Press release: Federal Nuclear Regulator Opts Not To Reconsider Critical Safety Enhancements at U.S. “Fukushima” Reactors

NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR

For immediate release: Thursday, December 11, 2014

Contact: Paul Gunter, Director, Reactor Oversight Project: 301-270-2209 (o) 301-523-0201 (cell)

Federal Nuclear Regulator Opts Not To Reconsider Critical Safety Enhancements at U.S. “Fukushima” Reactors

Decision designed to save industry money but exclude experts and public 

TAKOMA PARK, MD -- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has buckled to industry pressure and will recommend that the Commission disallow independent experts and the public from participating in a process to reconsider minimal but critical safety enhancements at the nation’s Fukushima-style nuclear power plants.

The NRC staff today said that a rulemaking proposed by the NRC Commission to further analyze filtered venting for containment protection and radiation release reduction following a severe accident is “not necessary.”  The nuclear industry has vehemently opposed the installation of external filtered containment vents on the basis of cost and “unintended consequences.” 

The NRC staff had recommended the installation of filters as a “cost-benefited substantial safety enhancement,” but the Commissioners instead ordered the installation of containment vents without radiation filters and had instructed the staff to pursue a “proposed rulemaking” to re-analyze the GE containment filtering strategy.

There are 31 GE Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors operating today in 14 states with the same undersized containment design flaw as those units that exploded and melted down in Fukushima, Japan.

“The NRC is more interested in filtering out the truth about these vulnerable Fukushima-style reactors than filtering the radioactive releases,” said Paul Gunter, Director of Reactor Oversight Project at Beyond Nuclear, who is pursuing independent expert and public support for the filtered containment vents. “The NRC is gambling to save the industry some millions of dollars in safety retrofits against potentially hundreds of billions in damages and human suffering following that next nuclear accident,” Gunter said.

A July 24, 2014 report by a committee of the National Research Council with the National Academies on lessons learned from the Fukushima disaster criticized the NRC for significantly under-estimating the likely costs of a Fukushima-style accident using the Peach Bottom, PA GE Mark I reactor as a theoretical test case. While the NRC put the figure at $6 billion, the committee report concluded the cost would be more than $200 billion.

“There is growing evidence that the NRC is not only ignoring the consequences and real costs of a severe nuclear accident by abandoning a reasonable safety upgrade,” Gunter added. “The agency is also ignoring the input of independent experts from such prestigious institutions as the National Research Council. The agency is demonstrating gross abandonment of its regulatory responsibilities in order to shield an economically beleaguered and inherently dangerous nuclear industry,” he concluded.

BACKGROUND

In March 2013, the Commission majority rejected a staff November 26, 2012 recommendation to order GE reactor operators to install external engineered radiation filters on severe accident capable containment vents as a “cost-benefited substantial safety enhancement.” NRC’s extensive documentation and recommendation is found in “Consideration of Additional Requirements for Containment Venting Systems for Boiling Water Reactors with Mark I and Mark II Containments,” (SECY 2012-0157).   

Instead, the Commission ordered the installation of containment vents without radiation filters. The Commissioners instructed the staff to pursue a “proposed rulemaking” to re-analyze the GE containment filtering strategy. The process opened an opportunity for the public and independent experts to participate in analyzing how operators plan to reliably manage the extremely high pressure, extreme heat and explosive gases while keeping the structure intact and still containing harmful levels of radioactivity during a severe accident.

A July 24, 2014, report by a committee of the National Research Council with the National Academies entitled “Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety at U.S. Nuclear Plants” investigated the implications of the Fukushima nuclear accident for U.S. reactors. Appendix L of the committee report “Factoring the Cost of Severe Nuclear Accidents into Backfit Analysis” identified that the NRC severe accident analysis has significantly low-balled its $6 billion estimate for a hypothetical Fukushima-style nuclear accident at the Peach Bottom GE Mark I reactor in Pennsylvania. The National Academies committee estimated the cost to be more than $200 billion. 

The committee report concludes, “that severe accidents such as occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi plant can have large costs and other consequences that are not considered in USNRC backfit analyses. These include national economic disruption, anxiety and depression within affected populations, and deterioration of social institutions arising from a loss of trust in governmental organizations.”

Please download and feel free to circulate a PDF copy of the press release here.

Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org.

NRC to recommend dangerous reversal for vulnerable Fukushima-style reactors

ATTENTION: NRC public meeting to abandon proposed rulemaking to assess filtered containment vents on US Fukushima-style reactors and cut out say from independent experts and public

Public Opportunity to Listen, Learn and Speak Out:

Thursday, December 11, 2014

9:00 AM (Eastern Time) to 12 Noon

TELCON Bridge Line 1- 888-394-5703
Passcode: 3413411#

For additional information how to connect to the live Webcast:

http://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/view?AccessionNumber=ML14324A101

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff recently announced its “preliminary decision” to abandon a proposed rulemaking process to re-analyze whether or not nuclear power companies should be require assess whether nuclear power companies should be required to install external high-capacity radiation filters on revamped containment venting systems. The staff had previously concluded that filtered venting would better protect the public and the environment from a radioactive releases following a potential severe nuclear accident and operator actions to temporarily vent containment of high pressure, extreme heat and explosive gases at any one  of the 31 Fukushima-style reactors still operating in the US.

The regulatory move is a dangerous reversal and contradiction of the federal agency staff’s earlier conclusion in late 2012 that requiring the installation of filtered vents on vulnerable containment is “a cost-benefited substantial safety enhancement” for GE Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors. In 2013, the Commission voted down the staff recommendation to require radiation filters on GE reactor containment vents and instead instruct sthe taff to re-analyze the radiation filtration strategy in a proposed rulemaking process that would engage public stakeholders and independent experts. 

The staff’s recent unilateral decision to now abandon the proposed rulemaking process cuts out independent expert opinions and public comment from the filtered vent re-analysis for the Mark I and Mark II “containment protection and release reduction” program. The external filtered containment vent system was vehemently opposed by the nuclear industry largely on projected cost and “unintended consequences.”

The NRC will hold a public meeting on December 11, 2014 (accessible by webcast and a telephone conference bridge line) to explain its plan for GE reactors and their vulnerable containment structures.  The undersized GE containment design is known to be highly prone to over-pressure failure in the event of a severe accident caused by any number of internal accidents such as fires and external events including severe earthquakes, floods and hurricanes or sabotage. The NRC and industry plan to vent the weak containment of a severe accident’s extreme heat, pressure, explosive gases along with a melted core’s radiation to the atmosphere in order to head off the structure’s permanent rupture. Originally, NRC staff made a very strong case for requiring the containment vent to be equipped with the external radiation filtering system. The staff now proposes to end any further consideration of  state-of-the-art radiation filter systems for the US reactors as is already deployed or being deployed on reactor containments around a post-Fukushima world

More Background

NRC staff revealed  in a brief public meeting December 4, 2014 regarding  the agency's  post-Fukushima severe accident mitigation action plans that include rule making on the installation of radiation filters on Mark I and Mark II hardened containment vent systems that it is their “preliminary finding” that external engineered high-capacity radiation filters on revamped containment vent systems  do not provide significant safety benefit to the public such that the agency would require their installation. The U.S. nuclear industry vehemently opposed the filtered vent. Nearly every other country in the world operating boiling water reactors have already installed filtered containment vents or committed to install them following the Fukushima disaster. 

This is a dangerous reversal of the NRC staff's previous and substantially documented November 29, 2012 conclusion and recommendation [SECY 2012-0157] that the NRC issue an order to all U.S. GE Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors requiring them to install an engineered external filtered hardened containment vent . The NRC Japan Lessons Learned Directorate determined that a filtered vent was a “cost-justified substantial safety enhancement” and an Order to industry would be consistent with NRC regulation and supporting regulatory guidance.

On March 13, 2013, the NRC Commissioners voted (4-1) to not implement the staff's filtered containment vent recommendation and subsequently ordered on June 6, 2013 to instead require Mark I and Mark II operators to upgrade existing containment venting systems to be severe accident capable without the high-capacity radiation filters. 

In a March19, 2013 Staff Requirements Memo, the Commission instructed the staff to pursue a proposed rulemaking to reconsider whether or not installing external engineered filtered vents on these weak containment systems would be substantially beneficial to the public health and safety.

On December 4, 2014, the NRC staff briefly announced that it would recommend to the Commission to abandon the proposed public rule on filtered vents as “not necessary” and end the process that would open the re-analysis to wider independent expert opinion and analysis.

On December 11, 2014 at 9 AM Eastern, the NRC will hold a public meeting via webcast and telephone conference line to discuss its "preliminary finding" to reject its staff’s previously recommended filtered containment vent and disallow the participation of independent experts and impacted public in the re-analysis  of the "Containment Protection and Release Reduction Program" (formerly "filtered venting") for GE Mark I and Mark II Boiling Water Reactors.

"Exelon CEO: 'We are not asking the state for a bailout'"

David Kraft, Director, Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) of ILThe Chicago Tribune reports that Exelon CEO Chris Crane denies the largest nuclear utility in the U.S. is seeking a bailout from the State of Illinois in order to stabilize its flagging fleet of atomic reactors:

'Crane told the Tribune Wednesday that a legislative fix is not in the offing.

“We are not – are not – asking the state for a bailout,” he said. “We are looking at different ways to contract/ sell energy from those plants into other markets, into other buyers, but there is not a state bailout.”

Crane said the company does not support subsidies for wind and does not support a 500-mile high voltage transmission line project pending approval at the Illinois Commerce Commission that would bring more wind into the state from Iowa.

“We are not considering a legislative fix to subsidize the nuclear plants in the state,” Crane said in an interview. ‘That is not anything we are working on.”'

On Nov. 6, 2013, E&E's reporter at Greenwire reported on Exelon's hypocricy in an article entitled "Nuclear giant taps wind tax credit that it's trying to kill."

Two of the reactors Exelon has recently indicated it might close are at Quad Cities: Units 1 and 2 are the same design as Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4. That is, GE BWR Mark Is.

As watchdog Dave Kraft (photo, above left), Director of Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) in IL, points out, Exelon's denial of seeking a state bailout comes on the very same day it announced the takeover of Washington, D.C. area electrical utility PEPCO: "This may be the case -- for now. Who would need a bailout when all one has to do is 'buy' a marketful of unwilling sheeple, who would legally be available for fleecing?  And if the merger is not approved (as the Washington DC PUC will have something to say about this, and hasn't been favorable granting this type of merger in the past to even smaller nuclear-reliant utilities), Crane can always come back to Springfield at a later date to try again."

Dave published an analysis on March 3, 2014, "Exelon Nuclear -- Holding Illinois Hostage Yet Again?", as well as a related April 27th fact sheet, NO RATEPAYER BAILOUTS FOR EXELON’S “NUCLEAR HOSTAGE CRISIS."

"U.S. expects about 10 pct of nuclear capacity to shut by 2020"

Reuters reports:

"Lower natural gas prices and stagnant growth in electric demand will lead to the loss of 10,800 megawatts of U.S. nuclear generation, or around 10 percent of total capacity, by the end of the decade, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a report issued on Monday.

About 6,000 MW of nuclear capacity will shut by 2020 in addition to six reactors totaling 4,800 MW that have already shut or plan to shut in that time period, the EIA said in its 2014 annual electric output study."

Those closures, or announced closures, include: Kewaunee, WI; Crystal River, FL; San Onofre 2 & 3, CA; and Vermont Yankee (photo, above left), a Fukushima Daiichi twin design (GE Mark I BWR). In addition, Canada's Gentilly-2 atomic reactor in Quebec was permanently closed in Dec. 2012.

"Security Issue at Fermi Probed"

NRC file photo of Fermi 2, located on the Lake Erie shore in Monroe Co., MI.The Monroe Evening News has reported that Detroit Edison's Fermi 2 atomic reactor was found to have a security breach earlier this year, which could have allowed access to the "Protected Area" (including the reactor and control room). Detroit Edison claimed the vulnerability was corrected that very day. Security-related matters are almost always cloaked in secrecy, post-9/11, so the public can not know exactly what is being described.

Beyond Nuclear is part of an environmental coalition, including Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (CACC), Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario (CEA), Don't Waste MI, and the Sierra Club, Michigan Chapter officially intervening before NRC's Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) against a proposed new reactor targeted at the same site, Fermi 3. The proposed new reactor's design is a GE-Hitachi, so-calleed "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor," which has been built nowhere in the world before. Even the ESBWR design certification has experienced major problems, such as 6,000 Requests for Additional Information by NRC itself, and a legal settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over fraud and falsifications regarding the ESBWR steam dryer design.

Fermi 2 could apply to NRC for a 20-year license extension as early as this year. Fermi 2 is the largest General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor in the world. It is nearly as big as Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 and 2 -- of identical design -- put together.