New post on i-NUCLEAR
|
![]()
|
The
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on March 9 ordered all 104 operating
nuclear power plants, plus those under construction, to implement safety
improvements resulting from lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear
accident last year.
US
nuclear plant owners have until December 31, 2016 to better protect
safety equipment installed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and to
obtain sufficient equipment to support all reactors at a given site
simultaneously.
The
commission also ordered all plants to install enhanced equipment for
monitoring water levels in each plant’s spent fuel pool.
In
addition, U.S. boiling-water reactors that have “Mark I” or “Mark II”
containment structures, which are similar to the Fukushima plant
designs, must improve venting systems (or for the Mark II plants,
install new systems) that help prevent or mitigate reactor core damage
in the event of a serious accident.
The
NRC will also issue a detailed information request to every operating
U.S. commercial nuclear power plant, and certain parts will apply to
reactors currently under construction or recently licensed. The request
covers several topics, including:
• Re-analyzing earthquake and flooding risks using the latest available information;
•
Conducting earthquake and flooding hazard “walkdowns,” where skilled
engineers closely examine a plant’s ability to meet current
requirements;
•
Assessing the ability of a plant’s current communications systems and
equipment to perform under conditions of onsite and offsite damage and
prolonged loss of all alternating current (ac) electrical power; and
•
Assessing plant staffing levels needed to fill emergency positions in
response to events simultaneously affecting all reactors at a given
site.
Each section of the request includes schedules for plants to provide the relevant information to the NRC.
The orders and the information request will be available on the NRC’s
website.
These actions address what the NRC determined to be the
highest-priority recommendations from the agency’s Japan Near-Term Task
Force. The Task Force issued its report in July 2011. The NRC staff
continues to examine how to best address the remaining Task Force
recommendations, as well as additional topics raised during the early
implementation effort.
