NRC Staff Recommends Filters for BWR Mark I and II Vents

NRC Staff Recommends Filters for BWR Mark I and II Vents

by vbarq

NRC staff has recommended requiring engineered filters to the containment vents for early-model boiling water reactors as a post-Fukushima response.
A staff paper (SECY-12-0157) released this week for the commission’s consideration said an alternative performance-based approach to filtering preferred by industry and by the NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards would work but take too long to implement.
The commission had directed agency staff (SRM-SECY-11-0137) to consider whether adding external filters at the same time as reliable hardened containment vents for Mark I and II boiling water reactors would help limit significant radiation releases from severe accidents.

The staff response said the option to require the installation of vent filters “would provide the most regulatory certainty and the timeliest implementation.”http://safetyfirst.nei.org/news/nrc-staff-recommends-filters-for-bwr-mark-i-and-ii-vents/