As Hurricane Florence churns its way towards the Carolinas, at least 8 nuclear power plants stand in its way. With public dread over a Fukushima-like accident in the U.S., how will these plants weather this storm?
‘Storm of a lifetime’ Florence is still a few days out from landfall along the U.S. coastline.
Swirling over the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 800 kilometres out to sea as of Wednesday midday, the storm was classified as a Category 4 Hurricane, with maximum sustained wind speeds near 215 km/h, and hurricane force winds (of at least 118 km/h) out to a distance of 110 kilometres from the storm’s core.
When Florence makes landfall, sometime Friday night or Saturday morning, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, it appears likely that it will have weakened to a strong category 3 storm, but it is still expected to bring with it a triple threat of blasting winds, torrential rainfall and a potentially devastating storm surge.
Directly in the path of the storm are 8 nuclear power plants, located in North Carolina and South Carolina. Three of these – North Carolina’s Brunswick Nuclear Plant, and South Carolina’s Robinson and Vogtle Nuclear Stations – are located in areas that will likely see the worst of Florence’s impacts.
The Weather Network – September 12, 2018.
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