Source (Crap the link was wrong. This is the link):
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2112763.ece

Excerpt:
A 6.8 magnitude quake, which shook Niigata on Monday and left thousands of homes uninhabitable, was three times more powerful than the designers of the nearest nuclear power plant – Kashiwazaki-Kariwa – had prepared for, or even imagined.


I'm sorta glad I don't live in Tokyo after reading this.

New panel to investigate Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant; report could be sent to UN
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070724p2a00m0na010000c.html

Niigata is quite far from Tokyo, mate.

Dammit, I support nuclear power but even I know that building reactors in areas that you need to estimate the magnitude of earthquakes is a dumb idea.

stormy001 wrote:Niigata is quite far from Tokyo, mate.

The first link was wrong. Check out the new link.

Last time that happened my uncle the nuclear physicist (helped clean up Maralinga*) went on a rant about how you have to choose the right place for your nuclear installations. And an earthquake zone isn't it.


*by clean up, I mean he helped arrange things so it will take 300 years before the area's livable again, instead of 500 years.

edible_hat wrote:Last time that happened my uncle the nuclear physicist (helped clean up Maralinga*) went on a rant about how you have to choose the right place for your nuclear installations. And an earthquake zone isn't it.

Kinda limits Japan's choices, really.

China doesn't even need earthquakes to mess up their nuclear reactors, though.

China doesn't need nuclear reactors to mess up their environment. But it gives their industrial-scale polluting that added kick.

Everything has its price. Nuclear, coal, oil all demanded some kind of payment for raping to get energy to power our civilization anyway, So I am not too surprised about this.