Two antinuclear groups this week continued to call for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing concerning Entergy’s request for additional time to comply with post-Fukushima safety equipment updates at the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York.
The NRC ordered a series of design improvements for American nuclear reactors following the 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, which occurred after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered a 15-meter tsunami. FitzPatrick features the same boiling-water reactor design as the three reactors that melted down at Fukushima.
Entergy has requested extensions on three separate post-Fukushima measures, and the NRC last week approved extensions to June 2017 for two of them: the requirement to install equipment and strategies to cope with significant earthquakes and other disastrous events; and a requirement to install equipment that enables more informative water-level and temperature readings concerning spent fuel pools.
The NRC is still weighing the company’s request for a deadline extension, from January 2017 to June 2018, for installation of a reliable hardened vent for the plant’s wetwell, which is a doughnut-shaped reservoir of water at the base of the reactor containment building.
NRC staff last week recommended the commission deny the request for a hearing on the matter from Beyond Nuclear and the Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE), which had requested the agency deny Entergy’s timeline requests. NRC staff said the groups are not entitled to a hearing under the Atomic Energy Act or agency regulations.
The groups filed their response Monday with NRC: “Entergy’s request to extend the date by which it must comply with the requirements of (the three orders) are de facto requests to amend its current license and ‘triggers’ Petitioners right to a hearing under Section 189(a) of the Atomic Energy Act.”