The Seabrook Station nuclear power plant in New Hampshire is “degraded but operable,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week in response to Massachusetts lawmakers’ calls to close the 26-year-old facility.
State Sens. Daniel Wolf (D) and Kathleen O’Connor (D), along with state Reps. Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D) and James Kelcourse (R), penned a May 10 letter asking that the regulator withdraw owner NextEra Energy Resources’ operating license. The group claimed NRC does not have a firm grasp on concrete degradation issues that plague the plant’s foundation and vertical structures, including the containment building, which houses the nuclear reactor. Given that 4 million New Englanders live within 50 miles of the plant, the lawmakers contend the reactor poses “an unacceptable threat.”
“We consider the structures at the plant to be ‘degraded but operable,’” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said by email Monday. “That is based on the structural integrity being maintained by the thick steel rebar inside the walls of plant buildings and other factors.”
However, he added that NextEra must develop a long-term plan to deal with the concrete degradation, or “alkali silica reaction (ASR),” before a decision on renewal of the plant’s operating license, which is set to expire in 2030. Sheehan said the approval timeline is contingent on submission of NextEra’s plan.
“We acknowledge that there is still much more work to be done on the ASR issue,” Sheehan wrote. “Most notably, we expect NextEra to submit a license amendment request later this year that will describe its plans to addressing the ASR on a long-term basis at Seabrook. That submittal will demand an intensive review by the NRC.”
NextEra could not immediately be reached for comment.
