Arnie Gundersen: "Single Points of Vulnerability"

The nuclear industry is trying to turn the argument into earthquakes and Giant waves. It's not about earthquakes or tsunami. It's about "single points of vulnerability." (A hole in the armor)

If a tsunami had not knocked out the diesels at Fukushima, it also knocked out the service water that cooled the plant, so the net result is the same. There can be more than one "single point of vulnerability". A flood in the midwest would knock out Quad Cities, just like the tsunami. A storm surge at Turkey Point would have the same result. The new AP1000 has a single point of vulnerability with its single shell containment. The BWR Mark 1 has the Net Positive Suction Head single point of vulnerability. God knows what "single point of vulnerability" caused the secondary containment to explode at two Fukushima reactors.

The NRC staff makes these issues (and others) disappear because it has told the ACRS in October 2010 that the probability of a containment failure is "zero".

The way to avoid accidents is to assume they can't occur.

Feel free to pass this on.