Decommissioning is the time to do an "autopsy" while dismantling reactors to investigate residual safety margins at operating reactors

Paul Gunter with Beyond Nuclear provided comments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's proposed rulemaking for updating the agency's policy and regulations for decommissioning nuclear power stations.

Gunter's comments focused on why closed nuclear power stations should be required to undergo destructive examination and material testing of irreplaceable structures and components like concrete containments and the steel reactor pressure vessels to gain important insights into the residual safety margins in aging reactors that are still operating under license extension.

Comments on Nuclear Regulatory Commission Draft Regulatory Basis for Decommissioning Power Reactors

Beyond Nuclear joined a coalition of environmental groups to endorse Comments on Nuclear Regulatory Commission Draft Regulatory Basis for Decommissioning Power Reactors spearheaded by Citizens Awareness Network and Nuclear Information and Resource Service. Other endorsoing organizations included Cape Downwinders, Public Citizen, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Nuclear Energy Information Service, Vermont Citizens Action Network, and Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance.