NRC claims US nuclear power plants operate more safely than 30 years ago

By Nicole Back - Staff Writer

The nation’s most serious accident in US commercial nuclear power history led to sweeping changes involving emergency planning and radiation protection involving nuclear protection, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“The NRC heightened and tightened its oversight,” Spokeswoman Diane Screni said. “Plants are operating more safely now than they were at that time.”

She said there are two residential inspectors at every nuclear power site in the country.

“They’re not there 24/7 but they are there at least five days a week,” she said. “They can go anywhere and look at anything at any time. They are our eyes and ears at the site.”

The nation’s 104 nuclear power plants produce 20 percent of America’s energy. All neighboring states, except Indiana and West Virginia have nuclear power plants.

Secretary of Gov. Steve Beshear’s Energy and Environment Cabinet, Len Peters, said several nuclear power companies are interested in Kentucky for nuclear power plant sites.

“The purpose of a nuclear power plant is to produce electricity,” Screni said. “At some point it becomes like any other electric generating facility. Essentially it boils water to produce steam and becomes like any other fossil plant. Steam spins the turbine. The turbine is used to produce electricity.

If you used coal, you would use coal to boil the water. In a nuclear power plant you use uranium fuel to get the water hot enough to produce steam.”

Gov. Beshear said nuclear power is one option to help the state meet its energy needs. Kentucky law bans nuclear power construction until the country develops a permanent disposal site for radioactive nuclear waste.

“We live in a culture where we burden our grandchildren with debt and waste,” said Eric Epstein, spokesman for Three Mile Island Alert, the oldest and largest nuclear watchdog group in central Penn. “It has to end.”

He said his organization promotes safe-energy alternatives to nuclear power. TMIA watches the NRC closely since the TMI accident.

The NRC insists security conditions are better now than they were in the 70s. The accident happened on March 28, 1979.

“You look at Davis Besse and you’ll find out they’re lying,” Mary Osborne, a 30-year TMIA activist, said.

Davis Besse is the fifth most dangerous nuclear power plant incident since TMI.

The Ohio power plant was shut down for a year after the discovery of deterioration of the reactor head.

The NRC maintains that, since the accident, it has enhanced oversight of maintenance at the plant. Davis Besse was fined and has since corrected the problems.

Former Davis Besse engineer Andrew Siemaszko was sentenced Feb. 6 to three years probation and ordered to pay $4,500 in fines for his role in the Ottawa County nuclear plant’s massive cover up, according to an article published in The Toledo Blade. Government prosecutors have called the Davis Besse accident one of the most significant cover-ups in the nation’s nuclear history.

Epstein is worried about the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in York County, Penn.

The Patriot-News reported on Jan. 13, 2008 that the NRC failed to catch guards who were sleeping on the job at Peach Bottom. The NRC disregarded a letter from a former Wackenhut security manager at TMI. The letter explained how it is possible for guards to sleep on the job.

After videotapes of the sleeping guards at Peach Bottom were made public, Exelon Corp. ended its contracts with Wackenhut. Exelon is the nation’s largest nuclear energy company with 10 nuclear plants.

According to TMIA’s website, the NRC did not cite Three Mile Island Unit 1 in 2008 for five violations after an inspection. One of the violations was a repetitive issue. The inspectors said the violations were of “very low safety significance.”

“The NRC as a whole says plants are more effective and better operated but the industry hasn’t been able to solve three riddles: where’s the water going to come from, where is the waste going to, why is Wall Street sitting on the sidelines? Private equity is not interested in nuclear power,” Epstein said.

“We are a regulation agency so we take no position on nuclear power,” Screni said.

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