The director of the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station in New Brunswick says the possibility of an Atlantic tsunami represents an extremely low risk to the plant on the north shore of the Bay of Fundy.
Wade Parker says the kind of seismic activity that can lead to tsunamis is rare off the Atlantic coast, with only one recorded case of a large, damaging wave hitting land.
In 1929, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 triggered a submarine landslide and resulting tsunami that crashed into Newfoundland's south coast, killing 27 people in the village of Lord's Cove.
Parker says the biggest natural threat to the station is the possibility of a Category 5 hurricane churning up a 10-metre wall of water in the bay, an event that is expected once every 10,000 years.
He says that even if the worst-case scenario were to materialize, the nuclear plant would likely emerge unscathed because it is 15 metres above mean sea level, even at high tide.
Parker says the station also has four backup diesel generators, two of which are built on large springs to withstand a powerful earthquake.
