Wasn't trying to be a dick about it - it's just that listening to the news, you'd think that they were both built on active faults and most people have heard of the biggie. While there are issues with the siting and construction of the Diablo Canyon facility, overall there were significant precautions and engineering that went into both. It bothers me a little when a news anchor seems to imply that nuclear facilities like these are grass huts built by Gilligan on the side of the active volcano. Nothing is earthquake proof - the 9.0 that hit off Japan moved the freaking island. That's some $hit.

moved the earth, not just the island!

I don't know why you have to trash Gilligan, geeze!

Here's an interesting read on nuke sites and quake risk...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42103936/ns/world_news-asia-pacific/

The Japan reactor survived the earthquake which is one of the largest in our recorded history.

It was the tsunami that knocked it out of operations. When the back-up generators get washed away then you have problems as we are seeing now. The plant was designed to survive a 6.3m tsunami, but unfortunately this one was 7.0m.

I didn't think you were being a dick at all John. I was just adding to the topic. It is amazing that the media keeps comparing the Japan situation with Chernobyl. The two are in different ball parks.

Another view on radiation http://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2011/03/16/a_glowing_report_on_radiation/page/full/

That was an interesting read. Can it be verified elsewhere? Not that I'll line up for my daily dose...

I didn't even notice that it was an Ann Coulter article until the very end of it. No wonder why I liked it.

And in my profession, there are still people worreid about getting an occasional Chest X Ray, or Abdominal CT scan.

Any of you use Cell phones? Did you know about the radiation and microwaves it emits?

Have you ever put your cell phone by your computer with the speakers on, or by your clock radio? Do you hear the signals (electromagnetic radiation) before the phone even rings?

Here near Milwaukee, we had a radon gas eliminator installed before we bought our current house. Is it necessary- I think so, I dunno.

Isn't that the Flat Earth Society's motto?

The Reactor facility in Japan was 40 year old technology ! It was scheduled for shut down later this year.

One BIG difference between that facility and the newer plants is the Japanese reactor cores at that location relied on ACTIVE Cooling that requires POWER.
It seems counter intuitive, but that generation of nuclear power plant REQUIRES outside power to remain "safe" in the event of a shutdown.
The plant survived the earthquake and shut down just as it was designed to do.
The problem has been created by the Tsunami that wiped out the generators that were to provide power to the cooling pumps.

Point of my post is this. Most if not all of the newer designs are designed with gravity fed, or passive cooling systems in the event of a emergency shutdown.

Between the moratorium/permatorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and the moratorium on nuclear power plants that will likely result from this event,
I'm thinking that before long we will be rubbing two sticks together when we need to keep warm.