U.S. Should Halt Approvals for Nuclear Reactors, Groups Say

Bloomberg: U.S. Should Halt Approvals for Nuclear Reactors, Groups Say

The U.S. should suspend licensing decisions for new and existing nuclear plants while it investigates Japan’s reactor crisis, environmental groups said.

The groups seek a “credible Three Mile Island-style review” of Japan’s failed reactors and implications for U.S. safety, lawyer Diane Curran said today on a conference call.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should “immediately suspend all licensing activities,” Curran said, speaking for 45 groups and individuals including the Knoxville, Tennessee-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research of Takoma Park, Maryland, and San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace.

The NRC is conducting a two-step safety review of U.S. nuclear plants after a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant in Japan with fires, explosions and radiation leaks.

A 90-day review that started last month will identify near- term changes that might be needed at U.S. reactors, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said April 12. It would be followed by a six- month examination based on additional information on the Japanese reactor crisis, Jaczko said.

The NRC can order U.S. plants to add safeguards during the review, he said. New-reactor applications and proposals to extend licenses can be reviewed because the agency’s processes “are robust enough to deal with the new issues” that may arise after the Japanese nuclear disaster, he said.

After a 1979 accident resulting in a partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter appointed an independent commission to conduct a six-month investigation.

On March 25, the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council urged President Barack Obama to appoint a similar panel to investigate Japan’s nuclear crisis and implications for U.S. reactor safety. The NRC should suspend work on license renewals for reactors in earthquake-prone areas until the investigation is finished, the NRDC wrote to Obama.