Nuclear plants at sea, tsunami resistant?

Where is the safest place for a nuclear power plant? It seems to be the ocean. A nuclear power plant concept from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggests a facility built on a floating platform in deep water, several miles off the coast.

Proponents of the idea explain that locating a nuclear power plant offshore would have several major advantages. First, it would be immune to earthquakes, tsunamis, and landslides. The biggest concern about being at sea is tsunamis, but researchers have assured the plant’s survivability. In deep water, they say, tsunamis would not be large enough to cause significant damage, and earthquakes would only affect the ground. In addition, floating reactors would make it easier to access the plant, and passively cool it, which MIT scientist Jacopo Buongiorno calls an “infinite heat pool.”

The idea may be designed to protect against natural disasters, but it also carries some small dangers of its own. Buongiorno describes how, in the event of an emergency, radioactive gases from the plant would be released into the ocean, rather than into the air. This would protect people living near the plant from radiation, but the big question is whether it would protect the environment itself?

Of course it is still just an idea at the moment, and if it is developed further, it will certainly be safer, and we will have more controllable nuclear power plants in the future.

According to baocongthuong