Nuclear Industry and NRC Playing Fast and Loose at VA Reactor Site

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Virginia-based Dominion Nuclear are looking to stretch the rules on the public's due process and civil liberties in their bid to license and build more nuclear reactors in the US.  Dominion had originally applied to NRC for a new reactor construction license in 2007 relying upon the unapproved design of the Economic and Simplified Boiling Water Reactor which was legally confronted by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) in a federal licensing proceeding. The design proved to be so bogus that Dominion-among others-ditched it. In a dangerous precedent, Dominion now looks to substitute yet another unproven reactor design, the Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor, like it was changing a burned-out lightbulb without restarting the federal licensing process and opening up to new challenges on public safety and environmental consequences for the new design. BREDL is sounding the ALERT on this latest affront to democracy and calling for public action by October 4, 2010 to reopen the federal licensing process.