Fallout from an earthquake

OK - this is cheating; it isn't an original blog entry, just a cut and paste of a letter to the editor that I submitted today

The earthquake in Java was indeed a "natural" disaster. And Australia, as it always has, immediately offered assistance, without calls to move populations away from tectonic faults. Due to the location of Java it is inevitable that earthquakes will keep occurring.

However, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on May 14th ("Iran will talk to nuclear agency: Indonesia"), Indonesia plans to commission it's first major nuclear power station in Eastern Java by 2015; indeed there are already "research" reactors in Yogyakarta the city / region hardest hit by the latest quake.

It is inevitable that another quake will hit the island in the future. Whether one hits before or after the commissioning of a 1000MW nuclear power plant on the Muria peninsular only the Indonesian government can control. The only way to ensure one doesn't hit after a reactor is commissioned is to not commission it

What will anyone be able to offer if a catastrophic earthquake destroys a nuclear power facility (one that is probably fed by Australian uranium), apart from our sincere apologies that we didn't lobby harder to prevent it being built?