Inviting atomic catastrophe as NRC looks to run reactors for 80 years

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be holding a meeting this week to consider having nuclear power plants run 80 years - although they were never seen as running for more than 40 years because of radioactivity embrittling metal parts and otherwise causing safety problems. But, as Beyond Nuclear board member, Karl Grossman writes, on the Huffington Post and elsewhere this week, "By extending the operating licenses of nuclear plants, the NRC is inviting catastrophe. It's asking for it. The gargantuan problem is that the "it" is atomic catastrophe which, as the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster and last year's Fukushima catastrophe have demonstrated, impacts on huge numbers of people and other forms of life."