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Nuclear group warns about construction | ajc.com

Nuclear group warns about construction
ajc.com Associated PressTuesday, November 04, 2008Columbia —- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is warning the nuclear industry to be careful in its construction oversight after finding problems earlier this year at the Savannah River Site.Specifically, the Greenville News reported Sunday, the warning addresses bad concrete and faulty reinforcing steel in the foundation of the Savannah River plant. The site will produce nuclear reactor fuel from weapons-grade plutonium……………………………..

A spokesman for AREVA, one of the private partners building and operating the plant, had no comment on the report.

Problems with concrete at a nuclear plant under construction in Finland, according to the NRC, “caused lengthy construction delays and had a negative impact on public confidence.”

In France, officials encountered a series of problems with steel reinforcing bars in construction of a new reactor site there. The French agency overseeing the project “considers the main issue to be the licensee’s quality management system,” the NRC reported…………….

Tom Clements, Southeast nuclear campaign coordinator for the environmental group Friends of the Earth, said the problems discovered at the MOX plant appear to be “endemic” to nuclear industry construction.

“It doesn’t bode well for the rest of the project or other such projects, nationally,” he said.

Nuclear group warns about construction | ajc.com

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

November 5, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety