July, 13 2011, 01:47pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Elliott Negin,Media Director,enegin@ucsusa.org
NRC Must Strengthen Reactor Safety, Security to Avoid Major Nuclear Plant Accidents Like Fukushima, Science Group Says
UCS Releases 23 Recommendations to Ensure Public Safety; Says Problems at U.S. Nuclear Plants Have Been Evident for Decades
WASHINGTON
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today released two dozen recommendations to ensure the safety and security of U.S. nuclear plants. Many of the recommendations address problems that have been evident for decades, while others address problems brought to light during the recent accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility.
A Fukushima-like crisis could happen at any one of the 104 nuclear reactors in the United States, said David Lochbaum, the director of UCS's Nuclear Safety Project.
"Japan's reactor designs are similar, their protective barriers are similar, and their regulations are, in some cases, even stronger," said Lochbaum, who worked in the U.S. nuclear industry for 17 years before joining UCS. "If a U.S reactor were faced with a similar challenge, maybe not the exact combo of earthquake and tsunami, but some other natural disaster or human error, it's unlikely that the story would have a happier ending.
"Fukushima should shake the Nuclear Regulatory Commission out of its complacency," he added. "There are a number of actions the agency can and should take to make U.S. nuclear plants safer. They can start with our recommendations, many of which we've been making for years."
UCS's top recommendations call on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to:
- Extend the scope of its regulations to include "severe," or extreme, low-probability accidents. The agency's regulations concentrate on so-called "design-basis" accidents--ones that U.S. reactors must be designed to withstand. Severe accidents can happen, but the NRC's weak requirements and the industry's voluntary severe accident guidelines are not enough to protect the public, especially when a significant number of plants do not pay attention to those guidelines. This recommendation encompasses the issue of "station blackout," when a plant loses both off-site and on-site AC power to maintain cooling systems. (Recommendation #1)
- Strengthen emergency planning requirements. The 10-mile-radius emergency planning zone around plants is not large enough to adequately protect all the people living near plants who may be at significant risk. (Recommendation #3)
- Require plant owners to transfer spent fuel from storage pools to less-vulnerable dry casks after five years, when it is cool enough to remove from the pools. (Recommendation #4)
- Force the owners of more than 40 reactors to comply with fire protection regulations, which the agency originally established in 1980 and amended in 2004. (Recommendation #7)
- Apply the same requirements for timely action to plant safety as it does for business-related requests from plant owners. (Recommendation #8)
- Require owners to strengthen protection against potential terrorist attacks. (Recommendation #15)
- Require new reactors to be safer than currently operating reactors, most of which were built at least 30 years ago. (Recommendation #18)
- Make the value of human life it uses in its analyses consistent with that of other government agencies, which are higher. That would force plant owners to add safety features that the NRC now considers too expensive because it underestimates the value of lives that could be saved. (Recommendation #20)
The NRC has planned a two-part response to the Japanese nuclear accident. Late yesterday, a post-Fukushima NRC-appointed task force delivered its 90-day report assessing the safety of the U.S. nuclear fleet to NRC commissioners, and the agency is scheduled to discuss the report publicly on July 19. The 90-day assessment will be followed by a more in-depth analysis.
UCS urges the NRC to require the nuclear industry to take prompt action to strengthen security and safety measures at U.S. reactors.
"The NRC's response to emerging safety issues has been far too sluggish in the past," said Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist in the UCS Global Security Program and a leading expert on nuclear plant design. "Nearly 10 years after the 9/11 attacks, U.S. nuclear plant owners still have not completed all NRC-mandated security upgrades because the agency kept granting them extensions. Unless the NRC moves more quickly and decisively to address the safety problems revealed by Fukushima, tens of millions of Americans who live near nuclear plants will continue to be at risk."
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
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'Seismic Win for Workers': FTC Bans Noncompete Clauses
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U.S. workers' rights advocates and groups celebrated on Tuesday after the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to approve a ban on most noncompete clauses, which Democratic FTC Chair Lina Khansaid "keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism."
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Although the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has suggested it plans to file a lawsuit that, as The American Prospectdetailed, "could more broadly threaten the rulemaking authority the FTC cited when proposing to ban noncompetes," Democratic commissioners' vote was still heralded as a "seismic win for workers."
Echoing Khan's critiques of such noncompetes, Public Citizen executive vice president Lisa Gilbert declared that such clauses "inflict devastating harms on tens of millions of workers across the economy."
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Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, praised the FTC for "listening to the comments of thousands of entrepreneurs and workers of all income levels across industries" and finalizing a rule that "is a clear-cut win."
Demand Progress' Emily Peterson-Cassin similarly commended the commission "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
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Jonathan Harris, a Loyola Marymount University law professor and SBPC senior fellow, said that "by also banning functional noncompetes, the rule stays one step ahead of employers who use 'stay-or-pay' contracts as workarounds to existing restrictions on traditional noncompetes. The FTC has decided to try to avoid a game of whack-a-mole with employers and their creative attorneys, which worker advocates will applaud."
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Democracy defenders on Tuesday hailed a ruling from a U.S. federal judge striking down a 19th-century North Carolina law criminalizing people who vote while on parole, probation, or post-release supervision due to a felony conviction.
In Monday's decision, U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs—an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama—sided with the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute and Action NC, who argued that the 1877 law discriminated against Black people.
"The challenged statute was enacted with discriminatory intent, has not been cleansed of its discriminatory taint, and continues to disproportionately impact Black voters," Biggs wrote in her 25-page ruling.
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Voting rights tracker Democracy Docket noted that Monday's ruling "does not have any bearing on North Carolina's strict felony disenfranchisement law, which denies the right to vote for those with felony convictions who remain on probation, parole, or a suspended sentence—often leaving individuals without voting rights for many years after release from incarceration."
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"It also makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society, specifically Black voters who were the target of this law," Brown added.
North Carolina officials have not said whether they will appeal Biggs' ruling. The state Department of Justice said it was reviewing the decision.
According to Forward Justice—a nonpartisan law, policy, and strategy center dedicated to advancing racial, social, and economic justice in the U.S. South, "Although Black people constitute 21% of the voting-age population in North Carolina, they represent 42% of the people disenfranchised while on probation, parole, or post-release supervision."
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