Nearly 70 percent of the 100 Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed nuclear reactors are now in compliance with new emergency response safety equipment standards the agency has implemented through its Fukushima Lessons Learned initiative.
That’s according to the latest documents detailing the progress in implementation of the NRC’s “flex” equipment. Flex equipment, which is considered the foundation of the NRC’s response to the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan, is standard, portable cooling gear now required at American reactors. Implementation includes standard sets of vehicles, water pumps, motors, and generators, as well the development of two national response centers in Memphis, Tenn., and Phoenix, Ariz. The NRC has spent about $50 million on the flex rollout. According to Platts, the nuclear industry has spent more than $3 billion on implementing measures to address lessons learned from Fukushima.
According to NRC documents, 68 of the 100 American reactors have the required flex equipment and associated connections in place. Nineteen more units are scheduled to come into compliance by the end of 2016, bringing the industry to 87 percent compliance. The agency granted the remaining 13 units an extension to allow for concurrent implementation of hardened containment vents. The NRC in 2012 required plants with a Fukushima-style containment design to install these hardened vents, allowing removal of heat and pressure to prevent reactor-core damage. Most of those units are expected to fully comply by spring 2017, though five are scheduled for spring 2018.
The James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York state, the Fort Calhoun Station in Nebraska, and the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey are among the plants scheduled for compliance in fall 2016, according to the NRC. FitzPatrick is expected to continue operating under owner Entergy’s recent deal to sell the plant to Exelon, while Fort Calhoun is set to close in 2016 and Oyster Creek to shutter by 2019. Illinois’ Quad Cities Generating Station units 1 and 2, which Exelon plans to close in June 2018, are scheduled for compliance dates in the spring of 2017 and 2018, respectively.
