radiation leaks that sent a trace amount of radiation around the world.

Now, given that Paducah sits in an area the U.S. Geological Survey considers a high hazard should an earthquake occur on one of the faults in the New Madrid seismic zone, Young and other supporters are worried that the proposed nuclear plant may not happen.

“People see the news and they get spooked,” said Young, who serves on an advisory board for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which enriches uranium for nuclear fuel. The enrichment plant, which employs about 1,200 people, is expected to close in the coming years, and officials have been trying to find new jobs at the site west of Paducah for a work force already comfortable with nuclear energy.

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[defendandprotect]

1. Global Warming demands that all of this be shut down -- 103 reactors across USA -- !!

Two sitting on Lake Erie -- a source of drinking water!!

Many sitting on earthquake faults!!