I think this will be a lesson learned story. It does concern me since I live not too far from a nuke power plant San Onofre.
San Onofre is still running? Wow, that one has been going a good while now. I remember it well from my living in CA days.
Actually on the bright side if there can be a bright side to a nuclear disaster, they seem to have finally stopped the flow of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.
I believe what got them in Japan wasn't a 9.0 magnitude earthquake but the subsequent wall of water that followed. While it is pretty much impossible to predict an earthquake it is possible to build reactor systems that will sustain the shock of a quake. The reactors in Japan acted exactly as they were supposed to. They immediately scrammed. They shut down just as they were supposed to do.
Then things got ugly real fast as the tsunami came ashore and came ashore more inland than anyone forecast. Their diesel generators were submerged in seawater and mud. When they tried to start it was a hydraulic disaster and they were literally destroyed in short order. They were screwed from that moment on.
Looking at a thirst for electric power Japan has few options. Japan simply lacks natural resources to generate power. Coal mining in Japan ceased years ago as there was no coal to speak of. No natural gas either for gas turbine generators. That pretty gets them down to solar or wind and they just can't generate enough power using those means. That pretty much narrows them down to nuclear generated power.
Something else that bit Japan in the ass and I can see biting many countries in the ass is their aging nuclear power plants. A large number of nuclear power plants on a global basis were designed and built in the 1970s. This is sans France who has a very good and current nuclear program spawned by the presence of Areva which is a a world leader in nuclear energy based in France.
Here in the US applications for nuclear power permits are finally on the rise to replace what are now obsolete plants and operating beyond their projected life cycles. This is where the NRC should be thinking long and hard about extending licenses. The applications we see today should have been applied for a decade ago for new builds.
Just my little take on some of that.......
As to the weather? Florida was having a rough winter before Japan had problems. We have mild winters and then we have bitter winters. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose I guess.
Ron