Regulators relax rules to accomodate old nuke plants

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has repeatedly lowered standards in order to allow the nation’s aging nuclear power plants to continue operating.

An Associated Press investigation found many examples.

… 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.

AP found that wear and tear and aging were factors in 139 alerts about emerging safety problems over the last six years.

One of those alerts involved a Michigan plant.

… the 39-year-old Palisades reactor in Michigan shut Jan. 22 when an electrical cable failed, a fuse blew, and a valve stuck shut, expelling steam with low levels of radioactive tritium into the air outside.

In March President Obama responded to the (still ongoing) Fukushima nuclear disaster by asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a “comprehensive review” of the 104 nuclear power plants that supply about 20 percent of the U.S. power supply.

The new details about how NRC has bent rules for the nuclear industry raise more questions about whether it has the independence to conduct a credible review.