RE: [cdn-nucl-l] Cost of natural gas accidents

["Dukelow, James S Jr" <jim.dukelow@pnl.gov>]

The situation Professor Cohen describes is neither isolated nor limited to
earthquakes a century ago.

Much of the damage and loss of life (estimated at 140,000) in the 1923 Great
Kanto Earthquake in Tokyo/Yokohama was due to fire (also related to use of
natural gas).

Similarly in the 1995 Kobe earthquake, where the fires started by broken gas
mains were compounded by the failure of a system of multiple reservoirs and
water mains that was designed specifically to survive an earthquake -- but
didn't.  Damage and loss of life in Kobe might have been much worse had the
earthquake not been followed by almost a week of cool weather with low winds.

Best regards.

Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
jim.dukelow@pnl.gov

These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my
management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.
  
-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Cuttler [mailto:jerrycuttler@home.com]
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2001 4:07 PM
To: cdn-nucl-l
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] Cost of natural gas accidents


Wow!!!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bernard L Cohen" <blc+@pitt.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list ans-pie" <ans-pie@nuke-ans.org>
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2001 12:05 PM
Subject: Re: Cost of accidents


>
> On Sat, 7 Jul 2001 AtomicRod@aol.com wrote:
>
> > Group,
> >
> > One argument that is used against nuclear power is that the cost of
accidents
> > to society is potentially enormous and not fully covered by insurance.
> >
> > Such arguments are rarely heard with regard to natural gas, but there is
an
> > interesting example that I have not heard much about. I would be
interested
> > in your comments, especially if you live in California.
>
> The damage from the San Francisco earthquake of 1906(?) was mostly
> due to fires started by broken natural gas lines. Did the gas company
> insurance cover that enormous damage?
>
>


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