NRC Staff to Lay Out Next Steps on Plant Safety, Official Says
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will outline next steps for power-plant safety during a meeting tomorrow with industry representatives to consider post- Fukushima recommendations.
The NRC staff tomorrow “will lay out our new approach” to industry officials during a meeting at the agency’s Rockville, Maryland, headquarters, spokesman Scott Burnell wrote in a blog post yesterday.
The regulator’s approach, combined with proposals offered by the industry last month for additional backup systems, may improve safety at U.S. plants following the Japan crisis, Burnell said.
The NRC is weighing safety rules for 104 U.S. commercial reactors after an earthquake and tsunami triggered meltdowns and radiation leaks at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501)’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant in Japan in March. The commission on Dec. 15 approved a list of priorities for regulatory action, including steps for plants to handle power failures.
The industry group plans to discuss its proposal with regulators tomorrow, Mitch Singer, an spokesman for the Washington-based Nuclear Energy Institute, said in an e-mail.
The institute, a Washington-based industry group, last month proposed helping plants withstand power losses, including providing access to additional pumps, generators, batteries and chargers.
“The industry believes the approach will enable greater safety benefits to be realized in a shorter period of time,” Adrian Heymer, executive director of strategic programs at the Washington-based NEI, said in a Dec. 16 letter to David Skeen, the NRC official in charge of analyzing recommendations stemming from the Fukushima disaster.
‘Starting Point’
The industry group’s approach is a “reasonable starting point, although more work is needed on defining these strategies,” Burnell said in his blog posting. “We also must ensure the NRC can inspect how plants put the strategies in place and that we can hold plants accountable for keeping those strategies ready and available,” he said.
Flooding destroyed emergency power supplies at Fukushima, preventing operators from operating the plant’s cooling systems and avoiding meltdowns. The commission staff also is considering a requirement that plant owners evaluate seismic and flooding risks.
NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko wants all rules resulting from the Japan crisis to be in place by 2016.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Wingfield in Washington at bwingfield3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net
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