nuclear-news

Much has changed worldwide in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, according to a recent analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. But have things changed enough?

Japan was the only nation to fundamentally restructure its nuclear regulatory framework after Fukushima – modeling it largely on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency, the GAO found.

And critics here say that model bureaucracy, the NRC, has been dragging its feet on critical reforms, endangering the public. That’s a charge the NRC vehemently denies.

‘UNACCEPTABLE DELAY’……..“More than two years ago, the NRC charged its most senior nuclear safety officials with making recommendations to help prevent a similar disaster at facilities in the United States,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer at a hearing on post-Fukushima “lessons learned” earlier this year. “Some of the 12 recommendations that NRC’s Task Force proposed have been acted on. The NRC has issued orders to enhance safety when plants lose electrical power and to increase the reliability of venting systems to prevent explosions.

“Other measures to enhance nuclear safety have not moved forward as quickly as they should have,” Boxer continued. “For example, the NRC has allowed three full years for seismic evaluations of nuclear reactors in the Western United States to be completed. If a seismic evaluation finds that there is a seismic risk, the NRC provides an additional three years for yet more analysis.

“This is an unacceptable delay – earthquakes will not wait until after the paperwork has been completed. When the NRC is made aware of new seismic risks, as it was for the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility near San Luis Obispo, it should require immediate steps to be taken to protect the people who live and work near these facilities.”

The Union of Concerned Scientists – a nonprofit watchdog that keeps an eye on the NRC – takes the criticism a bit further……..Another critic is Gregory Jaczko, former chairman of the NRC, who was at the helm when Fukushima melted down in 2011 and resigned in 2012 after controversy over how he treated workers – and after expressing the desire for swifter adoption of Fukushima’s lessons learned.

In an interview last fall with the industry magazine IEEE Spectrum, Jaczko said that more Fukushima-type accidents are inevitable. “For nuclear power plants to be considered safe, they should not produce accidents like this. By ‘should not,’ I don’t mean that they have a low probability, but simply that they should not be able to produce accidents like this (at all). …..http://www.ocregister.com/articles/nrc-614679-nuclear-plants.html