Cooling pipe breach now laid to temblor

Cooling pipe breach now laid to temblor
Reactor design rethink looms after Tepco damage report
Thursday, May 26, 2011

Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted Wednesday that one of the critical cooling pipes at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's reactor unit 3 may have been damaged in the March 11 megaquake.

Tepco suggested earlier that no major damage, including ruptures in the facility's main steam pipes, had occurred at the reactor until the massive tsunami hit after the magnitude 9.0 quake.

But if the temblor had actually damaged the High-Pressure Core Flooder system — which is used to supply coolant water to a reactor core in emergencies to keep nuclear fuel from overheating — power suppliers across the country might be forced to reconsider the quake resistance designs for their reactors.

"If we do our analysis on the premise that there was a leak in the piping, it matches (data) in reality," a Tepco official said at a news conference.

"We can't deny the possibility...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110526a1.html

"...power suppliers across the country might be forced to reconsider the quake resistance designs for their reactors" the article says.

No, that should read "power suppliers around the world will be forced to reconsider the quake resistance designs for their reactors".

And in all future designs.

How much is that going to raise the already exorbitant costs of reactors?