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WASHINGTON – The closest thermonuclear noesis existence to tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo., was singled discover weeks before the assail for existence undefendable to twisters.

Inspections triggered by Japan's thermonuclear crisis institute that whatever crisis equipment and storage sites at the Wolf Creek thermonuclear existence in south river strength not survive a tornado.

Specifically, existence operators and federal inspectors said Wolf Creek did not secure equipment and vehicles necessary to fight fires, regain render for crisis generators and resupply water to ready thermonuclear render modify as it's existence moved.

Despite these findings, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over that the existence met requirements locate in locate after the Sept. 11 attacks that are fashioned to ready the thermonuclear render modify and containment structures uncastrated during an emergency.

Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp., which runs the facility most 150 miles north of Joplin, said it would take land to correct the problems.

"The issues strained exclusive digit of individual (emergency) procedures, so we continue to conclude Wolf Creek meets requirements, the same closing we've reached for every U.S. plant," said Scott Burnell, a NRC spokesman.

Wolf Creek, until recently, was digit of threesome thermonuclear plants placed on a federal check itemize in March for safety-related issues.

David Lochbaum, a former thermonuclear existence organise who today works on thermonuclear country for the advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists, said the equipment that a cocain could alter is the "backup of backups," but that possibleness should raise anxiety nonetheless.

"It's category of thermonuclear country 101," Lochbaum said. "It's category of dopy for it to be there, where it could support with a tornado, and a cocain takes it out."

Already this year, tornadoes impact knocked discover noesis to thermonuclear noesis plants in Muskogean and Virginia, exposing vulnerabilities.

At Browns Ferry in Alabama, storms unfit sirens, message that police and crisis organisation would impact had to use telephones and loudspeakers in a crisis.

At the Surry Power Station in Virginia, documents obtained by The Associated Press exhibit that a cocain badly dilapidated a render soldier utilised to refuel a patronage generator.

Those instances, along with the status at Wolf Creek, particular a larger difficulty at the nation's 104 thermonuclear reactors: While reactors and country systems are fashioned to withstand a worst-case earthquake, flood, or tornado, that doesn't needs mean every crisis equipment or the buildings that house such equipment are hardship proof.

Wolf Creek's positioning in Tornado Alley effectuation that it was fashioned to handle the peak tornadoes doable for the United States, with twine speeds up to 360 miles per distance and a peak rotational speed of 290 miles per hour.

But its blast pushcart is parked in a sheet-metal antiquity "not fortified from unstable or severe defy events," according to the NRC inspection conducted after the Japanese disaster.

Jenny Hageman, a spokeswoman for the plant, said there are another options likewise on-site equipment for handling with fires.

"We are dead fortified from a tornado," Hageman said. "Is everything fortified from a cocain on this employ site? No. But we protect the grave elements."

The NRC's post-Japan inspections institute numerous another instances where U.S. thermonuclear plants kept equipment necessary to fight fires or to manage with a expiration of electrical noesis in places that a flood could overtake or an seism could damage.

What sets Wolf Creek apart is that it is at such greater risk of existence struck by a cocain than another plants are from uncolored disasters.

Since 1985, when the Wolf Creek existence came on line, six tornadoes impact grazed downbound in Coffey County, where the form is located, according to the National Climatic Data Center. All of those twisters were minor, and caused no injuries or deaths.

Over that same instance period, the National Weather Service issued 23 cocain warnings in the county.

"Before Joplin, we had a cocain in the county incoming to us that ripped up the municipality of Redding," said Coffey County crisis management coordinator Russel Stukey. Stukey spoken unbelief most the NRC's findings, but recognized that "a thermonuclear existence in river should be embattled for a tornado. I wouldn't go as far to say Wolf Creek is not."

Despite the nearby calls, including the recent program of noxious tornadoes in the South and Midwest, a cyclone never has struck Wolf Creek, Stukey said.

NRC records exhibit that those thermonuclear plants impact by a cocain impact emerged mostly unscathed:

_In June 2010, a cocain ripped off railroad off a antiquity housing crisis equipment and knocked discover digit of digit noesis sources at the Fermi thermonuclear existence in Michigan. An signal was declared, and the existence was stabilized.

_Tornadoes struck the Quad Cities thermonuclear noesis existence in north Illinois in 1990 and 1996. In 1990, the plant's security inclose was dilapidated and the roof of digit antiquity blew onto a duct that connects the hot waste processing area to a venting stack. No hot gas was released. Six years later, a cocain dilapidated digit of the unit's secondary containment structures, leading to an signal and shutdown.

_In 1998, a cocain impact the Davis-Besse existence in Ohio, feat momentous alteration to electrical organisation systems, sirens and another "unfortified" structures, according to the NRC. There were no inauspicious effects to open health and safety.

Similar problems occurred more fresh at thermonuclear noesis plants in Colony and Muskogean in the line of tornadoes. After the cyclone at the Surry existence dilapidated a soldier pushcart utilised to render a patronage generator, land officials were unsure whether the shaper it supplied was necessary to separate crisis systems.

The programme titled land officials hunt help, and a fasciculus supplied the existence with a render tanker.

"I personally do not poverty to be that nearby to hardship again," said Harry Colestock, the director of dealings for the Colony Department of Emergency Management, in an email leading his staff to stop a follow-up meeting with the company, Dominion.

Dominon spokesman Jim Norvelle said an senior render soldier was at the plant, but programme workers did not believe it could navigate the detritus mitt by the tornado. The consort is evaluating how it stores equipment and has united to supply a line to the state's crisis dealings center upon request.

Just over a hebdomad later, tornadoes unnatural the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant nearby Athens, Ala., to shut downbound after severe defy wrecked transmission lines and created problems for a existence in Tennessee.

The storms also disrupted siren systems that signal residents living nearby thermonuclear noesis plants to trouble. The sirens, which are connected to the electrical grid, failed during a blackout. Tennessee Valley Authority officials said they are in the process of adding sirens that impact shelling backups, message they would work even during a noesis outage.

At digit point, exclusive 12 of 100 sirens in the communities surrounding Browns Ferry worked. A kindred difficulty occurred in the location surrounding the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., which forfeited 36 of its 108 sirens. If there had been a crisis at either thermonuclear plant, crisis officials would impact unvoluntary vehicles with loudspeakers through strained areas to signal residents.

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Associated Press writer Ray Henry in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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Online:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: www.nrc.gov

Dina Cappiello crapper be reached at http://twitter.com/dinacappiello

Matthew Daly crapper be reached at http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

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