Nuclear expert urges calm over reactor fears
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With the nuclear crisis mounting in Japan, one expert says it would be no surprise if people are a little leery of nuclear power. Dr. Andrew Kadak with the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering says before people get too caught up in that, there are two things to consider about what's going on at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
“One is, isn't it incredible that given the destruction we saw take over much of that coastline that these reactors in fact survived. That's a testimony to their robustness,” he said, adding that the other is to understand what really failed and what changes may need to happen for the existing fleet of reactors.
Kadak says most of the world's nuclear power plants are not in the Ring of Fire or in earthquake zones like Japan. But they are build to handle the elements.
“They are designed to withstand certain expected and even unexpected events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes — you know we have tornadoes in this country — and floods.”
