Georgia reactor is similar to failing Japan nuclear plant

Georgia is not typically associated with earthquakes, but fault lines do run through Georgia.  The Great Valley fault extends from Chatsworth to Cartersville and the Brevard fault runs from Atlanta to Stephens County and then to Brevard, N.C.  These faults, as well as the New Madrid fault in Arkansas and Missouri, have produced earthquakes and tremors in Georgia on multiple occasions.

The earliest recorded Georgia earthquake was in 1811 and shook bricks from chimneys.  Savannah and Tybee Island were shaken by the 1886 quake centered near Charleston, S.C.  This earthquake was estimated at approximately 7.6 on the Richter scale.  There have been a number of earthquakes in Georgia that are rated at V or VI on the Mercalli Scale.  This is considered strong and would be approximately equivalent to a 6 on the Richter scale.  The U.S.G.S reports the most recent Georgia earthquake was a 2.2 that was centered near Milledgeville on August 10, 2010.  (See the U.S.G.S. Seismic Hazard Map of Georgia here.)

Georgia also is home to two nuclear power plants.  The Edwin Hatch plant in Baxley has two units, which have been operating since 1974 and 1978 respectively.  The Alvin Vogtle plant in Waynesboro also has two units.  These came online in 1987 and 1989.  A new reactor is currently being built at Plant Vogtle.  Other states bordering Georgia also have additional plants such as the Savannah River Site which is located in South Carolina near Augusta.

Hatch’s Unit 1 is only three years younger than Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan that is center of the current crisis and has the same GE Mark 1 boiling water reactor.  Nevertheless, experts point out that the problem in Japan is not with the design of the reactor itself, but with the fact that the earthquake and tsunami cut off electrical power to the plant.  Diesel backup generators then came online, but stopped working several hours later.  At that point, the pumps that provided water to cool the fuel rods ceased to function.  The Wall St. Journal reports that the Japanese engineers failed to cool the rods with sea water until it was already too late.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s assessment was that the tsunami was primarily responsible for the loss of power in the Japanese plants.  The damage caused by tsunamis is limited to coastal areas about 1,000 feet from the water.  Georgia’s nuclear plants are far enough inland that they would not be threatened by a tsunami.  The NRC further states that U.S. nuclear plants are designed to withstand the largest magnitude expected in their area plus a safety margin.  The Japanese plants withstood an earthquake magnitude of 9.1.  Georgia earthquakes have historically been limited to about six on the Richter scale.

The Union of Concerned Scientists claims that many U.S. plants, like the one in Baxley, have the same vulnerability to loss of main and backup power.  The group says that the Japanese plant had batteries that supplied the plant with electricity for eight hours, but engineers could not restore power in that time.  According to the U.C.S., many U.S. nuclear plants have battery power that only lasts four hours.

The instability of the world’s oil supply and its increasing price, along with concerns over global climate change, make nuclear power an important part of America’s future energy plans.  While Georgia is not in imminent danger of an earthquake or tsunami, there is the possibility of power loss from other sources.  As the U.C.S points out, fires, which can be caused by earthquakes, can pose a significant risk of damage to a reactor’s primary and secondary power systems.

In the U.S., fire protection standards were updated after a 1975 fire at Brown’s Ferry near Decatur, Ala.  which threatened the plants ability to control one of its reactors.  Changes to the standard in 2010 allow individual plants to evaluate their own fire risks.  Some claim that this standard is too weak and point out that many U.S. nuclear reactors are in violation of fire codes.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission stated in response that older plants were built before 1981 when fire protection standards were updated.  Exemptions were issued to these existing plants in cases where safety gains from modifications would have been negligible.  Further, the NRC says that the voluntary fire risk analysis program will enhance safety by focusing attention on “design and operational issues according to their importance.”

In spite of its potential as clean energy, nuclear power has long had strong opposition in the United States.  No nuclear power plant has been built in the U.S. since 1979, the same year that the Three Mile Island incident occurred.  As a result, the U.S. does not rank in the top ten nations according to the percentage of electrical power provided by nuclear energy, but ranks first in the number of reactors shut down.  According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. gets just under 20% of its power from nuclear energy.  More than 76% of France’s energy is nuclear.

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/georgia-reactor-is-similar-to-failing-japan-nuclear-plant"> 

Rabbis say Arab unrest may signal Messiah's coming

Rabbi Chaim Konievsky (Wikimedia)

A number of Israeli rabbis have said that the spreading unrest in the Arab and Muslim world may signal the long-awaited coming of the Messiah.  Christians, who believe that the Messiah has already come in the form of Jesus (Yeshua), can also find many reflections of Biblical prophecy in current headlines.

Chaim Kanievsky, a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi who is believed by his followers to have mystical powers, said, “"It is evident that many unnatural things are happening.  People have come to me and said that it's 'Gog and Magog'. We cannot know. But it's probable that any unrest that God creates shows that the Messiah is coming, and that we must begin to prepare for it and become stronger."

Another Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, Aharon Leib Steinman, blamed the unrest on the persecution of Torah (Old Testament) students:  “Recently it appears that there is a powerful effort to destroy and agitate the world of the Torah, through various attempts to prosecute kollels and yeshiva students.  When you try to agitate the world of the Torah, God agitates the world.”

Much of the focus on the Arab uprisings stems from a Biblical prophecy of Ezekiel regarding the future War of Gog of Magog.  In the prophecy (found in Ezekiel 38-39), a coalition of nations is led by “Gog, ruler of Rosh, Meschech, and Tubal” in an attack on Israel.  Although the names of the nations listed in the prophecy are antiquated, most are generally believed to refer to modern day Arab and Muslim nations.  One nation that is easily identified is Persia, which is the historic name of Iran.  Modern Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons with which to destroy Israel.

The current wave of revolutions sweeping the Arab world may eventually bring nations that are now ruled by secular dictatorships and monarchies under the sway of radical groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.  Where the secular governments have realized the folly of directly confronting Israel, newly radical governments might take the success of their revolutions as a sign of Allah’s favor and be more inclined to join in an attack on the predominantly Jewish state.

The War of Gog of Magog will be different from previous Arab-Israeli conflicts which have been settled by conventional means.  According to Isaiah, the coming war will be won by divine intervention.  In 38:19, Ezekiel describes an earthquake followed by a rain of fire and ice from the sky in verses 21-22 as Gog’s troops turn on each other.  This bombardment from Heaven will totally destroy the attacking forces.  Chapter 39 describes the aftermath of the attack and the carnage inflicted on the attacking armies.

In Christian theology, the War of Gog of Magog is typically thought to occur before the second coming of Jesus Christ.  It is possible that the utter destruction of the militant Islamists in the Middle East will make it possible for the Jews to construct a replacement for their temple in Jerusalem.  The last temple was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70 during the First Jewish Revolt.  The Biblical book of Daniel describes a latter-day stoppage of sacrifices at the temple (9:27, 12:11).  Jesus refers to these verses (Matthew 24:15-16) in response to a question about his return and the end of days.  The prophecy of Daniel was partially fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes when he defiled the altar of the temple in 168 B.C.  Obviously this is not the ultimate fulfillment because Jesus was speaking of future events and Antiochus’ actions had occurred over 150 years earlier.

The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount (Wikimedia/Chris Yunker)

The traditional site of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem is now occupied by the Muslim Dome of the Rock mosque.  The mosque is currently protected by the Israeli government even though Jerusalem has been under Israeli control since Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser’s disastrous Six-Day War on Israel in 1967.  Any attempt to remove the mosque to rebuild the temple would undoubtedly spark a holy war.  If the mosque were destroyed as a result of the divine intervention against Gog, however, it might well provide an opening for Jewish Israelis.  Interestingly, the chapters of Ezekiel following the Gog prophecy contain a description of a new temple that has so far never been built.

Along with a defilement of the temple, Jesus also says that signs of his return will include earthquakes and famines.  The recent Japanese earthquake ranked as the fourth largest of all time by magnitude.  Of the nine strongest earthquakes in history, four have occurred within the last decade. With respect to deaths, only two of the top ten earthquakes (Haiti in 2010 and Sumatra in 2004) have occurred in the past decade.  Likewise, world food prices have risen sharply over the past few years.  The rising cost of food is a factor in the Arab uprisings and is already causing a food crisis in the poor nations of the world.

 “We've been living in the ‘last days’ ever since Jesus' ascension,” says David Reid, pastor of Peachtree Community Church in Villa Rica and author of Leading to the Bedroom.  “He could come back for the church at any time.  It's the next appointment on God's calendar. Jesus gave many signs of His return in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 including wars and earthquakes.  All of these things are warnings for us to be ready for His return because it is closer than ever before.”

As David Gushee, professor of Christian ethics at Atlanta’s Mercer University also notes “According to the New Testament, Jesus will one day return to earth. But he also said that no one knows the day or hour of his return. The only proper posture for the Christian is to ‘be always on the watch.’  We must live in a way pleasing to Christ whether he is to return tomorrow or in 10,000 years. All speculations that a certain sequence of events now definitively means that the messiah will soon come should be rejected, even though they seem to be a quite natural response of human beings to the stressful and sometimes terrible events of life on earth.”

For a brief overview of Biblical signs of the approaching end of days, please visit http://www.captainkudzu.com/2007/12/signs-of-times.html

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/rabbis-say-arab-unrest-may-signal-messiah-s-coming">