USA: Getting ready to react to Fukushima

The U.S. nuclear industry is preparing to present regulators with a streamlined package of voluntary safety improvements that it says could be put into effect quickly, writes Matthew L. Wald on the Green blog of the New York Times. Adrian Heymer, the executive director of strategic programs at the Nuclear Energy Institute, said that a clear problem at Fukushima was that the tsunami was bigger than what the plant was designed for. "Instead of having a meter high barrier, they might have had a 10-meter high barrier," although the actual tsunami was 14 to 15 meters high, he adds. The institute’s approach would be to take some general precautions rather than depend on the commission’s regular approach of determining probability before deciding what steps are needed.