The Context
As the world hangs on news from Japan in the aftermath of a seismic and nuclear catastrophe, officials in the U.S. have been quick to downplay risks of similar disaster here. Nevertheless, the dangers are well documented in the Pacific Northwest. Tsunamis generated across the sea may have cost the Northwest millions in damages to harbors, but the real risk is more in line with the nightmare Japan's now experiencing. Not only could the Cascadia Subduction Zone produce an earthquake of similar size and character to the March 11 quake in Japan somewhere along a stretch of coast between Vancouver, B.C. and Oregon's border with California, but much further inland looms the shadow of the drama now playing out at the nuclear facility in Fukushima.
Conflicting Information
Two hundred miles away from the coast in Central Washington, the biggest seismic threat to the Department of Energy's Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the Columbia Generating Station - which leases land at Hanford and is the only commercial nuclear plant in Washington - comes from fault systems in the Cascades and the surrounding Columbia River Basin. Four days after the Japanese quake, operators of the Columbia Generating Station told the Associated Press that the quake is safe for anything up to a magnitude 6.9 event. But larger quakes have taken place in the immediate vicinity. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has a seismic assesment program in place monitoring the geologic risks facing Hanford. In fact, a public web site describing that program's network of earthquake sensors even says "A large earthquake located in the Pacific Northwest outside of Hanford could produce significant ground motion and damage at the Hanford Site" and cites an 1872 quake about 90 miles northwest of Hanford as one historic example of the sort of event that could cause such damage. Such findings were noted by regulators charged with approving the Columbia Generating Station in letters to plant operators. Among other concerns, the letters said emergency plans for the plant left out up to date seismic models.
The Story
If quakes capable of damaging the Columbia Generating Station have and could occur within striking distance of Hanford, how confident can the public be in the plant's safety? How does Energy Northwest justify its claims that it is prepared for disaster. Meanwhile, who's at risk? Hanford is about 25 miles from Washington's Tri-Cities area, one of the Pacific Northwest's fastest growing metropolitan areas. Meanwhile, the plant sits just five miles from the Columbia River, a key source of water for farmers in Eastern Washington and a crucial waterway for spawning salmon and for barges that transport 40 percent of the U.S.'s grain exports. What would a release of radioactive materials near the river mean for the region's people, wildlife and economy?
I would tell the story through interviews with seismologists, officials from Energy Northwest and federal and state regulatory agencies, the disaster management community, nuclear power experts and others. Meanwhile, I would visit the tri-cities and get to know some of the populations potentially impacted by such a disaster and to document their concerns (or confidence) in a series of audio interviews and slideshows.
