Nuclear scientists say Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows plants to ignore or delay repairs!

[Better Believe It]

With U.S. Nuclear Plants Under Scrutiny, Too, a Report Raises Safety Concerns
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
March 17, 2011

On Thursday, the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental and nuclear watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass., accused the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a report of allowing companies that operate plants to ignore, or delay repairs to, leaky pipes, electrical malfunctions and other problems that could escalate into something more serious.

“It’s like the spinning wheels on a slot machine,” David Lochbaum, the author of the report and the director of the organization’s nuclear safety program, said in a prepared statement. “One ingredient showing up causes a puddle on the floor. Two ingredients yield a near miss. All three ingredients showing up can cause nuclear disaster.”

The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists examined 14 instances in 2010 in which significant problems at nuclear power facilities set off special inspections by federal regulators — incidents characterized by the regulators as “near misses.” Reports on such incidents are made available publicly by the regulatory commission.

Twelve of the events involved lingering safety problems, among them leaky roofs and floods near safety equipment, faulty pumps, rusty pipes, fires and inadvertent shutdowns. Two others involved compromises in plant security, though details on those were not made public.

Read the full article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/science/earth/18scientists.html?_r=1&ref=world


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The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety in 2010
A Brighter Spotlight Needed

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami is a stark reminder of the risks inherent in nuclear power. One of its consequences has been heightened concern about the safety of nuclear power facilities in the United States.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency responsible for ensuring that U.S. nuclear plants are operated as safely as possible, gets mixed reviews in a March 2011 UCS report, The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety in 2010: A Brighter Spotlight Needed. The report—the first of an annual series—was prepared and scheduled for release before the crisis in Japan began to unfold, but the disaster makes the report’s conclusions more timely than ever.

Authored by UCS nuclear engineer David Lochbaum, the report examines 14 “near-misses” at U.S. nuclear plants during 2010 and evaluates the NRC response in each case. The events exposed a variety of shortcomings, such as inadequate training, faulty maintenance, poor design, and failure to investigate problems thoroughly.

Since NRC inspections cannot reveal more than a fraction of the problems that exist, it is crucial for the agency to respond effectively to the problems it does find. The report offers examples of both effective and ineffective responses.

Read the full UCS report at:

http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/nuclear_power/nrc-2010-full-report.pdf

[MadHound]

1. D'uh, that's been a practice that has been going on, and known about, for a long time.

Just another problem with nuclear power, the oversight is atrocious.

[enough]

2. Yes i's been known about for a long time, but it has to be much more widely known.

The more attention the nuclear power situation in the US gets right now, the better.

[DCKit]

3. And that's exactly my problem with nuclear power - oversight and penalties.

Or the complete lack thereof.

Of course, if we were doing it right, the corporations who own the plants would complain that it was just too expensive to operate and demand more federal subsidy dollars. 'Cause everyone knows they're strapped and struggling to afford those salaries for the guys at the top.

[yellerpup]

4. No lag at bonus time, though.

K&R

[ClarkUSA]

5. (March 17, 2011) Obama requests nuclear review, sees risk in Japan

His agency will carry out the U.S. review Obama requested. The commission will meet on Monday to begin discussions about it, a NRC spokesman said.

"Our nuclear power plants have undergone exhaustive study, and have been declared safe for any number of extreme contingencies," Obama said. "But when we see a crisis like the one in Japan, we have a responsibility to learn from this event, and to draw from those lessons to ensure the safety and security of our people."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110317/ts_nm/us_japan_nuclear_usa