Band-Aid on Band-Aid: All 104 Nuclear Reactors Currently Operational in the U.S. Have Irreparable Safety Issues
April 10th, 2013Via: Russia Today:
All 104 nuclear reactors currently operational in the US have irreparable safety issues and should be taken out of commission and replaced, former chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory B. Jaczko said.
The comments, made during the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference, are “highly unusual” for a current or former member of the safety commission, according to The New York Times. Asked why he had suddenly decided to make the remarks, Jaczko implied that he had only recently arrived at these conclusions following the serious aftermath of Japan’s tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daichii nuclear facility.
“I was just thinking about the issues more, and watching as the industry and the regulators and the whole nuclear safety community continues to try to figure out how to address these very, very difficult problems,” which were made more evident by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, he said. “Continuing to put Band-Aid on Band-Aid is not going to fix the problem.”
In my experience the NRC typically hinders nuclear safety. It is so expensive, time-consuming and onerous to replace old, outdated, non-seismically and environmentally qualified equipment with newer equipment that nuclear operating companies simply order a directly replacement. This is 2 or 3 times as expensive as a new, better, safer replacement, but it’s still cheaper than complying with all the red tape that comes with justifying a new component. I do think the analysis of the former NRC head is spot on. There are so many vulnerabilities: EMP (man-made or natural), earthquakes, unforeseen or hidden material or design deficiencies etc. to justify keeping these plants open.