The NRC's Latest Crazy Idea: An 80-Year License to Kill?

Indian Point, NY's steam generator tube rupture in Feb. 2000, and Davis-Besse's Hole-in-the-Head reactor lid corrosion in 2002 were examples of "break-down phase" accidentsInvestigative journalist Karl Grossman, who has been exposing the nuclear industry's cover ups for decades (Karl's first book, published in 1980, was entitled Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power) published an article today at Counterpunch entitled "The NRC's Latest Crazy Idea: An 80-Year License to Kill?" Since the year 2000, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has rubberstamped 73 license extensions for 20 additional years of operations at U.S. atomic reactors, on top of the original 40 year licenses. 13 additional atomic reactors are now lining up, hoping to get their 20 year extensions rubberstamped. But Beyond Nuclear is helping lead environmental coalitions against the Seabrook, NH and Davis-Besse, OH rubberstamps; Natural Resources Defense Council is challenging the Limerick, PA applications; and Missouri Coalition for the Environment is opposing the Callaway, MO license extension. Most of the remaining 20 atomic reactors in the U.S. also plan on applying for 20 year license extensions in the years ahead.

In addition, the NRC has rubberstamped scores of "power uprates" (with many more applied for), allowing atomic reactors to generate more electricity, in order to boost profits, by running hotter and harder than they were originally designed to operate.

But the insatiable greed and technical arrogance of the nuclear establishment knows no bounds. On Thursday, NRC will sit down with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy, as well as the nuclear industry's Electric Power Research Institute, to consider allowing atomic reactors to split atoms for 80 years, despite the radioactive bullets -- "break down phase" risks -- we have already been dodging by the skin of our teeth for many years (see Dave Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists "Bathtub Curve of Nuclear Accidents," above left; the title refers to the shape of the curve, which shows that as atomic reactors age, the risk of disasters increases).

Karl, a Beyond Nuclear board member, quotes Bob Alvarez of the Institute for Policy Studies: “The idea of keeping these reactors going for 80 years is crazy! To double the design life of these plants—which operate under high-pressure, high heat conditions and are subject to radiation fatigue—is an example of out-of-control hubris, of believing your own lies.”

As the 23 U.S. GE Mark I BWRs are among the oldest operating reactors in the country, they would be the first to reach their extended 60-year operating license expirations. The oldest operating reactor in the U.S. is Oyster Creek, NJ, a Mark I operating since 1969.

NRC's long list of 73 rubberstamped 20-year license extensions shows that most Mark Is and IIs across the U.S. have already won approval for 60 years of operations. The only ones yet to receive 60-year permits are: the two Limerick Mark IIs in PA; the Fermi 2 Mark I in MI; and the two LaSalle Mark IIs in IL.