nuclear-news

Bill to slow relicensing of aged nuclear reactors

 the NRC too frequently rubber-stamps 20-year extensions to licenses that are supposed to last 40 years. They said that could endanger people living near nuclear power plants.

 like allowing a doctor to assure a twenty year-old smoker they will never get lung cancer,”

Bill would add nuclear relicensing rule The Hill, By Zack Colman   – 09/27/12 A House bill introduced Wednesday would delay the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) ability to renew licenses for aging nuclear reactors.

The NRC would be barred from renewing licenses for reactors with more than 10 years left on their current ones under legislation (H.R. 6554) co-sponsored by Massachusetts Democratic Reps. Edward Markey and John Tierney.

They said the NRC too frequently rubber-stamps 20-year extensions to
licenses that are supposed to last 40 years. They said that could
endanger people living near nuclear power plants.
“It seems crazy that the NRC would even consider relicensing aging
nuclear plants more than a decade before its license expires,” Tierney
said in a Wednesday statement. “As these facilities age, safety
concerns inevitably arise.”……
The lawmakers said the announcement of additional NRC inspections to
evaluate concrete degradation at the Seabrook Nuclear facility in
Seabrook, N.H., helped spark the bill.

“Allowing the NRC to give a 60-year long clean bill of health to
reactors that are in their nuclear adolescence, especially one with
documented safety issues such as Seabrook, is like allowing a doctor
to assure a twenty year-old smoker they will never get lung cancer,”
Markey said in a Wednesday statement.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/258991-house-bill-would-add-nuclear-relicensing-rule

September 28, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA