Used Nuclear Fuel Is Stored Safely and Securely at Well-Protected Nuclear Power Plants, According to Study

Used Nuclear Fuel Is Stored Safely and Securely at Well-Protected Nuclear Power Plants, According to Study

Apr 06 - PRNewswire

An unclassified version of the National Academy of Sciences study on the safety and security of used nuclear fuel at U.S. nuclear power plants was made public today. The following comments on the study are from the Nuclear Energy Institute's chief nuclear officer, Marvin Fertel:

"When read in their totality, the National Academy of Sciences study and the response to it by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission further validate what is already widely acknowledged by independent experts -- namely that nuclear power plants have long been the best-protected facilities in our nation's industrial infrastructure. The industry since September 2001 has invested $1 billion-plus in security improvements at our power plants, including used fuel storage facilities, to make them more secure than ever.

"To the extent that the study's worst-case scenarios lead the NAS to suggest that some nuclear power plants might take even more steps to reduce even further the low probability that an attack on used fuel storage facilities could cause a substantial release of radiation, I offer five observations:

1) The NAS report does not recommend unloading of used fuel from storage

pools into dry storage containers.

2) As directed by the NRC, nuclear power plants are assessing the

potential to effectively augment already-redundant safety systems to

ensure cooling of used fuel assemblies in the fuel pools. This is

consistent with the NAS recommendations and is above and beyond the

first series of protective measures that the NRC ordered in 2002.

3) The NRC's response to NAS states clearly that, even after conducting

additional risk analyses, it 'considers the likelihood of a zirconium

fire capable of causing large releases of radiation to the environment

to be extremely low.'

4) Computer modeling on aircraft impacts conducted by EPRI in 2002

confirmed the strength of used fuel storage facilities, and the worst-

case scenario approach taken by the NAS on events with very low

probability does not lend itself to informed decision-making by

policymakers. State-of-the-art computer modeling techniques applied in

the EPRI aircraft study determined that typical nuclear plant

containment structures, used fuel storage pools, fuel storage

containers, and used fuel transportation containers at U.S. nuclear

power plants would withstand these impact forces despite some concrete

crushing and bent steel.

5) The nation needs to appreciate that the best way to protect the

nation's entire critical infrastructure, which includes nuclear

facilities, is to place a high priority on prevention of airliner

attacks by terrorist organizations. It is far more effective, and less

costly to the nation, to prevent attacks rather than try to protect

the entire critical infrastructure. As a nation, we have taken several

steps to do so, including screening passengers, deploying air

marshals, hardening cockpit doors and increasing passenger awareness."

The Nuclear Energy Institute is the nuclear energy industry's policy organization. This news release and additional information about nuclear energy are available on NEI's Internet site at http://www.nei.org/ .

Nuclear Energy Institute

CONTACT: NEI Media Relations Staff: +1-202-739-8000, during business hours, or +1-703-644-8805, after hours and weekends

Web site: http://www.nei.org/

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .