nuclear-news

NRC should suspend all nuclear reactor re-licensing

The NRC is currently involved in licensing activities at 21 existing and new nuclear power plants in 15 states across the country. The petition asks the NRC not only to suspend those activities, but to begin an investigation into what caused the Japanese reactor disaster and the lessons to be learned for U.S. nuclear plants, and to empower an independent commission to review those findings.

NRC rejects petition to suspend nuke plant licensing activities, By Shir Haberman, news@seacoastonline.com September 14, 2011 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected a petition signed by 45 nuclear safety and watchdog groups, including the Exeter-based Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, asking the agency to immediately suspend all licensing activities for nuclear power plants until a full analysis of the Japanese nuclear disaster is complete.

The Seabrook Station nuclear power plant is in the process of asking for a 20-year extension of its operating license. 

“… the events at Fukushima have prompted a comprehensive review of our regulations and practices and, as a result of this review, we may determine that regulatory or procedural changes are warranted,” NRC officials wrote in a Sept. 9 order. “However, nothing we have learned to date puts the continued safety of our currently operating regulated facilities, including reactors and spent fuel pools, into question…..

The petition to stop all NRC licensing functions was submitted in June. It was filed in addition to motions filed specifically to stop the extensions of nuclear plant licenses, including the one sought by NextEra Seabrook LLC, the operators of the local plant.

The petition explains that suspension of licensing activities is necessary to review “the safety and environmental implications of the ongoing catastrophic radiological accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Units 1-6, in Okumu, Japan.” According to the petition, the NRC review should include a close look at “whether the March 11, 2011, Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyo-Oki earthquake and ensuing radiological accident poses new and significant information that must be considered in environmental impact statements to support the licensing decisions for all new reactors and renewed licenses.”

Seacoast Anti-Pollution League Executive Director Doug Bogen commented at that time on why discontinuing the license renewal process for Seabrook Station was important in view of the Japanese disaster.

“With the still unfolding Fukushima disaster — and with at least one of those reactors being exactly the age Seabrook would be when due to be re-licensed — it’s clearly time to re-think the wisdom of signing up our local nuclear reactor for another couple of decades of questionable service at this time,” Bogen said. “As the Japanese are probably thinking about now, we need to be giving greater consideration to other safer, more reliable sources of electric power, as well as a comprehensive and independent analysis of future safety at all our nuclear plants, including Seabrook.”

A statement written by Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of the Maryland-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, was attached to the petition. “Significant regulatory changes are needed to ensure that existing or new nuclear reactors do not pose unacceptable safety and environmental risks to the public,” wrote Makhijani. “In light of the disastrous and ongoing events at Fukushima, it is clear that the issues of public safety raised by the (NRC) task force are exceptionally grave.”

The NRC is currently involved in licensing activities at 21 existing and new nuclear power plants in 15 states across the country. The petition asks the NRC not only to suspend those activities, but to begin an investigation into what caused the Japanese reactor disaster and the lessons to be learned for U.S. nuclear plants, and to empower an independent commission to review those findings.    http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110914-NEWS-110919871

September 15, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA