NRC staff calls for speedy evaluation of earthquake, flood risks at nuke plants

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff recommended Monday that the agency act quickly on recommendations put forward by a federal task force to ensure reactors aren’t vulnerable to major natural disasters.

A staff report released Monday says the NRC should immediately require nuclear power plant operators to reevaluate the risks posed by earthquakes and floods, taking into account information that came to light in the aftermath of the March disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The report takes on new significance in light of a 5.8-magnitude earthquake that was more severe than reactors at a Virginia nuclear power plant were designed to withstand. The incident has reignited concerns about the safety of the U.S. nuclear fleet.

Shortly after the disaster in Japan, President Obama formed a federal task force to evaluate the safety of the 104 nuclear reactors in the United States. While the task force report, released in July, stressed that U.S. plants are safe, it called for a wide-ranging overhaul of the country’s nuclear power regulations.

In an effort to act quickly on the most important of the task force’s recommendations, NRC instructed staff to quickly determine which proposals the commission should take up first.

Monday’s staff report identified which of the task force’s recommendations “should be initiated, in part or in whole, without delay.”

In addition to reevaluating risks posed by earthquakes and floods, the report calls on the commission to quickly address concerns raised in the task force report related to emergency preparedness and the potential for blackouts.

The report said Monday that while the commission should move forward quickly on the recommendations, none of them indicate that there is an “imminent hazard to public health and safety.”

Staff will deliver a second report in October detailing which of the recommendations singled out in Monday’s report the commission should take up first. 

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