After Fukushima, Groups Ask NRC To Suspend Licensing Plants Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/artic

[nadinbrzezinski]

By Jesse Emspak | April 14, 2011 2:43 PM EDT
Several advocacy groups have petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend reactor licensing until a full review of the Fukushima disaster in Japan is complete.


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(Photo: Reuters)
Several advocacy groups asked the NRC to stop issuing new licenses for nuclear plants until a review of the Fukushima nuclear crisis is complete.
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Public Citizen, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace are among the organizations urging the NRC to delay licensing while the agency and a presidential commission conduct a full study of the Fukushima disaster's implications.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., was hit by a tsunami in the wake of the Tohoku Earthquake on March 11. The tsunami knocked out the generators that ran the cooling systems. That resulted in a partial meltdown in at least one of the six reactors on the site, as well as hydrogen explosions that destroyed two reactor buildings. Spent fuel in a reactor that was already shut down for maintenance was damaged when the water that cools them partially boiled away.




At a press conference, the groups said they were concerned that the NRC was bowing to pressure from the nuclear industry and moving forward with new plant licenses. The major concern, they said, was that operators may not have studied what happens when grid power to cooling systems is lost.



Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/134465/20110414/advocates-ask-nrc-to-suspend-licensing-nuclear-plants.htm#ixzz1JWn32rLf

[Mnemosyne]

1. K&R for more visibility. n/t

[snagglepuss]

2. K & R . People near Diablo show take note. nt

[bananas]

3. Thanks to Bush-Cheney, if the NRC requires upgrades after approval, taxpayers pay for them

It used to be that the plant owner would have to pay for required upgrades,
but now the federal government will have to pay.
It's another way of hiding the true costs of nuclear power,
and of privatizing profits while socializing the risks.