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By Miriam Raftery
May 8, 2014 (San Diego)--California Senator Barbara Boxer and four other U.S. senators have sent a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission urging that stronger emergency regulations and security steps be taken at closed nuclear power plants where tons of spent radioactive fuel is stored.
That includes San Onofre, where spent fuel poses a danger to residents in San Diego and Orange Counties for many years to come. In fact, the letter warns, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s own analysis concluded that a fire caused by spent fuel at a closed reactor could cause health and economic impacts equal to those caused by an accident at a nuclear plant still in operation.
The NRC is now finalizing a decision claiming that spent nuclear fuel can safely be stored at least 60 years after a nuclear plant is decommissioned, but that assumption is based on proper emergency preparedness and security regulations being in place after a plant is closed. The Commission will also vote on whether to accelerate transfer of spent nuclear fuel to dry casks.
However the Senators warn, “What the NRC failed to state in its court and other filings was that licensees of decommissioning reactors are almost always exempted from the regulatory requirements” within two years of the reactors’ shut down. The Senators called that policy “unacceptable” and urged the NRC to reverse this policy of exemptions.
Meltdowns at Fukishima, Japan, highlight the need for evacuation plans extending out 50 miles from nuclear facilities, which would include portions of East County in San Diego. Spent fuel pools could as be potential targets for terrorists, the Senators concluded.
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