Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Stephen Burns in a recent letter to Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) defended the agency’s issuing of exemptions for decommissioned nuclear power plants from emergency response and security regulations, a practice Markey and other lawmakers have denounced.
Markey, whose state is home to the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, which is scheduled to close in 2019, hammered the NRC on a number of points in a June 30 letter. Burns responded in an Aug. 23 letter of his own, which was made public Wednesday.
Citing a 2006 National Academy of Sciences report on safety and security of commercial spent nuclear fuel storage, Markey said decommissioning may increase the risk of spent-fuel fires. The academy said spent fuel pools can be filled to capacity even though certain plant safety systems are inoperable. Furthermore, an attack or severe accident at a spent-fuel pool can drain it to “just above the level of the racks (which hold fuel assemblies) in a matter of hours,” according to the report.
“In that circumstance, the absence of adequate emergency response procedures could drastically reduce our ability to restore cooling, resulting in a catastrophic fire. As such, by exempting decommissioned plants from security and emergency response rules wholesale, the NRC is allowing the industry to lower the barriers,” Markey wrote, asking the NRC if spent-fuel pools warrant the same safeguards in place for active plants, without exception.
Burns responded, “No,” but said the NRC recognizes the importance of maintaining “appropriate” off-site emergency planning for an initial period while fuel decays in spent-fuel pools.
“However, recent spent fuel studies have shown that, after the fuel has sufficiently decayed, the risk of an offsite radiological release exceeding the limits established by the EPA’s early-phase (Protection Action Guides) of 1 rem at the exclusion area boundary, decreases to the point that the level of licensee emergency preparedness can be correspondingly reduced,” Burns wrote.
Some standard NRC exemptions include shrinking a plant’s 10-mile emergency planning zone to within the site’s boundaries and curtailing the utility’s obligation to pay surrounding jurisdictions for emergency planning and groundwater monitoring.
