Nuclear reactors and outside threats
Robin des Bois would like to express their deepest sympathy towards the people of Japan.
Nuclear reactors are not sufficiently protected against outside climatic or geologic threats such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones and storms, massive snow falls and forest fires (1).
When looking at earthquakes, the understanding and the modelling of terrain movements and deformations has greatly improved over the last 20 years. Most of the nuclear reactors in the area affected by the earthquake which recently hit Japan were built between 1967 and 1981. The reactor n°1 at Fukushima-Daiichi which to date causes the most concern was built in 1967. Consequently, Fukushima-Daiichi was not built under new regulations developed through experience concerning anti-seismic construction. In Japan, the destruction of housing which were not constructed with these earthquake resistant requirements is planned. On the contrary, old nuclear reactors have a de facto prolonged lifespan following the French Japanese doctrine on the continuation of exploitation of nuclear plants. Early November 2010, the French and Japanese nuclear authorities met in Tokyo to coordinate the particularities of the implementation of prolonged lifespan reactor exploitation.
