Two antinuclear groups have asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny power provider Entergy’s request to relax post-Fukushima safety rules at the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York.
The NRC implemented 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.
Entergy is required to comply with new rules for beyond-design-basis external events and reliable spent fuel pool instrumentation by June 2017. The utility is also required to install a hardened containment venting system (HCVS) for FitzPatrick’s containment buildings. The HCVS allows operators to remove heat and pressure and prevent severe damage to reactor cores. FitzPatrick features a boiling-water reactor design similar to the three reactors that melted down at Fukushima. The company has requested an extension to comply with the beyond-design-basis and spent fuel pool measures until June 2017, and an extension to comply with the hardened vent measure until June 2018.
Entergy, citing economic hardship, had originally planned to shut down FitzPatrick in January 2017, meaning the utility would forgo the measures entirely if granted the extensions. However, FitzPatrick very well could remain in operation well past January, as Entergy has reached an agreement to sell the struggling plant to utility Exelon for $110 million.
Anti-nuclear groups Beyond Nuclear and the Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE), in a Nov. 10 filing with the NRC that was made public Tuesday, have requested a hearing with the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, so the regulator can consider denial. “The combined Request is, in fact, a request for a license amendment affecting public health and safety; and Entergy should therefore be required to follow the NRC’s standard rules and practices for amending a modified operating license,” the filing reads. “In order to protect Petitioners’ health, safety and property. We believe that Entergy must be made to follow NRC standard rules and procedures to file valid Requests for a License Amendment.”