AP IMPACT: Asia nuclear reactors face tsunami risk

[jpak]

http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/04/18/2997617/ap-impact-asias-nuclear-plants.html

The skeleton of what will soon be one of the world's biggest nuclear plants is slowly taking shape along China's southeastern coast - right on the doorstep of Hong Kong's bustling metropolis. Three other facilities nearby are up and running or under construction.

Like Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi plant they lie within a few hundred miles of the type of fault known to unleash the largest tsunami-spawning earthquakes.

Called subduction zones, these happen when one tectonic plate is lodged beneath another. And because the so-called Manila Trench hasn't been the source of a huge quake in at least 440 years, some experts say tremendous stresses are building, increasing the chances of a major rupture.

Should that happen, the four plants in southern China, and a fifth perched on Taiwan's southern tip, could be in the path of a towering wave like the one that struck Fukushima.

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