Skip to footer

Ring of fire: the five non-Japan nuclear sites in quake zone

Responsible for 90 percent of the world's earthquakes, the "ring of fire" stretches from Australia to Russia around to Alaska and America's West Coast and down to Chile in South America. Here are the five non-Japanese plants in the world's most active earthquake zone.

2. Wintersburg, Ariz.

k94/ZUMA Press/Newscom/File
The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Wintersburg, Ariz., is the largest nuclear generating site in the US.

  • By Mary Helen Miller Correspondent

There are three reactors in Wintersburg, Ariz.: Palo Verde 1, 2, and 3. Wintersburg, which is about 50 miles west of Phoenix, has the only nuclear reactors in the state and is the largest nuclear site in the US. The first two reactors began operating at the plant in 1986, and the third began operating in 1988. “For years we’ve been looking at ‘what-if’ scenarios,” Randy Edington, the plant's chief nuclear officer, told Arizona's ABC15 TV in the wake of Japan's nuclear disaster. “I think the biggest thing is to go back and look at our emergency powers."

2 of 5
You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.