Sep 29, 2024: The case against restarting Three Mile Island’s Unit-1

No: 14-070                                                                          October 20, 2014

CONTACT: Scott Burnell, 301-415-8200

NRC Renews Operating Licenses of Limerick Nuclear Plant for an Additional 20 Years

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has renewed the operating licenses of the Limerick Generating Station, Units 1 and 2, for an additional 20 years of operation. The new licenses will expire Oct. 26, 2044, for Unit 1 and June 22, 2049, for Unit 2.

The Limerick plant has two boiling water reactors and is located in Limerick Township, Pa., about 21 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Exelon Generation Co. LLC submitted the license renewal application on June 22, 2011. The NRC staff’s review of the application proceeded on two tracks. A safety evaluation report was issued Jan. 10, 2013, and supplemented on Aug. 12, 2014. A supplemental environmental impact statement was published Aug. 27, 2014. These documents, as well as other information on the Limerick license renewal, are available on the NRC website.

Renewal of the Limerick licenses brings to 75 the number of commercial nuclear power reactors with renewed licenses. Applications for an additional 17 renewals are currently under review. Information about those reviews can be found on the NRC website.

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KEEA ENERGY EFFICIENCY 2014: The Utility of the Future Crowne Plaza Harrisburg Hotel

AGENDA: November 13, 2014

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Inadequate Response to 2012 "Waste Confidence" Court Action Means Legal Challenge is Inevitable ... Unless NRC Halts Process.

WASHINGTON, D.C.///September 29, 2014///Firing a shot over the bow of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), 17 groups today took a necessary first step to seeking federal court intervention if the NRC does not stop on its own the licensing and relicensing of 23 reactors at 14 sites across the United States.

In urging the NRC to halt its process, the groups note that the federal agency has failed to address a major 2012 court action and longstanding prior decisions requiring the NRC to make "Waste Confidence" findings that the highly radioactive spent reactor fuel used in reactors can be disposed of safely.   In 2012, a federal court vacated NRC's safety and environmental rules regarding spent fuel storage and disposal and remanded them to the agency for an environmental study.  The NRC recently dismissed the notion that it needed to reasonably anticipate a national repository for nuclear reactor waste in order to proceed with reactor licensing and relicensing.

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LIMERICK >> A faulty valve at Exelon Nuclear’s Limerick Generating Station caused about 100 gallons of bleach to leak into the Schuylkill River Tuesday night.

The company issued a four-sentence statement announcing the spill Wednesday afternoon.

In an email, Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, wrote that the spill occurred around 9 p.m. and “had no impact on nuclear safety at the plant.”

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NRC Reorganizes Materials and Waste Programs

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has combined its two nuclear materials and waste program offices into one, completing a restructuring directed by the Commission in July to help the agency position itself to complete its work most effectively in the materials, waste and environmental areas.

Effective Oct. 5, programs housed in the Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs and the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards are merged. The new office will retain the name of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards or NMSS, an office established by Congress when it created the NRC in 1974. The merger reflects changes in the NRC’s materials and waste management workload and an effort to integrate regulation of the front and back ends of the nuclear fuel cycle, as well as the agency’s goal to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

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Good Day:

This morning, my commentary was posted to the UCS blog about decision-making using incomplete and potentially inaccurate information. See http://allthingsnuclear.org/nuclear-risk-assessments-and-regulatory-bias/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+allthingsnuclear%2Ffeed+%28All+Things+Nuclear%29

Bias fills in missing information gaps with rosy or dire projections, clearly affecting decisions made.

Bias had the NRC paint a far more dire picture of the situation at Fukushima than did the Japanese regulator.

Bias had the NRC paint a rosy picture of the current situation at Diablo Canyon. Wonder what the Japanese regulator would recommend about the known earthquake and fire protection shortcomings at this plant? Bet they'd not be as nonchalant as the NRC has been.

 
Thanks,
Dave Lochbaum
UCS

Greetings,

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has published the final rule, “Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel” (RIN 3150-AJ20; NRC-2012-0246).  As discussed in a previous e-mail dated September 10, 2014, the NRC prepared a final generic environmental impact statement that provides a regulatory basis for this final rule: NUREG-2157, “Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel.” 

The final rule is available in the NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under Accession No. ML14262A011: http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1426/ML14262A011.pdf.  The final rule is also available on the Federal Register website: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/09/19/2014-22215/continued-storage-of-spent-nuclear-fuel.

NUREG-2157 is also available in ADAMS:

·         NUREG-2157, Vol. 1 (Accession No. ML14196A105)  http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1419/ML14196A105.pdf

·         NUREG-2157, Vol. 2 (Accession No. ML14196A107)  http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1419/ML14196A107.pdf

For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC’s Public Document Room reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr.resource@nrc.gov.

If you have any questions regarding the final rule or NUREG-2157, please contact Sarah Lopas, however, please note that this is the last e-mail notification that will be sent from WCOutreach@nrc.gov.

Thank you,

Staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Waste Confidence Directorate

Greetings,

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has published final NUREG-2157, “Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel.”  NUREG-2157 addresses the environmental impacts of continued storage of spent nuclear fuel beyond the licensed life for operations of a commercial nuclear reactor and provides a regulatory basis for the NRC’s final rule, “Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel” (RIN 3150-AJ20; NRC-2012-0246).
 
NUREG-2157—in two volumes—is available in the NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS):
 
·         NUREG-2157, Vol. 1 (Accession No. ML14196A105)  http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1419/ML14196A105.pdf
 
·         NUREG-2157, Vol. 2 (Accession No. ML14196A107)  http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1419/ML14196A107.pdf
 
For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC’s Public Document Room reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr.resource@nrc.gov.
 
NUREG-2157 can also be accessed on the NRC’s website:  http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/.
 
After its publication in the Federal Register later this month, you will receive one last e-mail with a link to the final rule, “Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel.”  If you have any questions regarding NUREG-2157, or to request a hardcopy of the document, please contact Sarah Lopas.
 
Thank you,
 
Staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Waste Confidence Directorate

No: I-14-034                                                                     September 15, 2014

CONTACT:

Diane Screnci 610-337-5330
Neil Sheehan 610-337-5331

NRC Launches Special Inspection at Millstone 3 Nuclear Power Plant In Response to Continuing Problems with Pump

Problems affecting a pump that is part of a reactor safety system will be the focus of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Special Inspection at the Millstone Unit 3 nuclear power plant. The Waterford, Conn., plant is operated by Dominion Nuclear.

The Special Inspection team will have three members and will begin its work today (Sept. 15). The component of interest is the plant’s turbine-driven auxiliary, or back-up, feedwater pump. That pump is one of several that can be used to help cool down the reactor after a shutdown by pumping water into the secondary side of the plant’s steam generators. The steam generators are essentially large heat exchangers that convert heat generated by the reactor into steam, which in turn is used to spin the turbine and produce electricity.

The basis for this Special Inspection is the failure of the turbine-driven auxiliary feedwater pump to pass quarterly surveillance tests on July 15 and Sept. 10. During both tests, the pump started and then unexpectedly stopped. It then restarted without operator intervention and reached rated speed approximately 15 minutes later. The pump has since undergone repairs and been restored to service.

“A key objective of this inspection will be to learn more about this latest malfunctioning of this safety-related component,” NRC Region I Administrator Bill Dean said. “The repetitive problems affecting the pump continue to give the NRC concern.”

Areas to be reviewed during the Special Inspection will include the adequacy and completeness of testing on the pump and causal evaluations of the problems. The results of the Special Inspection will be discussed in a report expected to be issued within 45 days after the completion of the review.

The NRC conducted a Special Inspection earlier this year into what appear to be unrelated issues with the same pump. That inspection report was issued Aug. 28.

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