keralamonitor.com March 12, 2002.

Special Report: Nuclear Explosion and Earthquakes?

Nuclear Testing is responsible for 25 per cent of all earthquakes: UK Seismic Expert London: " It is impossible to have an underground nuclear test without creating an earthquake - not necessarily in the immediate vicinity but anywhere in the world. Of every 30 major earthquakes, some 21 or 22 follow a nuclear explosion. There are other reasons for earthquakes, but the vast majority are the result of underground nuclear testing. We need not test nuclear bombs. Self-interest is causing these earthquakes," said  one geologist who has been monitoring the co relation. "The tragic earthquake in Gujarath is a terrible event It is indeed my information that nuclear testing is responsible for 25 per cent of all earthquakes, which is obviously an unacceptable amount. However, this particular earthquake in India is not the result of nuclear testing but is entirely from natural causes, in this case, the movement of the tectonic plates in that area of the world," says Benjamin Creme Editor, Share International magazine, which has been monitoring earthquakes in different parts of the world. "My information is that the final death toll will most likely reach 60,000 when all the dead and missing are counted. Obviously the multi-storey buildings were not built with earthquakes in mind ‹ this is something that the Indian Government would need to enforce. According to experts, nuclear plants are generally built away from earthquake-prone areas and are designed to withstand a tremor should one occur. Plants also are designed to withstand whatever other natural forces are likely to happen in specific locations such as tornadoes, hurricanes, or floods. Nuclear plants located in areas with a history of earthquakes are built to withstand the maximum motion that could be expected and to be able to shut down safely. All vital devices, equipment, and machines are tested and approved to work during earthquakes, even for plants located away from likely earthquake areas.  “The radioactive waste generated at various stages of nuclear fuel cycle are categorised as low, intermediate and high level waste. The low and intermediate level radioactive wastes are treated in ecofriendly ways and the small quantity of high level waste produced is immobilised in glass matrix by a process called vitrification,” says the Nuclear Power Corporation .” A plant for immobilising highly active waste in a glass matrix is operational in Tarapur. Based on this experience, new nuclear waste immobilisation plants are being set at Trombay and Kalpakkam. Vitrified waste is stored in a specially designed solid storage surveillance facility for about 30 years prior to their disposal in deep geological formation,” it said. “The first such facility became operational at Tarapur in 1999 and can store waste generated during 40 years of operation of 2 nuclear reactors of 220 MWe capacity. Plants for disposing all types of radioactive wastes have been set up and are operating along with every nuclear facility in the country,” it said, clearly indicating that the nuclear waste generated from the Kakrapar nuclear plant is being deposited in some geological formations—read underground. "It is impossible to have an underground nuclear test without creating an earthquake - not necessarily in the immediate vicinity but anywhere in the world. Of every 30 major earthquakes, some 21 or 22 follow a nuclear explosion. There are other reasons for earthquakes, but the vast majority are the result of underground nuclear testing. We need not test nuclear bombs. The scientists are producing refinements of their technology simply to keep the technology going, and with it their jobs. Self-interest is causing these earthquake," says one geologist who has been monitoring the corelation. Man Made Earthquakes a Reality Modern science has been misused for destructive purpose to such an such an extent that it is possible to create artificial earthquakes or Man made earthquakes: "Often individuals wonder whether construction of a reservoir, hydrocarbon production, or the injection of fluids into the ground caused an earthquake at a specific location. Several well-documented cases exist where such large engineering projects and damaging earthquakes are genetically related. In most of these cases, the engineering projects themselves most likely did not create the stresses that caused the earthquake, but rather changed local conditions in such a way as to allow an earthquake to occur." says a scientific report.More FRENCH NUCLEAR PLANT AND EARTHQUAKE A recent report revealed that  a seismological survey produced by France's nuclear safety institute six years ago was made public only in the second week of July 21, 2000 and a French nuclear plant was continuing normal operation without following the safety norms and earthquake. The report caused considerable public pressure on the nuclear firm Cogema to shut its mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility at Cadarache, southern France. What surprised the common man was that the plant was operating for five years after the recommendation to close it down.  The Institut de Protection et de Surete Nucleaire (IPSN) provides technical backup to France's nuclear safety authorities. Its 1994 seismic survey showed that Cadarache's immediate surroundings experience significant earthquakes about once every hundred years. The last quake happened in 1913 and measured eight on the European Macroseismic Scale. On the one to 12 scale, eight is classed as "heavily damaging," causing cracks in walls and partial collapse of some buildings.  The 1994 IPSN study, obtained and publicized by the Paris branch of the World Information Service on Energy (WISE), warned seismic activity on the three fault lines that surround Cadarache is on the increase. report by the Environment News Service said that the seismic activity near the nuclear plant showed a significant recrudescence since the end of December 1993indicating that earthquake activity is occuring again after a period of inactivity. “In 1995, fearing the facility was not built to withstand a major earthquake, the French nuclear safety authority, Direction de la Sûreté des Installations Nucléaires, (DSIN) asked the government owned Cogema to present a plan that would shut down the Cadarache plant shortly after 2000. After waiting two years without an answer, the DSIN repeated its request in 1997. Cogema responded by suggesting it could build a giant containment covering the existing installations. The DSIN refused the offer.”said the ENS Report.   Cadarache was built by the government's Commissariat l'nergie Atomique (CEA) in 1961 as a laboratory for the study of plutonium bearing fuels. The plant takes plutonium separated from spent nuclear fuel rods at Cogema's main reprocessing plant at La Hague in northern France and converts it into mixed plutonium uranium oxide (MOX) fuel. It produces 40 tons of MOX fuel per year exclusively for Germany's nuclear industry and is integral to Germany's plutonium management strategy. It services about two thirds of Germany's nuclear reactors. The German government and the country's electricity utilities recently agreed to phase out nuclear power over the next 30 years.  Cogema wrote to the DSIN saying it would close the Cadarache plant if it could use the Melox plant in Marcoule, also in southern France. The Melox plant currently fabricates MOX fuel for French and Japanese customers and is legally bound not to extend existing capacity. Artificial Earthquakes:  A group of researchers conducted an artifical earthquake in the Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, To develop earthquake resistant construction technology. According to a report published by explorezone.com dated 06/22/99 the US scientists stumbled on a curious conclusion: Small, artificial earthquakes -- created prior to building in wet, sandy soil – to develp safe prevention technique for engineers. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, and Brigham Young University spent two years designing a system to create and monitor their own earthquake. In an area the size of a tennis court, they buried sixteen 1-pound explosive charges 12 feet deep around nine steel pillars -- similar to those used to anchor bridges and buildings -- that were sunk 42 feet into the ground. Hydraulic jacks were attached to the pillars to simulate the side-to-side motion of a quake. Hundreds of sensors were wired to aboveground computers. "To get the information we needed, we could either set up all the sensors and wait for an earthquake, or use the explosives to 'make' an earthquake," said Kyle Rollins, BYU professor of civil engineering in a report. "This way we had all the excitement and educational value of an earthquake without any of the death or destruction." Six US state departments of transportation and the Federal Highway administration funded the project. In waterlogged, sandy soil -- the type found on Treasure Island, around the Bay, and in other low-lying areas -- earthquakes can be particularly devastating to buildings and bridges, as the solid ground becomes temporarily liquid. Scientists call the process liquefaction, and it occurs when an earthquake increases water pressure, turning stable soil into a jiggling sea of mud. Liquefaction has amplified the effects of recent earthquakes in Japan and California, including the deadly 1989 rattle of the Bay that interrupted the World Series. When they set off the explosives, the ground heaved. Small geysers or sand boils, less than a foot high, appeared, indicating that liquefaction was occurring. Up until now, all we had to rely on were lab tests, and you always wonder with soils how accurate they are." by the Editor, Kerala Monitor.com