Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Disasters Fail to Follow Scripts - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

Accidents have simple origins. The shuttle's rubber O rings became brittle in the cold.  BP's cut-off valve had no back-up - unlike newer ones.  The Japanese reactors' cooling pumps were diesel engines - which the tsunami flooded when it overflowed the seawall.   What happens next is unpredictable. - gwc



by David Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists
The Japanese reactors were designed to cope with power failure for eight hours. Most U.S. reactors can cope with outages for only four hours.
Disasters Fail to Follow Scripts - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

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