Nuclear Power Safety

The probability of a nuclear accident is small but the consequences can be catastrophic. Our experts analyze nuclear safety issues from the past and present, making recommendations for a safer nuclear fleet.


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Latest Nuclear Power Safety Posts

Flooding at a Florida Nuclear Plant

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

July 26, 2018 6:00 AM EDT

Role of Regulation in Nuclear Plant Safety #5

St. Lucie Unit 1 began operating in 1976. From the beginning, it was required by federal regulations to be protected against flooding from external hazards. After flooding in 2011 led to the meltdown of three reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi in Japan, the NRC ordered owners to walk down their plants in 2012 to verify conformance with flood protection requirements and remedy all shortcomings. The owner of St. Lucie Unit 1 told the NRC that only one minor deficiency had been identified and it was fixed.

But heavy rainfall in January 2014 flooded the Unit 1 reactor auxiliary building with 50,000 gallons through flood barriers that had been missing since at least 1982. Unit 1 became as wet as the owner’s damp assurances and the NRC’s soggy oversight efforts. Read more >

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Yankee Rowe and Reactor Vessel Safety

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

July 19, 2018 6:00 AM EDT

Role of Regulation in Nuclear Plant Safety #4

The Yankee Rowe nuclear plant in Massachusetts was a forerunner in the industry pursuing extensions to the original 40-year operating license. But its run for a longer lifetime was derailed when Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) engineers discovered that the plant might not meet current safety requirements. Unable to convince the NRC that the requirements were satisfied after a year of trying, the owner opted to permanently retire the plant after only 31 years of operation. Read more >

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Empty Pipe Dreams at Palo Verde

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

July 12, 2018 6:00 AM EDT

Regulation and Nuclear Plant Safety #3

In July 2004, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspectors at the Waterford nuclear plant in Louisiana discovered that a portion of piping in a standby emergency system that would provide makeup water to cool the reactor in event of an emergency had been kept emptied of water, jeopardizing the ability to prevent core damage. This finding was shared with owners of similar reactors across the country. Days later, workers at the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona discovered that sections of the emergency system piping for all three reactors was being deliberately emptied of water. Read more >

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Three Mile Island Intruder

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

July 5, 2018 6:00 AM EDT

Regulation and Nuclear Plant Safety #2

A man recently released from a hospital where he had been treated for mental health issues drove his mother’s station wagon into—literally—the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at 6:53 am on February 7, 1993. Workers responded to the unauthorized entry by locking the doors to the control room and declaring a Site Area Emergency—the second most serious emergency of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) four classifications. The intruder was found more than four hours later hiding in the turbine building. Read more >

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NRC’s Reprisal Study Reveals Safety Agency Has a Chilled Work Environment

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

July 2, 2018 10:18 AM EDT

In January 2018, the NRC circulated within the agency a 100-page report  titled “Study of Reprisal and Chilling Effect for Raising Mission-Related Concerns and Differing Views at the NRC.” The report was authored by Renee Pedersen, who had managed the NRC’s Differing Professional Opinion (DPO) and non-concurrence programs for many years before retiring from the agency at the end of that month. These programs enable NRC staffers to register differing views with agency positions or plans and to have those views formally evaluated. Read more >

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