REPERCUSSIONS:WASHINGTON – Democrats ratcheted up pressure on the country's Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure US plants can withstand disaster, even as watchdogs charged that the commission has a flawed record of monitoring aging reactors in the US.
On Thursday, the Union of Concerned Scientists released a study evaluating the commission’s performance last year as a regulator, saying it has repeatedly found its enforcement of safety rules was “not timely, consistent, or effective”. The union cited 14 “near misses” at domestic plants last year. “In these events, a combination of broken or impaired safety equipment and poor worker training typically led operators of nuclear plants down a pathway toward potentially catastrophic outcomes,” the study said.
The report could provide ammunition to nuclear opponents on Capitol Hill, some of whom are calling for a full stop to US nuclear projects.
Despite these calls, president Barack Obama stuck to his longtime support for the nuclear industry on Thursday, calling it “an important part of our energy future”. He reiterated his call for the commission to glean lessons from the plant in Japan and apply them to domestic reactors in a full review.
“When we see a crisis like the one in Japan, we have a responsibility to learn from this event and to draw from those lessons to ensure the safety and security of our people,” Mr Obama said. “That’s why I’ve asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a comprehensive review of the safety of our domestic nuclear plants in light of the natural disaster that unfolded in Japan.”
When asked to clarify what Mr Obama meant when he called for a “comprehensive review”, White House officials declined to comment on the record. Mr Obama does not have the authority to direct the commission because it is an independent agency.
The commission’s head, Gregory Jaczko, said it monitors the safety of plants on a “minute-by-minute” basis. He cautioned that information from the plant in Japan was still sketchy, but the commission would apply any lessons learned from that crisis.
“We don’t really know exactly what the most relevant information is right now from Japan,” said Mr Jaczko during a briefing. “So we want to get that information and we want to do a systematic and a methodical look at what changes we may need to make to those types of plants or possibly any other types of plants in the country.” Democratic lawmakers on Thursday called on the commission to immediately review how plants would fare in a catastrophe.
“Safety is always our number one priority, and therefore it is vital that the NRC immediately evaluate the risks posed to nuclear reactors in the United States,” wrote Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the environment and public works committee, and Thomas Carper, in a letter to the commission. They also requested information about the readiness of US reactors.
The union report isolated three instances in which the commission performed laudably and three in which it made dangerous errors.
It praised an instance at the Browns Ferry plant in Alabama where inspectors asked tough questions about an oil leak that led to the recall of a product that was being used at several US reactors.
It also pinpointed an incident at the Peach Bottom plant in Pennsylvania where workers dodged regulations that might have led to it being shut down. The report alleged commission inspectors knew about the problem but did not solve it.
The commission did not respond to a call for comment on the report.
Opponents of nuclear power are increasing their pressure on the president to act as the situation in Japan grows more dire. Mr Obama has been an advocate for nuclear energy. This year, he proposed increasing funds allocated to the government’s loan guarantee programme for the nuclear industry to $54.5 billion (€38.46 billion).
“As a first step, President Obama should immediately halt his push for expansion of this dangerous industry,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth US. “Reactors cannot be built without billions in taxpayer-funded bailouts because even Wall Street sees the risks as too high.”
– ( Washington Postservice)