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USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission might be forced to get out of bed with the nuclear industry

 the days of uncontested, rubber-stamp relicensing may be drawing to an end. A new generation of legal warriors, armed with scheduled appeals and hotly debated contentions, have slowed some relicensing procedures to a glacial pace.   Today, relicensing applicants may encounter committed opposition in high places they didn’t bargain for…..

The End of the NRC Rubber Stamp?   OpEd News, By Abby Luby  16 July 11 On Friday, a major victory by New York State upset the Nuclear RegulatoryCommission’s rubber stamp process to relicense the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. The historical decision by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled in favor of a petition served by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that argued the NRC’s environmental review violated the law.

This was the first successful motion of its kind and it heralds the growing trend to battle “business as usual’ when it comes to relicensing aging nuclear power plants who want to stay in business past their 40-year life expectancy. The AG alleged that the NRC and Indian Point owner Entergy violated federal regulations which allowed the utility company to omit key safety items that address accident analyses as part of their relicensing application.

The usual nod from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been the status quo for an approval that, so far at least, has been just about guaranteed. The NRC, the federal oversight agency for nuclear power plants, has never rejected a single application tendered by any utility company seeking to keep their reactors on line.

The victory signals that the culture presumptive relicensing is finally beginning to change.

Recently, the NRC rubber-stamped two new licenses for the Salem Generating Plants in   New Jersey. Owned by PSEG (Public Service Enterprise Group), the reactors are in Salem County, about 40 miles south of Philadelphia. The Salem reactors now top the list of the 66 nuclear power plants the NRC has re-licensed for another 20 years; the agency is reviewing applications for another 16 reactors.

But the days of uncontested, rubber-stamp relicensing may be drawing to an end. A new generation of legal warriors, armed with scheduled appeals and hotly debated contentions, have slowed some relicensing procedures to a glacial pace.   Today, relicensing applicants may encounter committed opposition in high places they didn’t bargain for…..

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-End-of-the-NRC-Rubber-by-Abby-Luby-110715-812.html

July 16, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA