Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Risky Rule Change Ignores History. More Nuclear Emergency Planning Needed, Not Less.

Statement by Dr. Edwin Lyman at the Union of Concerned Scientists Aug 14, 2023 https://www.ucsusa.org/about/news/nrcs-risky-rule-change-ignores-history-more-nuclear-emergency-planning-needed-not-less

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a rule today that will allow for the licensing of new nuclear reactors without requiring those reactors to have offsite emergency plans in place should disaster strike.

Below is a statement by Dr. Edwin Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

“Past natural and human-made disasters have taught us that having a robust and workable emergency plan in place is the key to minimizing human suffering and loss of life if the unthinkable happens. The NRC’s reckless decision today flies in the face of that experience. Concerns with the rule expressed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other authorities demonstrate how out of step the NRC is with experts on this issue.

Coupled with other troubling regulatory changes that the NRC has already made or is considering, this new rule will only increase dangers for the public from the next generation of nuclear plants. Additionally, the absence of offsite emergency planning will create burdens in the aftermath of a nuclear plant accident, extreme weather event, or terrorist attack that will fall disproportionately on those people and communities with the fewest resources.

“Some nuclear power advocates downplay the health risks of ionizing radiation, asserting that emergency evacuations following nuclear disasters are more harmful than exposure to the radiation itself and pointing to the casualties following the 2011 Fukushima disaster evacuations in Japan as an example. But the remedy for poorly executed evacuations is better emergency planning, not the elimination of emergency planning altogether.

“The cost of preparing for emergencies is relatively modest. And yet nuclear industry proponents have pushed to change the rules to facilitate constructing new nuclear reactors anywhere, even in densely populated areas where timely emergency evacuations might be extremely difficult or even impossible. People everywhere need to be aware of the NRC’s dangerous decision and its implications for their health and safety.”

August 16, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized

1 Comment »

The Price-Anderson Act already limits the liabilty of electric utilities using nuclear power to generate electricity, who once told us in the 1950’s “that atomic power, (as it was known then) would be “too cheap to meter.” Now they want to build more, smaller, SMR reactors cooled by liquid sodium, liquid salt or helium,all over the place in addition to the old boiling & pressurized water reactions of thousands of megawatts.

We still don’t have a permanent waste storage solution, and the want to reduce or deregulate safety & environmental regulations all because they are “too costly,” unnecessary” or a “burdensome regulation,” on electric utilities, the government or the nuclear industry. We that is clearly wrong. Has the public and the government forgotten about Fukishima, Cherynoble, & Three Mile Island?

There is a reason that the cost of nuclear power is so expensive and it takes so long to build them and why making SMR’s or “small, moduler reactors,” will not make the safety, environmental and cost problems go away. Adopting fewer regulations, expedicting fast approval regulations, by mass producing smaller SMR’s is not going to make the problems of safety, environmental protectiong, waste storage, or cost go away.

The unregulated “invisible hand of the free market,” will not protect or prevent the next nuclear Fukishima, Cherynoble or Three Mile Island accident not happen or go away. We have seen how the “Atoms for Peace Program of Eisenhower in the 1950’s led to the acquiring of nuclear weapons by both India & Pakistan. Only the permanent ban forever and phase out of nuclear power will guarantee the prevention of destruction, contamination and harm from nuclear power. Nuclear Power, No Thanks!

Comment by paulrodenlearning | August 16, 2023 | Reply

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