Senators Warn Of Safety Risks At Closed Reactors

ap ^ | May 2, 2014 5:18 PM

[BenLurkin]

In a letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane, the senators said the agency that oversees the nation’s commercial nuclear industry has been freeing closed plants from certain emergency and security safeguards, even though the spent fuel on site remains dangerous for years to come.

...

The “NRC’s analysis has even concluded that the health and economic impacts of a spent fuel fire could equal those caused by an accident at an operating reactor,” the letter said.

They pointed to Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, which suffered multiple meltdowns following a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, as evidence that exhaustive emergency and evacuation planning must be in place, even at shuttered plants. The senators said research has found spent fuel pools “could not be dismissed as potential targets for terrorist attacks.”

[RitchieAprile]

“The letter was sent by Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, all Democrats, and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont”

[Kickass Conservative]

The same people that closed down the Nuclear Depository at Yucca Mountain? That’s rich. I’m drowning in Irony.

[Kickass Conservative]

The same group that should be locked inside a Bunker with a Muslim Suicide Bomber.

[VTenigma]

Same people that have been agitating for the closure of said plants for much of their careers.

[Soul of the South]

The answer is simple. Bury the nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain where it won’t be an issue. Spending billions to construct the facility, and then not use it, is criminal. The failure to store nuclear waste at a safe and secure site is a disaster waiting to happen which is why nothing is being done. There will be a catastrophe at an on site storage location or decommissioned nuclear plant some day and the leftists will use it as an excuse to shut down all of the nuclear power plants in the country just like they are using “greenhouse gases” to shut down the coal fired plants.

The government edict to shut down the nuclear plants will come after Harry Reid leaves office. Watch the feds then open up Yucca Mountain to bury the waste. When it is convenient the EPA and the NRC will release a joint study proving Yucca Mountain is safe.