Shake and bake

Yikes… yesterday’s 6.5 – 6.7 Richter scale earthquake in Veracruz State (felt throughout the southern and eastern parts of the country, but certainly not here on the northwest coast) did only “minor” damage to Mexico’s one and only nuclear power plant… or so we’re being told.

Laguna Verde is “only” twenty plus years old, and has supposedly been being upgraded the last few years.  Officially it has a good safety record, although, just over a week ago, Emily Godoy (IPS) wrote about heath and safety concerns near the plant:

The power plant has not been free of controversy. An audit carried out in 1999 by the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) found there had been a high number of safe shutdowns of the reactor that weakened the operating systems, as well as inadequate personnel training, lack of proper management and organisation of the work, and obsolete equipment.

In 2009 the London-based WANO, founded in 1989 by the world’s nuclear operators, carried out another evaluation, the results of which have not been disclosed by the CFE.

“We want an independent assessment,” Claudia Gutiérrez de Vivanco, one of the founders in 1987 of the Veracruz Mothers Anti-Nuclear Group, told IPS. “They know that there is a health impact, but they refuse to monitor it.”

State and CFE authorities have dismissed any connection between health problems in the area and the Laguna Verde power plant, and have stated that the plant is working well, although they have not provided hard data like the number of incidents at the plant in 2010, or details of the days the reactors were shut down, and the reasons why.

But women like Georgina López and Guadalupe Hernández, a homemaker whose father was first diagnosed with brain cancer in 2003, would have greater peace of mind if they were not surrounded by radioactive risks.

“They say it has no effect, but who’s to know?” Hernández remarked to IPS. “We are afraid of the nuclear power plant. The authorities have never said that it does not affect our health. Only the people who work there really know.”

I sure hope there isn’t any damage… the only thing worse than oily Gulf seafood is radioactive oily Gulf seafood.