nuclear-news

Shocked reaction to USA quietly watering down nuclear emergency plans

A mandate that local responders always run practice exercises for a radiation release has been eliminated – a move viewed as downright bizarre by some emergency planners. ….
These changes, while documented in obscure federal publications, went into effect with hardly any notice by the general public.

These changes, while documented in obscure federal publications, went into effect with hardly any notice by the general public.

Powering down nuclear exercises Utility Products, 20 May 12, Without fanfare, the nation’s nuclear power regulators have overhauled community emergency planning for the first time in more than three decades, requiring fewer exercises for major accidents and
recommending that fewer people be evacuated right away.

Nuclear watchdogs voiced surprise and dismay over the quietly adopted revamp – the first since the program began after Three Mile Island in 1979. Several said they were unaware of the changes until now, though  they took effect in December. At least four years in the
works, the changes appear to clash with more recent lessons of last year’s reactor crisis in Japan. A mandate that local responders always run practice exercises for a radiation release has been eliminated – a move viewed as downright bizarre by some emergency planners. ….
These changes, while documented in obscure federal publications, went into effect with hardly any notice by the general public.
Michael Mariotte, director of the anti-nuclear group Nuclear
Information and Resource Service, normally tracks such rules very
carefully. Thistime, helearnedof them from an Associated Press
reporter. “Unless there are public interest groups out there pointing
to the things these agencies are doing, they generally prefer to be
operating in quiet, especially if it’s likely to be controversial,” he
said. “A typical American does not read the Federal Register.”

The Web archives of FEMA and the NRC show no news releases on the
changes during December 2011 and January 2012. The revisions took
effect Dec. 23, at the peak of the holiday season when Americans tend
to focus on last-minute gift shopping and social
gatherings…..dramatic population growth around nuclear power
plants… The latest changes, especially relaxed exercise plans for
50-mile emergency zones, are being flayed by some local planners and
activists who say the widespread contamination in Japan from last
year’s Fukushima nuclear accident screams out for stronger planning in
the United States, not weaker rules. ….
“You need to be practicing for a worst case, rather than a nonevent,”
said nuclear policy analyst Jim Riccio of the group Greenpeace. ….
Nuclear regulators advocate “one standard to protect Japanese people
and one standard for the American people,” said Richard Brodsky, a
former New York state lawmaker who is fighting relicensing of Indian
Point.

The Japanese government had budgeted $14 billion through March 2014
for the cleanup, but it’s expected eventually to cost farmore.
Andsomeevacueesmay never return home.
http://www.utilityproducts.com/news/2012/05/20/powering-down-nuclear-exercises.html

May 21, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA