Federal regulators: Nuclear accident plans are lacking

By Andrew Restuccia - 06/07/11 10:30 AM ET

Many of the country’s nuclear power plants have not adequately updated guidelines aimed at protecting reactors from severe accidents, federal regulators found as part of a wide-ranging review undertaken in the aftermath of Japan’s nuclear crisis this year.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a report released Monday, stressed that the country’s 104 nuclear reactors are safe.

But the NRC raised concerns about the adequacy of Severe Accident Mitigation Guidelines found at nuclear plants all over the country. An NRC review of the guidelines found that many need to be updated. The review also found that staff often have not received enough training on the plans.

“While overall we believe plants are safe and all of the NRC’s efforts aim to ensure the plants never need to use these guidelines, we are concerned that our inspectors found many of the plants have work to do in either training their staff on these procedures or ensuring the guidelines are appropriately updated,” Eric Leeds, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, said in a statement Monday.

The inspection of the guidelines is part of a broad two-part review of U.S. nuclear reactor safety put into motion after a massive earthquake and tsunami resulted in a partial meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

While President Obama has stood behind his support for expanded nuclear power in the United States, he instructed the NRC to conduct a safety review of the country’s nuclear fleet to ensure that a similar disaster would not happen here.

The NRC inspection of the guidelines, which are aimed at preventing a major disaster if a reactor core is damaged, found that every plant in the U.S. has implemented the guidelines. But just 42 percent of plants regularly review the guidelines.

In addition, the NRC inspection found that while 92 percent of staff at nuclear plants received initial training on the guidelines, just 61 percent of the plants incorporate the guidelines into emergency training drilling.

The results of the NRC inspection will be included in a 90-day review of the country’s nuclear power facilities. The review will help determine if immediate changes are necessary to ensure the safety of U.S. reactors. NRC will also conduct a long-term review aimed at identifying possible changes to nuclear licensing.