US Nuclear Industry and Regulatory Failures

The Institute for Southern Studies offered an interesting recap of an agency that has abdicated its responsibility to the Nuclear Industry in the past. Is there an aging Nuclear Power Plant near you? [excerpt below]:


As safety worries grow for existing U.S. nuclear fleet, proposed new reactor design faces mounting problems

A yearlong Associated Press investigation has found that federal regulators have kept aging U.S. nuclear reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards or failing to enforce them.

Coming as Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant is thought to be experiencing a worst-case "melt-through" scenario, the AP's revelation further amplifies concerns about the safety of the existing U.S. nuclear fleet.

But at the same time, the nuclear industry's plan to build a new type of reactor is also raising serious safety concerns.

The AP investigation into nuclear power plant safety appeared in media outlets nationwide this week and documented a cozy relationship between the commercial nuclear power industry and regulators at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. As the AP reported:

Records show a recurring pattern: Reactor parts or systems fall out of compliance with the rules. Studies are conducted by the industry and government, and all agree that existing standards are "unnecessarily conservative."

Regulations are loosened, and the reactors are back in compliance.

The commercial reactors now operating across the U.S. were built in the 1960s and 1970s, and were designed and licensed to generate power for 40 years. But 66 of the 104 operating reactors have been re-licensed for 20 additional years, with renewal applications under review for another 16 units.

These aging reactors are beginning to experience problems due to wear and tear: reactor vessels gone brittle, leaky valves, cracked tubing, corroded piping. The second installment of the AP investigation found that corroded piping had led to radioactive tritium leaks at three-quarters of U.S. nuclear power plants.