Japan crisis to not slow relicensing U.S. plants: NRC

[Junkdrawer]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There is no technical reason that the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will slow down relicensing of U.S. nuclear reactors, a top official from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Tuesday.

Rather, the NRC will assess any changes required in light of the disaster and make changes immediately, outside the licensing process, Bill Borchardt, the regulator's head of operations, said at a Senate energy committee hearing.


http://www.fox43.com/news/nationworld/sns-rt-usreport-us-japan-utre72s451-20110329,0,1560084.story

I saw a brief snip of the hearing today.

Reduce the number of rods in the fuel pool on top of the reactors? Nah, the biggest danger is from newly extracted fuel rods and a complete redesign is too costly.

Increase the battery capacity in case of station blackout? Nah, the kind of "common mode" failure that hit Japan will never hit us. Besides, we have regional backup generators that can drive to any reactor in trouble.

Heavy sigh....

But there will be a report. And there will be recommendations. But here's what the Union of Concerned Scientists have to say:


If the past three decades have demonstrated anything, it’s that the NRC will likely come up with a solid action plan to address problems revealed at Fukushima, but will be glacially slow in implementing those identified safety upgrades. A comprehensive action plan does little to protect Americans until its goals are achieved. We urge the US Congress to force the NRC to not merely chart a course to a safer place, but actually reach that destination as soon as possible.


http://allthingsnuclear.org/

[Avalux]

1. An open-ended recommendation list, with no action plan or timeline.

Sounds great! x(

[enough]

2. I suppose the only thing that could make them change business as usual would be a lot of pressure

from the public. Who knows if that will materialize or if it would actually make any difference.

[truedelphi]

3. Now tha this crisis has proven the American public's capability to believe

that radiation dispersed world wide from nuclear reactors using mox fuel is "safe" and that the bombs in Libya are of more interest, I guess they can keep on keeping on with the damn things.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. And there it is.

We won't learn.

La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la ...

[Ezlivin]

5. "Proceed with caution" is for wussies

As soon as the shuttle Challenger exploded in flight NASA should have simply built an exact copy immediately, without taking any time to examine flaws.

Failures should never slow any project.

[Junkdrawer]

6. 3 times a charm. n/t