nuclear-news

Unsatisfactory basis for nuclear safety rules in USA

Nuclear miscalculation: Why regulators miss power plant threats from quakes and storms Huffington Post, The Center for Public Integrity  By Susan Q. Stranahan, 13 Sept 11, 

How well are nuclear plants near you prepared for disaster? Look it up here 

“……Day-to-day operation and oversight of the nation’s 104 nuclear plants rely heavily on assumptions and statistical calculations: The earthquake won’t be stronger than seismologists predict. Floodwaters won’t rise higher than hydrologists estimate. Tornadoes won’t knock out off-site power supplies on which nuclear plants depend. Switches and valves will work.

The unexpected won’t happen.

Such calculations deem unlikely that terrorists will gain access to poorly-secured spent reactor fuel storage facilities. Or that seemingly minor transmission line maintenance won’t accidentally trigger a blackout affecting millions in the West and forcing two reactors to automatically shut down – another unexpected event, last week.

Regulation by predicting what’s probable has been evolving since 1975, when the NRC and reactor owners began moving from a traditional rulebook form of regulation — involving specific requirements, for instance, about equipment and procedures — toward what is known as probabilistic risk assessment, or PRA. Such “risk-based” regulation gives the companies running nuclear plants wider leeway in determining how they are going to operate safely. Reactor owners and government safety officials argue that the old “one-size-fits-all” rulebook approach is expensive and inefficient.

At the heart of the strategy are questions: How likely is something to go wrong? What would be the consequences?…..

The underlying weakness of the approach – faulty assumptions or underestimates – is coming into sharper focus…..   The effects of weak policing…..  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-center-for-public-integrity/nuclear-miscalculation-wh_b_960417.html

September 14, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general