The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting additional information from the owner of the Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant to better address concrete degradation issues that have plagued the New Hampshire facility’s foundation and vertical structures.
NextEra Energy Resources has submitted a license amendment request for Seabrook Unit 1 that would revise the plant’s updated final safety analysis report to address concrete affected by degradation known as an alkali-silica reaction (ASR). The update is expected to include NextEra’s plan for addressing the concrete issue on a long-term basis. The NRC responded to that request Monday, saying the submission lacks the necessary information needed to carry out the review.
Massachusetts lawmakers – including state Sens. Kathleen O’Connor Ives (D) and Sen. Daniel Wolf (D) and state Reps. Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D), and state James Kelcourse (R) – have focused on the issue since 2013. The four penned a letter in May asking the NRC to withdraw NextEra’s operating license for the plant, calling it an “unacceptable threat” to the 4 million New Englanders living within 50 miles of the facility. The NRC responded that the 26-year-old site is “degraded but operable.”
The agency has determined that NextEra’s amendment request is missing the following information: the technical basis for testing correlation between concrete elastic modulus and through-thickness expansion; insufficient information on the ASR deformation assessment program; and an explanation regarding how concrete backfill may apply pressure to adjacent structures.
NextEra has until Oct. 3 to supplement the request and address the NRC’s response.
“The company has preliminarily indicated to us that (it) intends to submit the needed information within the deadline,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said by email Tuesday.
