EPW CHAIR SCOLDS NRC ON DECOMMISSIONING EXEMPTIONS

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) scolded the Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday for granting exemptions to emergency preparedness and safety regulations at shutdown reactor sites. Boxer, whose home state includes the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, has been critical of NRC exemptions, especially for pending exemption requests from Southern California Edison for the SONGS site, which came within a half-mile of a wildfire last month and sits in an active earthquake zone. She urged the Commission during the hearing to commit to opposing these exemptions in face of such safety threats, but each commissioner said they could not oblige her request, which led to a heated exchange between Boxer and NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane. “Never has the NRC denied a request for an exemption from safety,” Boxer said. “The fact that you cannot commit today to up-hold the safety plan for this plant, given the number of fuel rods that are in there, far greater than the plant plan for, which the Commission allowed, is outrageous.”

Macfarlane maintained that the NRC assures safety at decommissioning sites. “Emergency preparedness at decommissioning plants may in some cases be reduced, but it will not be eliminated,” Macfarlane said. “I want to be clear on that. Exemptions for decommissioning plants are done on a site-specific basis. We will ensure that plant will be safe.” Commisioner Kristin Svinicki added that a decommissioning facility is much different than an operating plant. “The NRC has historically had a heavy reliance on the use of exemptions to reflect the changes in the facility as it is decommissioned,” Svinicki said. Ranking Member David Vitter (R-La.) also pointed to this fact. “Clearly an operating nuclear facility is a different animal than a facility that is shutdown, so we are talking about changes made presumably to reflect the fact those are two very different animals,” Vitter said.