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AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_aging_nukes_part1[6/21/2011 11:51:11 AM] YAHOO! NEWS BETA UNVEILED Experience the newly designed site and learn more here. AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules Share 9 0 tweet Email Print AP – This photo made available by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission shows a 10- gallon-per-minute leak which … RELATED QUOTES EXC 42.00 +0.02 FE 44.61 +0.45 GE 18.84 +0.36 By JEFF DONN, AP National Writer – Mon Jun 20, 3:38 am ET LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation's aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. Time after time, officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril, according to records and interviews. The result? Rising fears that these accommodations by the NRC are significantly undermining safety — and inching the reactors closer to an accident that could harm the public and jeopardize the future of nuclear power in the United States. Examples abound. When valves leaked, more leakage was allowed — up to 20 times the original limit. When rampant cracking caused radioactive leaks from steam generator tubing, an easier test of the tubes was devised, so plants could meet standards. Failed cables. Busted seals. Broken nozzles, clogged screens, cracked concrete, dented containers, corroded metals and rusty underground pipes — all of these and thousands of other problems linked to aging were uncovered in the AP's yearlong investigation. And all of them could escalate dangers in the event of an accident. Yet despite the many problems linked to aging, not a single official body in government or industry has studied the overall frequency and potential impact on safety of such breakdowns in recent years, even as the NRC has extended the licenses of dozens of reactors. Industry and government officials defend their actions, and insist that no chances are being taken. But the AP investigation found that with billions of dollars and 19 percent of America's electricity supply at stake, a cozy relationship prevails between the industry and its regulator, the NRC. Records show a recurring pattern: Reactor parts or systems fall out of compliance with the rules. Studies are conducted by the industry and government, and all agree that existing standards are "unnecessarily conservative." Regulations are loosened, and the reactors are back in compliance. AdChoices Advertorials By Houston - New trick allows any Texas resident to get extremely cheap car i Penny stocks are the secret to buying happiness during a recession... P St k E t TexasResident? Mortgage less than $729K? You could be saving $12,000/year! R fi N 2 6% Discover Windows® Phone Check Out the New Features of Windows® Phone. View the Demos. Microsoft.com/WindowsPhone GMC Sierra HD Comparison Discover What GMC Sierra HD Offers Over the Competition. Compare! www.GMC.com/2011SierraHD Compare Chevy Camaro See the Head-Up Display Avail. in the New 2011 Camaro and Much More! www.Chevrolet.com/Camaro sponsored links Yahoo! News on Facebook News Search Science Video Weather News Space & Astronomy Animals & Pets Dinosaurs & Fossils Biotech Energy Green HOME U.S. BUSINESS WORLD ENTERTAINMENT SPORTS TECH POLITICS SCIENCE HEALTH OPINION MOST POPULAR New User? Preview Mail w/ Toolbar Register Sign In Help Yahoo! Mail Web Search

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  • AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules - Yahoo! News

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_aging_nukes_part1[6/21/2011 11:51:11 AM]

    YAHOO! NEWS BETAUNVEILED

    Experience the newly designed site and learn more here.

    AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safetyrules

    Share 9 0tweet Email Print

    AP – This photo made available by theNuclear Regulatory Commission shows a 10-gallon-per-minute leak which …

    RELATED QUOTESEXC 42.00 +0.02FE 44.61 +0.45GE 18.84 +0.36

    By JEFF DONN, AP National Writer – Mon Jun 20, 3:38 am ET

    LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Federal regulators have been workingclosely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation's agingreactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakeningthose standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation byThe Associated Press has found.

    Time after time, officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissionhave decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing thatsafety margins could be eased without peril, according to records andinterviews.

    The result? Rising fears that these accommodations by the NRC aresignificantly undermining safety — and inching the reactors closer toan accident that could harm the public and jeopardize the future ofnuclear power in the United States.

    Examples abound. When valves leaked, more leakage was allowed— up to 20 times the original limit. When rampant cracking caused

    radioactive leaks from steam generator tubing, an easier test of the tubes was devised, so plants couldmeet standards.

    Failed cables. Busted seals. Broken nozzles, clogged screens, cracked concrete, dented containers,corroded metals and rusty underground pipes — all of these and thousands of other problems linked toaging were uncovered in the AP's yearlong investigation. And all of them could escalate dangers in theevent of an accident.

    Yet despite the many problems linked to aging, not a single official body in government or industry hasstudied the overall frequency and potential impact on safety of such breakdowns in recent years, even asthe NRC has extended the licenses of dozens of reactors.

    Industry and government officials defend their actions, and insist that no chances are being taken. But theAP investigation found that with billions of dollars and 19 percent of America's electricity supply at stake, acozy relationship prevails between the industry and its regulator, the NRC.

    Records show a recurring pattern: Reactor parts or systems fall out of compliance with the rules. Studiesare conducted by the industry and government, and all agree that existing standards are "unnecessarilyconservative."

    Regulations are loosened, and the reactors are back in compliance.

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    Penny stocks are the secretto buying happiness during arecession...P St k E t

    TexasResident? Mortgage lessthan $729K? You could besaving $12,000/year!R fi N 2 6%

    Discover Windows® PhoneCheck Out the New Features of Windows®Phone. View the Demos.Microsoft.com/WindowsPhone

    GMC Sierra HD ComparisonDiscover What GMC Sierra HD Offers Overthe Competition. Compare!www.GMC.com/2011SierraHD

    Compare Chevy CamaroSee the Head-Up Display Avail. in the New2011 Camaro and Much More!www.Chevrolet.com/Camaro

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    Science Video Weather News Space & Astronomy Animals & Pets Dinosaurs & Fossils Biotech Energy Green

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  • AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules - Yahoo! News

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_aging_nukes_part1[6/21/2011 11:51:11 AM]

    "That's what they say for everything, whether that's the case or not," said Demetrios Basdekas, an engineerretired from the NRC. "Every time you turn around, they say `We have all this built-in conservatism.'"

    The ongoing crisis at the stricken, decades-old Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility in Japan has focusedattention on the safety of plants elsewhere in the world; it prompted the NRC to look at U.S. reactors, and areport is due in July.

    But the factor of aging goes far beyond the issues posed by the disaster at Fukushima.

    Commercial nuclear reactors in the United States were designed and licensed for 40 years. When the firstones were being built in the 1960s and 1970s, it was expected that they would be replaced with improvedmodels long before those licenses expired.

    But that never happened. The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, massive cost overruns, crushing debt andhigh interest rates ended new construction proposals for several decades.

    Instead, 66 of the 104 operating units have been relicensed for 20 more years, mostly with scant publicattention. Renewal applications are under review for 16 other reactors.

    By the standards in place when they were built, these reactors are old and getting older. As of today, 82reactors are more than 25 years old.

    The AP found proof that aging reactors have been allowed to run less safely to prolong operations. Asequipment has approached or violated safety limits, regulators and reactor operators have loosened or bentthe rules.

    Last year, the NRC weakened the safety margin for acceptable radiation damage to reactor vessels — for asecond time. The standard is based on a measurement known as a reactor vessel's "referencetemperature," which predicts when it will become dangerously brittle and vulnerable to failure. Over theyears, many plants have violated or come close to violating the standard.

    As a result, the minimum standard was relaxed first by raising the reference temperature 50 percent, andthen 78 percent above the original — even though a broken vessel could spill its radioactive contents intothe environment.

    "We've seen the pattern," said nuclear safety scientist Dana Powers, who works for Sandia NationalLaboratories and also sits on an NRC advisory committee. "They're ... trying to get more and more out ofthese plants."

    ___

    SHARPENING THE PENCIL

    The AP collected and analyzed government and industry documents — including some never-beforereleased. The examination looked at both types of reactor designs: pressurized water units that keepradioactivity confined to the reactor building and the less common boiling water types like those atFukushima, which send radioactive water away from the reactor to drive electricity-generating turbines.

    Tens of thousands of pages of government and industry studies were examined, along with test results,inspection reports and regulatory policy statements filed over four decades. Interviews were conducted withscores of managers, regulators, engineers, scientists, whistleblowers, activists, and residents living near thereactors, which are located at 65 sites, mostly in the East and Midwest.

    AP reporting teams toured some of the oldest reactors — the unit here at Oyster Creek, near the Atlanticcoast 50 miles east of Philadelphia, and two units at Indian Point, 25 miles north of New York City alongthe Hudson River.

    Called "Oyster Creak" by some critics because of its aging problems, this boiling water reactor beganrunning in 1969 and ranks as the country's oldest operating commercial nuclear power plant. Its license wasextended in 2009 until 2029, though utility officials announced in December that they'll shut the reactor 10years earlier rather than build state-ordered cooling towers. Applications to extend the lives of pressurizedwater units 2 and 3 at Indian Point, each more than 36 years old, are under review by the NRC.

    Unprompted, several nuclear engineers and former regulators used nearly identical terminology to describehow industry and government research has frequently justified loosening safety standards to keep agingreactors within operating rules. They call the approach "sharpening the pencil" or "pencil engineering" — thefudging of calculations and assumptions to yield answers that enable plants with deteriorating conditions toremain in compliance.

    "Many utilities are doing that sort of thing," said engineer Richard T. Lahey Jr., who used to design nuclearsafety systems for General Electric Co., which makes boiling water reactors. "I think we need nuclear

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  • AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules - Yahoo! News

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_aging_nukes_part1[6/21/2011 11:51:11 AM]

    power, but we can't compromise on safety. I think the vulnerability is on these older plants."

    Added Paul Blanch, an engineer who left the industry over safety issues but later returned to work onsolving them: "It's a philosophical position that (federal regulators) take that's driven by the industry and bythe economics: What do we need to do to let those plants continue to operate? They somehow sharpentheir pencil to either modify their interpretation of the regulations, or they modify their assumptions in therisk assessment."

    In public pronouncements, industry and government say aging is well under control. "I see an effort on thepart of this agency to always make sure that we're doing the right things for safety. I'm not sure that I see apattern of staff simply doing things because there's an interest to reduce requirements — that's certainly notthe case," NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko said in an interview at agency headquarters in Rockville, Md.

    Neil Wilmshurst, director of plant technology for the industry's Electric Power Research Institute,acknowledged that the industry and NRC often collaborate on research that supports rule changes. But hemaintained that there's "no kind of misplaced alliance ... to get the right answer."

    Yet agency staff, plant operators, and consultants paint a different picture in little-known reports, whereevidence of industry-wide problems is striking:

    _The AP reviewed 226 preliminary notifications — alerts on emerging safety problems — issued by theNRC since 2005. Wear and tear in the form of clogged lines, cracked parts, leaky seals, rust and otherdeterioration contributed to at least 26 alerts over the past six years. Other notifications lack detail, butaging also was a probable factor in 113 additional alerts. That would constitute up to 62 percent in all. Forexample, the 39-year-old Palisades reactor in Michigan shut Jan. 22 when an electrical cable failed, a fuseblew, and a valve stuck shut, expelling steam with low levels of radioactive tritium into the air outside. Anda one-inch crack in a valve weld aborted a restart in February at the LaSalle site west of Chicago.

    _One 2008 NRC report blamed 70 percent of potentially serious safety problems on "degraded conditions."Some involve human factors, but many stem from equipment wear, including cracked nozzles, loose paint,electrical problems, or offline cooling components.

    _Confronted with worn parts that need maintenance, the industry has repeatedly requested — andregulators have often allowed — inspections and repairs to be delayed for months until scheduled refuelingoutages. Again and again, problems worsened before they were fixed. Postponed inspections inside asteam generator at Indian Point allowed tubing to burst, leading to a radioactive release in 2000. Two yearslater, cracking was allowed to grow so bad in nozzles on the reactor vessel at the Davis-Besse plant nearToledo, Ohio, that it came within two months of a possible breach, the NRC acknowledged in a report. Ahole in the vessel could release radiation into the environment, yet inspections failed to catch the sameproblem on the replacement vessel head until more nozzles were found to be cracked last year.

    ___

    TIME CRUMBLES THINGS

    Nuclear plants are fundamentally no more immune to the incremental abuses of time than our cars orhomes: Metals grow weak and rusty, concrete crumbles, paint peels, crud accumulates. Big componentslike 17-story-tall concrete containment buildings or 800-ton reactor vessels are all but impossible to replace.Smaller parts and systems can be swapped, but still pose risks as a result of weak maintenance and laxregulation or hard-to-predict failures. Even when things are fixed or replaced, the same parts or othersnearby often fail later.

    Even mundane deterioration at a reactor can carry harsh consequences.

    For example, peeling paint and debris can be swept toward pumps that circulate cooling water in a reactoraccident. A properly functioning containment building is needed to create air pressure that helps clear thosepumps. The fact is, a containment building could fail in a severe accident. Yet the NRC has allowedoperators to make safety calculations that assume containment buildings will hold.

    In a 2009 letter, Mario V. Bonaca, then-chairman of the NRC's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards,warned that this approach represents "a decrease in the safety margin" and makes a fuel-melting accidentmore likely. At Fukushima, hydrogen explosions blew apart two of six containment buildings, allowingradiation to escape from overheated fuel in storage pools.

    Many photos in NRC archives — some released in response to AP requests under the federal Freedom ofInformation Act — show rust accumulated in a thick crust or paint peeling in long sheets on untendedequipment at nuclear plants. Other breakdowns can't be observed or predicted, even with sophisticatedanalytic methods — especially for buried, hidden or hard-to-reach parts.

    Industry and government reports are packed with troubling evidence of unrelenting wear — and repeatedregulatory compromises.

  • AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules - Yahoo! News

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    Four areas stand out:

    BRITTLE VESSELS: For years, operators have rearranged fuel rods to limit gradual radiation damage to thesteel vessels protecting the core and to keep them strong enough to meet safety standards.

    It hasn't worked well enough.

    Even with last year's weakening of the safety margins, engineers and metal scientists say some plants maybe forced to close over these concerns before their licenses run out — unless, of course, new compromiseswith regulations are made. But the stakes are high: A vessel damaged by radiation becomes brittle andprone to cracking in certain accidents at pressurized water reactors, potentially releasing its radioactivecontents into the environment.

    LEAKY VALVES: Operators have repeatedly violated leakage standards for valves designed to bottle upradioactive steam in the event of earthquakes and other accidents at boiling water reactors.

    Many plants have found they could not adhere to the general standard allowing each of these parts —known as main steam isolation valves — to leak at a rate of no more than 11.5 cubic feet per hour. In 1999,the NRC decided to permit individual plants to seek amendments of up to 200 cubic feet per hour for allfour steam valves combined.

    But plants keep violating even those higher limits. For example, in 2007, Hatch Unit 2, in Baxley, Ga.,reported combined leakage of 574 cubic feet per hour.

    CRACKED TUBING: The industry has long known of cracking in steel alloy tubing originally used in thesteam generators of pressurized water reactors. Ruptures were rampant in these tubes containingradioactive coolant; in 1993 alone, there were seven. Even today, as many as 18 reactors are still runningon old generators.

    Problems can arise even in a newer metal alloy, according to a report of a 2008 industry-governmentworkshop.

    CORRODED PIPING: Nuclear operators have failed to stop an epidemic of leaks in pipes and otherunderground equipment in damp settings. The country's nuclear sites have suffered more than 400accidental radioactive leaks during their history, the activist Union of Concerned Scientists reported inSeptember.

    Plant operators have been drilling monitoring wells and patching hidden or buried piping and otherequipment for several years to control an escalating outbreak.

    Here, too, they have failed. Between 2000 and 2009, the annual number of leaks from underground pipingshot up fivefold, according to an internal industry document obtained and analyzed by the AP.

    ___

    CONCERNS OF LONG STANDING

    Even as they reassured the public, regulators have been worrying about aging reactors since at least the1980s, when the first ones were entering only their second decade of operation. A 1984 report for the NRCblamed wear, corrosion, crud and fatigue for more than a third of 3,098 failures of parts or systems withinthe first 12 years of industry operations; the authors believed the number was actually much higher.

    A decade later, in 1994, the NRC reported to Congress that the critical shrouds lining reactor cores werecracked at a minimum of 11 units, including five with extensive damage. The NRC ordered more aggressivemaintenance, but an agency report last year said cracking of internal core components — spurred byradiation — remains "a major concern" in boiling water reactors.

    A 1995 study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory covering a seven-year period found that aging contributedto 19 percent of scenarios that could have ended in severe accidents.

    In 2001, the Union of Concerned Scientists, which does not oppose nuclear power, told Congress that agingproblems had shut reactors eight times within 13 months.

    And an NRC presentation for an international workshop that same year warned of escalating wear atreactor buildings meant to bottle up radiation during accidents. A total of 66 cases of damage were cited inthe presentation, with corrosion reported at a quarter of all containment buildings. In at least two cases — atthe two-reactor North Anna site 40 miles northwest of Richmond, Va., and the two-unit Brunswick facilitynear Wilmington, N.C. — steel containment liners designed to shield the public had rusted through.

    And in 2009, a one-third-inch hole was discovered in a liner at Beaver Valley Unit 1 in Shippingport, Pa.

  • AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules - Yahoo! News

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    Long-standing, unresolved problems persist with electrical cables, too.

    In a 1993 report labeled "official use only," an NRC staffer warned that electrical parts throughout plantswere subject to dangerous age-related breakdowns unforeseen by the agency. Almost a fifth of cablesfailed in testing that simulated the effects of 40 years of wear. The report warned that as a result, reactorcore damage could occur much more often than expected.

    Fifteen years later, the problem appeared to have worsened. An NRC report warned in 2008 that risingnumbers of electrical cables are failing with age, prompting temporary shutdowns and degrading safety.Agency staff tallied 269 known failures over the life of the industry.

    Two industry-funded reports obtained by the AP said that managers and regulators have worriedincreasingly about the reliability of sometimes wet, hard-to-reach underground cables over the past five-to-10 years. One of the reports last year acknowledged many electrical-related aging failures at plants aroundthe country.

    "Multiple cable circuits may fail when called on to perform functions affecting safety," the report warned.

    ___

    EATEN AWAY FROM WITHIN

    Few aging problems have been more challenging than chemical corrosion from within.

    In one of the industry's worst accidents, a corroded pipe burst at Virginia's Surry 2 reactor in 1986 andshowered workers with scalding steam, killing four.

    In summer 2001, the NRC was confronted with a new problem: Corrosive chemicals were cracking nozzleson reactors. But the NRC let operators delay inspections to coincide with scheduled outages. Inspectionfinally took place in February 2002 at the Davis-Besse unit in Ohio.

    What workers found shocked the industry.

    They discovered extensive cracking and a place where acidic boron had spurted from the reactor and eatena gouge as big as a football. When the problem was found, just a fraction of an inch of inner liningremained. An NRC analysis determined that the vessel head could have burst within two months — whatformer NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford has called a "near rupture" which could have released largeamounts of radiation into the environment.

    In 2001-3 alone, at least 10 plants developed these cracks, according to an NRC analysis.

    Industry defenders blame human failings at Davis-Besse. Owner FirstEnergy Corp. paid a $28 million fine,and courts convicted two plant employees of hiding the deterioration. NRC spokesman Scott Burnelldeclared that the agency "learned from the incident and improved resident inspector training andknowledge-sharing to ensure that such a situation is never repeated."

    Yet on the same March day last year that Burnell's comments were released, Davis-Besse workers againfound dried boron on the nozzles of a replacement vessel head, indicating more leaks. Inspecting further,they again found cracks in 24 of 69 nozzles.

    "We were not expecting this issue," said plant spokesman Todd Schneider.

    In August, the operator applied for a 20-year license extension. Under pressure from the NRC, thecompany has agreed to replace the replacement head in October.

    As far back as the 1990s, the industry and NRC also were well aware that the steel-alloy tubing in manysteam generators was subject to chemical corrosion. It could crack over time, releasing radioactive gasesthat can bypass the containment building. If too much spurts out, there may be too little water to cool downthe reactor, prompting a core melt.

    In 1993, NRC personnel reported seven outright ruptures inside the generators, several forced outages peryear, and some complete replacements. Personnel at the Catawba plant near Charlotte, N.C., found morethan 8,000 corroded tubes — more than half its total.

    For plants with their original generators, "there is no end in sight to the steam generator tube degradationproblems," a top agency manager declared. NRC staffers warned: "Crack depth is difficult to measurereliably and the crack growth rate is difficult to determine."

    Yet no broad order was issued for shutdowns to inspect generators.

    Instead, the staff began to talk to operators about how to deal with the standard that no cracks could godeeper than 40 percent through the tube wall.

  • AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules - Yahoo! News

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_aging_nukes_part1[6/21/2011 11:51:11 AM]

    In 1995, the NRC staff put out alternative criteria that let reactors keep running if they could reach positiveresults with remote checks known as "eddy-currents tests." The new test standard gave more breathingroom to reactors.

    According to a 2001 report by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, the staff "acknowledged thatthere would be some possibility that cracks of objectionable depth might be overlooked and left in the steamgenerator for an additional operating cycle." The alternative, the report said, would be to repair or removepotentially many tubes from service.

    NRC engineer Joe Hopenfeld, who had worked previously in the industry, challenged this approach at thetime from within the agency. He warned that multiple ruptures in corroded tubing could release radiation.The NRC said radiation would be confined.

    Hopenfeld now says this conclusion wasn't based on solid analysis but "wishful thinking" and researchmeant to reach a certain conclusion — another instance of "sharpening the pencil."

    "It was a hard problem to solve, and they did not want to say it was a problem, because if they really said itwas a problem, they would have to shut down a lot of reactors."

    ___

    AGE IS NO ISSUE, SAYS INDUSTRY

    With financial pressures mounting in the 1990s to extend the life of aging reactors, new NRC calculationsusing something called the "Master Curve" put questionable reactor vessels back into the safe zone.

    A 1999 NRC review of the Master Curve, used to analyze metal toughness, noted that energy deregulationhad put financial pressure on nuclear plants. It went on: "So utility executives are considering newoperational scenarios, some of which were unheard of as little as five years ago: extending the licensed lifeof the plant beyond 40 years." As a result, it said, the industry and the NRC were considering "refinements"of embrittlement calculations "with an eye to reducing known over-conservatisms."

    Asked about references to economic pressures, NRC spokesman Burnell said motivations are irrelevant if atechnology works.

    Former NRC commissioner Peter Lyons said, "There certainly is plenty of research ... to support arelaxation of the conservativisms that had been built in before. I don't see that as decreasing safety. I seethat as an appropriate standard."

    Though some parts are too big and too expensive to replace, industry defenders also point out that manyothers are routinely replaced over the years.

    Tony Pietrangelo, chief nuclear officer of the industry's Nuclear Energy Institute, acknowledges that you'dexpect to see a growing failure rate at some point — "if we didn't replace and do consistent maintenance."

    In a sense, then, supporters of aging nukes say an old reactor is essentially a collection of new parts.

    "When a plant gets to be 40 years old, about the only thing that's 40 years old is the ink on the license,"said NRC chief spokesman Eliot Brenner. "Most, if not all of the major components, will have been changedout."

    Oyster Creek spokesman David Benson said the reactor "is as safe today as when it was built."

    Yet plant officials have been trying to arrest rust on its 100-foot-high, radiation-blocking steel drywell fordecades. The problem was declared solved long ago, but a rust patch was found again in late 2008.Benson said the new rust was only the size of a dime, but acknowledged there was "some indication ofwater getting in."

    In an effort to meet safety standards, aging reactors have been forced to come up with backfit on top ofbackfit.

    As Ivan Selin, a retired NRC chairman, put it: "It's as if we were all driving Model T's today and trying tobring them up to current mileage standards."

    For example, the state of New Jersey — not the NRC — had ordered Oyster Creek to build cooling towersto protect sea life in nearby Barnegat Bay. Owner Exelon Corp. said that would cost about $750 million andforce it to close the reactor — 20-year license extension notwithstanding. Even with the announcement toclose in 2019, Oyster Creek will have been in operation for 50 years.

    Many of the safety changes have been justified by something called "risk-informed" analysis, which theindustry has employed widely since the 1990s: Regulators set aside a strict check list applied to all systemsand focus instead on features deemed to carry the highest risk.

  • AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules - Yahoo! News

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    But one flaw of risk-informed analysis is that it doesn't explicitly account for age. An older reactor is notviewed as inherently more unpredictable than a younger one. Ed Lyman, a physicist with the Union ofConcerned Scientists, says risk-informed analysis has usually served "to weaken regulations, rather thanstrengthen them."

    Even without the right research, the NRC has long reserved legal wiggle room to enforce procedures, rulesand standards as it sees fit. A 2008 position paper by the industry group EPRI said the approach hasbrought "a more tractable enforcement process and a significant reduction in the number of cited violations."

    But some safety experts call it "tombstone regulation," implying that problems fester until something goesvery wrong. "Until there are tombstones, they don't regulate," said Blanch, the longtime industry engineerwho became a whistleblower.

    Barry Bendar, a database administrator who lives one mile from Oyster Creek, said representatives ofExelon were asked at a public meeting in 2009 if the plant had a specific life span.

    "Their answer was, `No, we can fix it, we can replace, we can patch,'" said Bendar. "To me, everythingreaches an end of its life span."

    ___

    The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate(at)ap.org

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  • AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules - Yahoo! News

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_aging_nukes_part1[6/21/2011 11:51:11 AM]

    713 Comments Show: Highest Rated

    Post a Comment Comments 1 - 10 of 713 First Prev Next Last

    269 16Mr.Magoo Mon Jun 20, 2011 02:56 am PDT Report Abuse

    Replies (7)

    It has been a long time since I have trusted government. The revolving door of personnelbetween Wall Street and Washinton make what is right wrong and what is wrong right. Until thosebonds are destroyed expect more of the same. Above the laws these folks are. When you are late with a payment does the bank say it is ok, when you run a red light does thepoliceman say it is ok. You have to be accountable why should not the titans of industry.

    63 1MerriMagic 22 hours ago Report Abuse

    Replies (2)

    We're heading the way of a 3rd world country. Our citizens are losing jobs or being forced to workfor less money, no insurance, and we're not even safe in our homes, because the governmentisn't doing it's job. It's too busy using our tax dollars to fund Capitol Hill's lawmaker's cushylifestyles, or to send our boys to die in foreign lands in battles we cannot win. Government sucks.I read where the average lifespand of a country's government is about 200 years. It takes thatlong to go from well intentioned lawmakers, to a corrupt group of officials who are more interestedin feathering their own nests than helping the common ordinary citizens. If that's true, when we'reway overdue for a collapse and overthrow.

    350 24Tenth Man Mon Jun 20, 2011 02:06 am PDT Report Abuse

    Replies (9)

    Classic demise of an empire; spending money on foolish never ending wars all the while ignoringthe structure that supported the ability to field an army in the first place.

    233 17Weed Omaniac Mon Jun 20, 2011 12:34 am PDT Report Abuse

    Replies (5)

    Those who fail to learn from past mistakes are DOOMED to repeat them.

    170 15Emily Mon Jun 20, 2011 03:03 am PDT Report Abuse

    Replies (9)

    So typical. Execs make hundreds of millions of dollars by putting people's life in danger, and noone's going to do anything about it until someone dies.

    213 20Mark Mon Jun 20, 2011 12:33 am PDT Report Abuse

    Replies (8)

    Does this really surprise anyone?

    91 7Snorri Sturluson Mon Jun 20, 2011 03:39 am PDT Report Abuse

    Replies (5)

    I hope there is a comprehensive table of organization showing the names of "regulators"responsible for making improper decisions to accomodate the industry. If someone I loved wereinjured or killed because of their decisions, I would want a way to track them down.

    192 19Alkoholic Mon Jun 20, 2011 03:44 am PDT Report Abuse

    Replies (3)

    The only thing our "government" is interested in is the money being placed in their bank accountsby BIG business.

    195 23Harry Mon Jun 20, 2011 03:38 am PDT Report Abuse

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  • AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules - Yahoo! News

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_aging_nukes_part1[6/21/2011 11:51:11 AM]

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    While not an article about job creation it is an example of the fallacy of lessening regulations onindustry. Anytime you hear politicians saying we need to reduce regulations what they're reallysaying is that someone's safety (workers, the public) is secondary to business interests.

    137 16Smartyone Mon Jun 20, 2011 02:03 am PDT Report Abuse

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    As always, we can't trust government to protect us. Do these inspectors have no conscience?If/when there is a radiation disaster, I suggest we put these engineers in the frontline to clean upthe mess.

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  • AP IMPACT: Tritium leaks found at many nuke sites - Yahoo! News

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_aging_nukes_part2[6/21/2011 11:53:07 AM]

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    AP IMPACT: Tritium leaks found at many nukesites

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    AP – In this Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010 photo,retiree Bob Scamen stands near a dischargepipe for the Braidwood …

    By JEFF DONN, AP National Writer – 2 hrs 2 mins ago

    BRACEVILLE, Ill. – Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quartersof U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater fromcorroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.

    The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even asfederal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactorsacross the nation.

    Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from atleast 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear RegulatoryCommission records reviewed as part of the AP's yearlongexamination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants. Leaksfrom at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceedingthe federal drinking water standard — sometimes at hundreds oftimes the limit.

    While most leaks have been found within plant boundaries, somehave migrated offsite. But none is known to have reached publicwater supplies.

    At three sites — two in Illinois and one in Minnesota — leaks havecontaminated drinking wells of nearby homes, the records show, but not at levels violating the drinkingwater standard. At a fourth site, in New Jersey, tritium has leaked into an aquifer and a discharge canalfeeding picturesque Barnegat Bay off the Atlantic Ocean.

    Previously, the AP reported that regulators and industry have weakened safety standards for decades tokeep the nation's commercial nuclear reactors operating within the rules. While NRC officials and plantoperators argue that safety margins can be eased without peril, critics say these accommodations areinching the reactors closer to an accident.

    Any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how slight, boosts cancer risk, according to the National Academyof Sciences. Federal regulators set a limit for how much tritium is allowed in drinking water. So far, federaland industry officials say, the tritium leaks pose no health threat.

    But it's hard to know how far some leaks have traveled into groundwater. Tritium moves through soilquickly, and when it is detected it often indicates the presence of more powerful radioactive isotopes thatare often spilled at the same time.

    For example, cesium-137 turned up with tritium at the Fort Calhoun nuclear unit near Omaha, Neb., in2007. Strontium-90 was discovered with tritium two years earlier at the Indian Point nuclear power complex,

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  • AP IMPACT: Tritium leaks found at many nuke sites - Yahoo! News

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_aging_nukes_part2[6/21/2011 11:53:07 AM]

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