Five Potential Nuclear Disasters Just Waiting to Happen

 A general view of the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant

By Joseph Hammond    

The troubles surrounding Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant in the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami there have set off a debate on the safety of nuclear power in general. Part of the problem at Fukushima appears to be the plant’s outdated design and the engineers’ lack of foresight to plan for both an earthquake and a tsunami. But after Three Mile Island, Chornobyl, and now Fukushima, the question remains whether nuclear power can ever be truly safe.

In light of the disaster, RFE/RL takes a look at five other reactor complexes where safety has been an issue and which prompt concern for the future.

Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, Armenia

Cooling towers of the Metsamor Nuclear Power PlantMetsamor was originally brought online in 1980 in what was then Soviet Armenia. In 1988, the area suffered a devastating 6.9-magnitude earthquake, the epicenter of which was just 75 kilometers away from the plant.

Officials reacted by deactivating Metsamor, but they were forced to switch the plant back on seven years later after the country lost access to energy sources in Turkey and Azerbaijan following the 1988-94 conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Because of its location and age, Metsamor is frequently cited as the most dangerous reactor in the former Soviet Union. The plant is now slated for decommissioning in 2017, but it continues to supply 40 percent of Armenia’s energy, and officials are said to be contemplating building another power plant there to replace it.

A dramatic improvement in Armenia's political and economic relationship with its energy-rich neighbors could reduce the need for a new nuclear plant at Metsamor.

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