Expand public’s right to question nuclear safety, says Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief

Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief sides with Pilgrim watchdog group, By Christopher Burrell, Enterprise News.com, The Patriot Ledger  Feb 23, 2012 In a surprising move to side with critics of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is arguing to expand, not limit, the public’s chance to ask plant-safety questions in light of last year’s Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster in Japan.

The Fukushima nuclear plant has a similar reactor to the one at Pilgrim, which has been trying for six years to win approval from the NRC for a 20-year extension of its operating license. “Given the significance of that accident (at Fukushima) and the potential implications for the safety of our nuclear reactors, we should allow members of the public to obtain hearings on new contentions on emerging information,” NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko
wrote in a dissenting opinion released Wednesday. Jaczko was the sole dissenter on the five-member commission, which is appointed by the president. Continue reading →

February 24, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

San Clemente residents want independent radiation monitoring of San Onofre nuclear plant

February 23, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

USA’s worries about its nuclear reactors similar to Fukushima’s

U.S. nuclear plants similar to Fukushima spark concerns By Matt Smith, CNN
February 17, 2012   — As the United States prepares to build its first new nuclear power reactors in three decades, concerns about an early generation of plants have resurfaced since last year’s disaster in Japan.
The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant — the subject of a battle between state authorities and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over its continued operation — uses one of 23 U.S. reactors built with a General Electric-designed containment housing known as the Mark I.
It’s the same design that was used at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where three reactors melted down after the station was struck by the tsunami that followed Japan’s historic earthquake in March 2011. The disaster resulted in the widespread release of radioactive contamination that forced more than 100,000 people from their homes…..
Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear engineer and a leading critic of the Vermont Yankee plant, says the Japanese accident shows the Mark I containment system can’t prevent a release of radioactivity in a meltdown.

Watch an excerpt from this weekend’s CNN Special Investigations Unit report on Vermont Yankee
In an October hearing before the NRC’s Petition Review Board, he said the vents were a “Band-Aid fix” for the design that failed “not once, not twice, but three times” at Fukushima Daiichi.
“True wisdom means knowing when to modify something and knowing when to stop,” said Gundersen, who leads a state commission set up to monitor the Vermont Yankee plant.
Half of U.S. reactors are more than 30 years old…..    http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/17/us/us-nuclear-reactor-concerns/?hpt=us_c1

February 18, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Call for wider evacuation zones around USA nuclear plants

“Pretending that radiation from an accident at Oyster Creek would not go beyond the 10-mile evacuation zone is a fantasy placing millions of people at risk,”

Nuclear Plant Watchdogs Call for Expansion of Evacuation Zone Around Oyster Creek, Berkely Patch, 16 Feb 12, NRC spokesman says current 10-mile evacuation zone is sufficient for public safety and health By Elaine Piniat Jersey Shore advocates and 37 clean energy groups have petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expand emergency evacuation zones and improve emergency response planning around U.S. nuclear reactors, including the Oyster Creek Generating Station. Continue reading →

February 17, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

USA taxpayers up for huge costs as NRC approves 2 new and unsafe nuclear reactors

The safety of the reactor design has been challenged over many years. An engineering study commissioned by Friends of the Earth and other groups opposed to the project identified seven key safety areas, including failure risks for the reactor containment, cooling functions and spent fuel pool integrity

Feds Approve Unsafe New Nuclear Reactors Requiring Billions Of Taxpayer Dollars  ENews Park Forest,    Washington, D.C.—(ENEWSPF)—February 14, 2012.  Despite the opposition of its chair, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last Thursday approved the first new construction of a new design of nuclear reactor since the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in 1979. Friends of the Earth stated today that the decision to give the green light to building two nuclear reactors at Vogtle, Georgia raises fundamental safety and economic concerns.

The NRC ruling, the first such approval in the U.S. in more than 30 years, will saddle Georgians with higher electricity rates and leave American taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars — all for a dangerous energy source with a long history of construction delays, cost overruns and safety lapses. Continue reading →

February 15, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Palisades and Browns Ferry nuclear reactors rated at the bottom for safety

 Michigan Nuclear Plant Downgraded Over Safety, WSJ, FEBRUARY 14, 2012, COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich.—Federal regulators said Tuesday that safety violations at the Palisades nuclear-power plant in southwestern Michigan had led them to downgrade the plant to a status held by just two others in the U.S.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission assigns the more than 100 nuclear reactors in the U.S. to one of five categories based on their safety performance. Most are in the top-performing group. Palisades was bumped to the No. 2 category last month and now will join two others
in the third category: the Perry Nuclear Power Plant’s Unit 1 generator near Cleveland and the Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant’s Unit 1 generator in Berwick, Pa.

The only reactor that ranks lower is Browns Ferry Unit 1 near Athens, Ala., which is in the fourth category….. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577223561511417868.html

February 15, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s poor oversight of safety enforcement

US nuclear watchdog questions oversight of safety enforcement, msnbc.com,  By M. Alex Johnson 13 Feb 12,  The federal government’s nuclear watchdog has faulted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for failing to follow through on safety agreements with nuclear facilities, saying its system for tracking corrective action raises questions about its oversight of nuclear safety and security. Continue reading →

February 14, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman warns on safety factors for Vogtle new nuclear plant

Southern’s `Monumental Accomplishment’ Tempered by Fukushima, Bloomberg, By Brian Wingfield – Feb 9, 2012 The chief regulator’s dissent in a vote that approved the first U.S. permit in 34 years to build a nuclear reactor is fueling a debate over safety as the first anniversary of Japan’s nuclear disaster nears.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 4-1 yesterday to award Southern Co. (SO) of Atlanta a license to build two reactors at its Vogtle plant near Augusta, Georgia. The agency should have required the company to implement lessons from Japan’s nuclear crisis last year, said Chairman Gregory Jaczko, who opposed the license.

“Right now we know there are things that need to be fixed, things that need to be changed, or at least things that need to be analyzed,” Jaczko said yesterday in an interview at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. “For us to issue this license, and say ‘we’ll deal with them later,’ to me is kind of putting the cart before the horse.” Continue reading →

February 11, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment