After Bloomberg ran an indepth story on just how unprepared US nuclear power plants are for the ravages of climate change -- especially sea-level rise -- Common Dreams did a follow-up piece with Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter.
Among the shocking findings in the Bloomberg article: "54 of the nuclear plants operating in the U.S. weren’t designed to handle the flood risk they face. Fifty-three weren’t built to withstand their current risk from intense precipitation; 25 didn’t account for current flood projections from streams and rivers; 19 weren’t designed for their expected maximum storm surge. Nineteen face three or more threats that they weren’t designed to handle."
But, as Gunter pointed out, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has "inexplicably switched out 'mandatory' requirements with 'voluntary' initiatives." This means that despite "Fukushima Lessons Learned" and other obvious common sense guidelines, the nuclear industry is no longer required by the NRC to take steps to shore up their defences against extreme weather and flooding. Instead, it's all voluntary.
This also extended to the NRC staff being over-ridden by the Republican-dominated Commission when, as Gunter explained it to Common Dreams, the NRC staff unanimously agreed that the agency issue an order to 31 U.S. Fukushima-style GE Mark I and II boiling water reactors requiring operators to install severe accident-capable radiation filters on hardened containment vents." These vents, he explained, "would allow operators to vent the containment of a severe accident's extreme heat, pressure, and explosive gases to save the structure while filtering out the release of harmful radiation."
But in a June 2013 vote, "the commission voted to order the installation of hardened containment vents but without the engineered external radiation filters which industry opposed on cost." While the NRC "suggested that the filters could be taken up later in a rulemaking process for public comment," it "abandoned the measure," said Gunter.
As Dr. Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists told Bloomberg: "The NRC basically did everything the industry wanted." More