More than five years after a tsunami struck Japan triggering one of the worst nuclear disasters in history, U.S. reactors and industry regulators haven’t done enough to prevent a similar catastrophe, a government-sponsored study found.
Reactor operators are falling short on measures to prevent spent nuclear fuel stored at the plant from overheating and releasing radiation into the atmosphere following an accident or natural disaster, according to a report Friday from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Operators should also upgrade plant security “to cope with extreme external events and severe accidents.”
