What Next: Nuclear Energy and Japan

In the wake of the nuclear plant’s radiation leaks in Japan, it is clear that concerns over nuclear power will not go away any time soon. Some might claim that building a nuclear power plant in such a seismically unstable region was not the brightest idea. However, Michael C. Constantinou, PhD, professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering at the University at Buffalo, says that the next generation of nuclear power plants and other like energy facilities will be influenced greatly by the lessons learnt from the tragedy in Japan.

“If a nuclear reactor is built at a site where a 30-foot tsunami wave is possible, if it comes, it is going to have a significant effect, there is no way to control that,” says Constantinou. He believes that it is possible, however, to seismically isolate an entire facility on a concrete platform, although this would be much more “technologically complex.”

This type of caution has been taken with Russia’s oil and gas platforms located in the North Pacific near Sakhalin Island. These platforms lie several miles north of the epicenter of the March 11th earthquakes which hit Japan.

Constantinou explains that, “These platforms sit on concrete bases on the ocean floor with legs that are about 80 meters tall, and the structure on top of the platform is another 20 stories high; the entire structure weighs some 30,000 tons.”

In the coming months, a lot of news will circle about the safety of nuclear power plants and whether the risk of radiation poisoning is worth the danger of nuclear energy. While this debate may be important, one simple solution to this problem would be to not build potentially hazardous power plants and facilities in seismically unstable regions.

University of Buffalo

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