Ostendorff Suggests Additional Communication of FLEX Capabilities

Ostendorff Suggests Additional Communication of FLEX Capabilities

by vbarq

The following news article originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview.
NRC Commissioner William Ostendorff told attendees at NEI’s Licensing Forum this week that the nuclear energy industry needs to communicate how the FLEX strategy would work to bolster public safety.
FLEX, the industry’s response to the NRC’s March 12 post-Fukushima order requiring nuclear facility operators to mitigate the consequences of an extreme natural event, provides additional layers of backup power and reactor cooling capability by stationing supplemental emergency equipment—generators, battery packs, pumps, air compressors and battery chargers—on reactor sites and at several off-site storage locations that can be deployed to any distressed facility.

The NRC last month included FLEX in its Interim Staff Guidance to implement the strategy as a response to the loss of a nuclear facility’s off-site electric power.
The NRC has endorsed FLEX, and the industry has already begun ordering and acquiring FLEX equipment.
However, Ostendorff said a meeting with public service commissioners suggested to him that FLEX is not fully understood. “There is some room for clarification by the industry,” he said.http://safetyfirst.nei.org/industry-actions/ostendorff-suggests-additional-communication-of-flex-capabilities/