LOUISA, Va., Sept. 1 (UPI) -- The 5.8-magnitude earthquake last week caused storage casks containing spent fuel at a Virginia nuclear power plant to shift 1 to 4 inches, officials said.
When 25 of the 27 cylinders at the North Anna Power Station near Louisa, Va., shifted, no radiation was released, said Rich Zuercher, spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power, which operates the station, CNN reported.
Monitors were connected to the cylinders, each 16 feet tall and weighing 115 tons, and officials knew of the movement but did not inform the public, Zuercher said.
"We had a lot going on," Zuercher said. "There was no indication of any problem ... and there isn't any problem."
Roger Hannah, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said it marked the first time in U.S. History such casks at a nuclear power plant had been shifted by an earthquake.
He called safety standards for the casks "unbelievable," adding, "To say they are robust would be an understatement."
Hannah said the NRC has dispatched an inspection team to the plant and it will review the shifting of the casks.
"Further reviews indicated that additional inspection is warranted," the commission said in a statement Monday, CNN reported.
Zuercher said concrete also came loose on a few horizontal bunkers, which hold spent fuel and are 16 feet long and weigh 50 tons.
The quake's epicenter was less than 20 miles from the plant.
