nuclear-news

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s lax rules for re-licensing nuclear plants

Entergy merely had to prove that it had a program to manage the aging reactor……NRC’s rubberstamp of this old and leaking nuclear reactor says more about the Commission and its deference to the nuclear industry than it does about the battle over Vermont’s energy future.  The NRC ‘s standard for renewal is now so lax that the Commission could relicense the Chicago Pile.

License Renewal Vote Says More About NRC Than Vermont Yankee Greenpeace USA by jim riccio – March 11, 2011 Yesterday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decided to end the legal proceeding on the license renewal for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and said that the agency expects to issue the renewed license soon.

While discouraging, this should not come as a surprise.  The NRC has renewed every reactor license since Yankee Rowe withdrew its application in the early ‘90s and threw the nuclear industry’s efforts to run aging reactors another 20 years into chaos.

So why did Yankee Rowe withdraw and Vermont Yankee receive NRC approval?
Simple, after Yankee Rowe shut down the NRC gutted its renewal rule.  Yankee Rowe had to prove that it met the original terms of its operating license; not so Vermont Yankee.  Entergy merely had to prove that it had a program to manage the aging reactor.

Now you might think that the series of screw ups at the reactor: the turbine fire, the cooling tower collapse and the never ending leaks of radiation into groundwater, would give the Commission reason to question running the reactor another 20 years.  But NRC’s rubberstamp of this old and leaking nuclear reactor says more about the Commission and its deference to the nuclear industry than it does about the battle over Vermont’s energy future.  The NRC ‘s standard for renewal is now so lax that the Commission could relicense the Chicago Pile.

License Renewal Vote Says More About NRC Than Vermont Yankee | Greenpeace USA

March 18, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA