A nuclear power plant that was shut down after an earthquake struck central Virginia Tuesday had seismographs removed in 1990s due to budget cuts.
U.S. nuclear officials said that the North Anna Power Station, which has two nuclear reactors, had lost offsite power and was using diesel generators to maintain cooling operations after an 5.9 earthquake hit the region.
The North Anna plant, which was near the epicenter of Tuesday's quake, is reportedly located on a fault line.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission rates the plant as theseventh most likely to receive core damage from a quake. But they say the chances of that are only 1 in 22,727.
Quake sensors removed around Virginia nuke plant due to budget cuts
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Seeded on Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:40 AM
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