nuclear safety

Dominion has shut down its North Anna Power Station after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit Virginia Tuesday afternoon.

Created in the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) was formed to unite every company in the world with an operating nuclear power plant to monitor and "achieve the highest possible standards of nuclear safety."

America's nuclear industry has been held up as an example of exemplary safety and regulation. But more than 20 percent of U.S. reactors are similar in design and age to Japan's troubled Fukushima Daiichi reactors.

Japan is a nation all too familiar with earthquakes. Its engineers thought they had accounted for any potential disaster. But last week's earthquake and tsunami overwhelmed safety measures, and forced nations around the world to ask how prepared they are to confront a nuclear crisis.