Inside EPA: "Agencies Struggle to Craft Offsite Cleanup Plan for Nuclear Power Accidents"

On Nov. 10th, Inside EPA's Douglas Guarino broke the story "Agencies Struggle to Craft Offsite Cleanup Plan for Nuclear Power Accidents." It revealed that NRC, EPA, and FEMA disagree about which agency would be responsible for long term cleanup after a major radiation release, and where the funding to do so would come from. Due to the heightened interest surrounding this story, Inside EPA has made the article, including embedded links to the corresponding FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) response documents, available to non-subscribers via the above link.

We haven't seen a quote like this from an NRC Commissioner in a LONG time!

''If a Secretary of Agriculture endorsed better meat inspection, you wouldn't have a debate of near religious fervor about whether that person was pro- or anti-meat, whether he had sold out to the vegetarians.

You'd debate whether the stricter regulations made sense. It's somehow unique to nuclear power that, when one refuses to have nuclear power on the industry's terms, one gets chucked into a bin labeled 'anti-nuclear.' ''

-Peter A. Bradford, former Commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 3/9/82

So where is Peter Bradford when we need him? Very much engaged in these issues, actually. Serving on the board of Union of Concerned Scientists and teaching at Vermont Law School, Peter Bradford very actively speaks out on the uneconomic nature of new reactors on a very regular basis. His latest essay is entitled "Honey, I Shrunk the Renaissance: Nuclear Revival, Climate Change, and Reality."

NRC raises safety concerns about French Areva EPR

The New York Times has reported allegations of safety significant design flaws with nuclear fuel rod cladding, as well as the danger of control rod ejection accidents, at the French Areva "European Pressurized Reactor" targeted at Flammanville on the Normandy Coast. Meanwhile, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has continued to question the safety of interconnections between safety and non-safety "Instrumentation and Control" systems at the Areva "Evolutionary Power Reactor" targeted to be built at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland, Nine Mile Point on the Lake Ontario shoreline in New York State, and elsewhere. See the NRC press release here.

PSR blasts Congressional proposal to rollback NRC safety regulations

In an op-ed published in The Hill newspaper, Physicians for Social Responsibility's board president, Dr. Jeff Patterson, has compared legislative attempts -- as in the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act discussion draft -- to rollback Nuclear Regulatory Commission safety and licensning regulations for new atomic reactors to the same kinds of mistakes -- speed over safety -- that led to the BP Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe.

Quality assurance contention against Fermi 3 new reactor accepted for hearing by NRC ASLB

An environmental coalition, co-led by Beyond Nuclear, has won a hearing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (NRC ASLB). Despite NRC staff and company objections to the contrary, the ASLB's June 15, 2010 ruling recognized the safety significance of quality assurance (QA) violations, and agreed that the environmental coalition's evidence of Detroit Edison QA shortcomings deserved a full adjudicatory hearing on the merits. The contention relied heavily on an expert affidavit filed on Dec. 8, 2010 by nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates in Vermont on behalf of the environmental coalition. Gundersen expanded his relevant testimony with a June 8, 2010 filing. The ASLB admitted the contention even before taking Gundersen's latest allegations and evidence into consideration. A This marks the fifth contention thus far to be granted a hearing in the Fermi 3 licensing proceeding.