A San Diego earthquake on June 29, 2012, erupted at 12:45 p.m. and was felt throughout parts of Southern California. No significant injuries or property damages have been reported; however, this event together with recent earthquake activity highlight the urgent need to prepare the area in the event of much larger earthquakes.
The California-Nevada Fault Map is centered at 33°N,117°W of on the U.S. Geological Survey. The map shows real earthquake activity in California. At least 50 recent quakes of varying magnitude hit the area as of July 1st. There were 7 earthquakes in the last day from Palm Springs to below San Diego and 1 ocean quake. Over 30 earthquakes hit the same area within the last week together with 2 ocean earthquakes. There are 4 known fault lines from Santa Anna to Palm Springs, 4 known fault lines in the adjacent Pacific Ocean, and 3 small fault lines in San Diego itself.
FEMA advises citizens to be prepared for an earthquake. A disaster kit should be maintained to include a flashlight and extra batteries, portable radio and extra batteries, first aid kit, essential medicines, and sturdy shoes. Have enough food and water for the entire family for at least three days. Further guidance can be obtained by calling FEMA at (800) 621-3362.
The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) lists at least 4 nuclear power plants in California. These plants are Diablo Canyon 1 and 2 located 12 miles WSW of San Luis Obispo, CA. The plants are operated by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. The plants are 310 miles from San Diego. In addition, San Onofre 2 and 3 are located 45 miles SE of Long Beach, CA. The plants are operated by Southern California Edison Company. These plants are located just 93 miles from San Diego.
The NRC’s regulations are aimed at enhancing public safety by setting forth standards for systems necessary to operate the nuclear power plant or shut it down in case of an emergency or natural exigency like an earthquake event. The safety systems’ buried piping is subject to rigorous routine inspection and testing requirements set forth in the NRC agency regulations, as well as from standards of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Article comments
1 - FRE
The article did not even state the magnitude of the earthquake; that should have been in the first paragraph.
Has the writer taken even one course in journalism?
2 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
The San Diego quake was reported as a magnitude 1.7; however, there were higher order earthquakes in the same state and over 50 events reported as the article states. The point to understand is that time is still available to complete contingency, disaster recovery plans, as well as testing the shut down capabilities of proximate nuclear power plants in the region.
3 - Dr Dreadful
I am in San Diego and felt no quake on June 29. A magnitude 1.7 is usually far too feeble to be detected by anything except seismological instruments. There are several temblors of this magnitude in southern California every week.
It's likely that the event felt by San Diegans on the 29th was a sonic boom, most likely from an aircraft out of MCAS Miramar or Camp Pendleton. The USGS website reports temblors almost instantaneously and allows members of the public to post their own reports of what the event felt like. This is tremendously useful for seismologists with regard to gauging quake effects but it does lead to people mistakenly reporting unrelated events as quakes.
The weakest quake I've personally sensed was, IIRC, a 3.4 with an epicenter about 20 miles from me. It felt and sounded rather like someone slamming a heavy door, but I noted the precise time, looked on the USGS site, and confirmed that they had recorded a temblor at exactly that moment.
Also, the San Onofre power station complex (its two reactor halls, which bear a strong resemblance to a woman's breasts, are a local landmark and will be familiar to anyone who saw The Naked Gun) is not 93 miles from San Diego, as stated in the article. It's more like 50.
4 - Glenn Contrarian
Doc -
Last I recall, sonic booms are verboten over most of American soil - and I never heard one when I was stationed in San Diego.
5 - Igor
Magnitude 1.7? Hell, fracking quakes in Ohio hit 3 and 4! And they'll get bigger as regulations are relaxed and more wells are drilled!
6 - Dr Dreadful
I dare say you're right, Glenn - but that's not to say some exuberant flyboy won't do it once in a while!
And there are some other things that can cause a similar effect: a blowout at an electrical substation, for instance. I should know: I was once 25 feet away from one when it blew!
7 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
Let's hope that they are prepared for bigger earthquakes. The people at Fukushima can explain what happens in a major unanticipated earthquake. The lesson in California is that there still is time to do planning.
8 - Dr Dreadful
Fukushima wasn't damaged by the quake. The problem arose when the subsequent tsunami knocked out the emergency generators at the plant, which then lost the ability to pump coolant water into the reactors.
And I'm not sure what exactly leads you to believe that California doesn't have earthquake plans in place.
9 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
Have the shutdown systems been tested for NPPs in California? Also, why wasn't Fukushima shut down when the quake happened? The NPP should have been shut down before the Tsunami hit if the warning systems were in place and the automatic shutdown mechanisms were operable.
10 - Dr Dreadful
Have the shutdown systems been tested for NPPs in California?
In the case of Diablo Canyon, they were activated after the 2003 San Simeon earthquake. I can't find any information about whether San Onofre's has been tested, but plant managers have recently requested a new study of nearby geological faults. There have been concerns that the seismic profiles of the areas surrounding both plants is different from what they were designed for.
Also, why wasn't Fukushima shut down when the quake happened?
It was. Unfortunately, with a nuclear reactor it's not a case of simply flipping a switch. The white-hot cores still needed to be cooled. The automatic shutdown of the plant after the quake worked as it was supposed to, but sadly the plant's design didn't anticipate a failure of the emergency generators.
11 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
Then, the issue might have been the testing of the emergency generators to ensure that they would be operable when engaged in an emergency or under emergency conditions.
12 - Igor
And then the promoters of the FuckU project would have complained of the cost and time delays and they would have prevailed. Because everyone knows that if you look long enough that the nukes are bound to fail and cause a catastrophe.
It's just like the "Rate Swap" plans that JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs sold all around the world to municipalities: "here, buy these lovely Swaps; yes, there's a huge penalty if it ever fails, but it is so unlikely that it will fail that you can assume it never will, and that you are not taking on any risk!"
Of course, they were not only wrong but were actively changing the risk environment to raise the risks of those very Swaps! That's what drove Greece and Spain and probably the rest of Europe into the dumper.
They're going to go broke paying fees to GS and JPM (at least $20billion by primitive estimates) for Swap contracts they signed years ago, and whose principles have long ago matured and expired. In other words, They're still paying for a dead horse.
But the ruling class customarily ignores high cost low probability risks because they plan to collect their fees and commissions and cash out before the disaster strikes, and then leave the mess for the peasants to pay for and clean up (while the peasants continue to pay on the bad old deals, of course).
Grow up. Wise up. You're being played for suckers.
13 - Dr Dreadful
Any system, however failsafe, can fail if you throw enough variables into the mix. Just ask anyone who's lost friends or loved ones in an air crash.
No electricity generator is going to work if you suddenly dump tons of sea water on top of it.
The Tokohu quake was a once-in-a-millenium event. The Fukushima designers gambled on the event not happening during that portion of the millennium when there happened to be a nuclear power station on the site. They lost.
On cost vs. benefit: it remains to be seen whether the ecological damage from the radiation leaks from Fukushima-Daichi will end up being worse than the ecological damage from the increased fossil fuel emissions that will result now that Japan is shutting down its nuclear power generation industry. Somehow I doubt it.
14 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
The NRC is looking at the Fukushima situation right now and attempting to strengthen the existing engineering protocols here in the USA. The same types of unmanned underwater vehicles that were operable to clean up the Gulf Oil spill may be employed in this type of a situation.
15 - Igor
13-DD: IMO the FuckUShima designers gambled that they'd be able to collect their fees and commissions and depart before a catastrophic event occurred. They won.
16 - Igor
By contrast, in Germany a couple weeks ago, they produced one-half of their weekend electricity requirement with solar panels.
Of course, you won't hear about that in the rigidly censored USA press, but you can find it in European sources.
I might point out that Germany has poor predisposition for solar power since they are very northern and cloudy.
By contrast, the USA is rich in open desert land with abundant sunshine. We better get an extensive solar program going before some opportunists create a land monopoly to extort max profits from USA citizens.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
17 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
We should pursue solar energy rigorously.
18 - Dr Dreadful
Of course, you won't hear about that in the rigidly censored USA press, but you can find it in European sources.
Not sure if it's censorship at work here, or just that American newspaper editors know that their readers don't give a hoot about anything that's going on outside their borders.
19 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
Solar energy would help in water desalination projects; however, the technology needs to be perfected for these types of applications. The need is great in places like Africa, although the United States will soon need this technology to forestall water and food shortages in some hot areas of the country where rainfall is scarce.