Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Eight: Liquified Natural Gas 93and a half times the total spill in the 1944 Cleveland disaster.) An audit of fiveLNG and LPG sites by the General Accounting Office, the independent watchdogagency of the U.S. government, found that at three of the sites, tanks hadvery small earthquake safety margins; “two of these three sites, including threelarge tanks, are located next to each other in Boston Harbor.” 30In Japan, LNG tanks are normally built underground, where they are betterprotected from mishap and spills are more likely to be contained. In theUnited States, LNG tanks are normally built aboveground and surrounded bydikes. But General Accounting Office calculations and experiments suggestthat most dikes meant to contain minor leaks will in fact fail to contain at leasthalf of any sudden, major spill. Some thin dikes could fail altogether. 31 Abrupt,massive releases are indeed possible, as in Cleveland in 1944, because “if theinner tank alone fails for any reason, it is almost certain that the outer tankwill rupture from the pressure and thermal shock.” 32 It also appears that relativelysmall cracks or holes in a large, fully loaded LNG tank could cause itto fail catastrophically by instant propagation of the crack. 33This proneness to brittle fracture implies that relatively small disruptionsby sabotage, earthquake, objects flung at the tank by high winds, etc. couldwell cause immediate, massive failure of an above-grade LNG tank. Certainlyenough weaponry is available to pierce such a tank with ease. The GeneralAccounting Office confirms that the equipment stolen from National Guardarmories includessmall arms, automatic weapons, recoilless rifles, anti-tank weapons, mortars, rocketlaunchers, and demolition charges. A large number of commercially availablepublications provide detailed instructions on the home manufacture of explosives,incendiaries, bombs, shaped charges, and various other destructive devices. All therequired material can be bought at hardware stores, drug stores, and agriculturalsupply outlets.... It is not unusual for international terrorist groups to be armed withthe latest military versions of fully automatic firearms, anti-aircraft or anti-tankrockets, and sophisticated explosive devices. 34The General Accounting Office also found, however, that such sophisticationwould not be necessary to cause a major LNG release. Live firing tests “confirmedthat the double-wall structure of [LNG]...tanks affords limited protectioneven against non-military small arms projectiles, and that devices used by terroristscould cause a catastrophic failure of the inner wall.” 35 Some tanks allowaccess to the insulation space through ground-level manholes, or are built in theair on pilings, thus greatly increasing the effectiveness of explosive charges.In 1978, none of the sixteen LNG facilities visited by the government auditorshad an alarm system. Many had poor communications and backup