※この記事は、8月30日 アメリカNRC:North Anna原発、追加点検を実施へ【こちらも『想定外』】に関連しています。

米原発の核燃料容器10cm動く 東部地震で
2011/09/02 11:02   【共同通信】
 【ワシントン共同】米東部で8月23日に発生したM5・8の地震で、バージニア州の震源から約20キロのノースアナ原発にある使用済み核燃料の保管容器25基が、最大で約10センチ移動していたことが1日分かった放射性物質の漏れはなかった。同原発を運営する電力会社が、米メディアに明らかにした。

 米原子力規制委員会(NRC)報道官はCNNテレビに対し、米国内の原発がこの規模の地震に見舞われたのは史上初めてで、保管容器が動いたのも初めてだと語った

 動いた保管容器は、いずれも円筒形で高さ約5メートル、重量約115トン。同原発には容器は計53基ある。
http://www.47news.jp/CN/201109/CN2011090201000249.html

【元記事】
Officials: Virginia quake shifted nuclear plant's storage casks
From Brian Todd, CNN
September 1, 2011 6:40 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Twenty-five of 27 spent-fuel storage casks at a Virginia nuclear plant were shifted between 1 and 4 inches during last week's 5.8-magnitude earthquake, officials said Thursday.
The cylinders, each 16 feet tall and weighing 115 tons, were not damaged, and no radiation was released, said Rick Zuercher, spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power, which operates the North Anna Power Station near Louisa, Virginia. Monitors were hooked up to the casks to determine any abnormalities, he said.
He said the casks' movement was known shortly after the quake, which had an epicenter less than 20 miles from the plant, but the news was not released to the public.(保管容器[キャスク]の移動は、[原発から20マイル以内の震源だった]地震後すぐにわかっていたが、ニュースは公に発表されなかった)
"We had a lot going on," Zuercher said. "There was no indication of any problem ... and there isn't any problem."
Besides those casks, which are vertical, some of the horizontal bunkers holding spent fuel also were affected. The concrete "came loose on the face" of "a few" of the bunkers, Zuercher said, but the damage is not considered serious. The bunkers -- of which 13 of the 26 hold rods -- are each 16 feet long and weigh 50 tons.

It is the first time such casks have been shifted by an earthquake in U.S. history, said Roger Hannah, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as it's the first time a quake of this magnitude was felt at a nuclear plant in the country.
The safety standards for such casks, he said, are "unbelievable." They undergo a rigorous series of tests, including crash tests and burning. "To say they are robust would be an understatement," Hannah said.
Zuercher, however, confirmed a report in the Washington Post that Dominion Virginia Power had notified the NRC last Friday that the earthquake might have shaken the power station more than it was designed to handle.(Zuercher氏[North Anna原発の運転をしている会社Dominion Virginia Powerのスポークスマン]は、DVPは先週金曜日、NRCに「地震が想定設計よりも大きく原発が揺れたかもしれない」と通知していたとワシントンポストのレポートで確認した。)
The NRC already has an "augmented inspection team" at the North Anna plant to conduct a review of effects from the earthquake. The team will review the casks' shifting as part of that investigation, Hannah said. (NRCはすでに検証対策チームを作り、North Anna原発の地震のレビューを始めている。この保管容器の移動も検証の対象になるだろうとHannah氏[NRCのスポークスマン]は語った)

The NRC initially sent a seismic expert and a structural expert to assist resident inspectors at the site after the earthquake, but "further reviews indicated that additional inspection is warranted," the commission said in a statement issued Monday. An augmented inspection team is formed "to review more significant events or issues" at NRC facilities, and includes technical experts and additional inspectors.
An alert was declared at the North Anna station just after the quake struck. The plant's two units shut down automatically after the facility lost off-site power, according to the NRC. Emergency diesel generators provided power to cool the reactors until off-site power was restored a few hours later.

"An alert is the next-to-lowest NRC emergency classification for plant events, and the North Anna station exited the alert after off-site power was restored," the commission said in a statement.
Both reactors remain in what is called a "cold shutdown," Zuercher said. There is no timetable for their reactivation, he said.(「両原子炉は冷温停止[=cold shutdown]状態であり、復旧のめどはたっていない」とZuercher氏は言った。)

CNN's Ashley Hayes contributed to this report.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/01/virginia.quake.nuclear/index.html?iref=allsearch

大事なところだと思われる箇所は、部分的に訳をつけさせていただきました。
どこも「想定外」「Unbelievable」で済まされる問題ではないことに、気づいてほしいと思います。
そして、このキャスクの移動が地震後すぐにわかっていたのに、発表に1週間以上かかっていることにも、不信感を持たざるをえません。影響があるなしにかかわらず、無用な心配をさせないためにも、こういったことはすぐに発表すべきだと思います。

地球に住む以上、自然の驚異には到底太刀打ちできないのですから・・・・。

失礼します。
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