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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) duty is to
protect the health and safety of the American people from an
inherently dangerous industry. But for decades, the NRC has
been badly falling down on the job.
The NRC now wants to ax one of its most basic safety
regulations: emergency plans for nuclear disasters. The NRC
wants to rewrite the rules so that certain kinds of new
reactors will be exempt from providing site-specific Emergency
Response Plans that must be approved by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency. Instead, the proposal would let plant
owners determine what the size of the Emergency Planning Zone
(EPZ) should be—or whether offsite emergency planning is
necessary at all.
This proposal would leave the public unprotected in the
case of a large release of radiation. The NRC would let
newfangled reactors that are untested and unproven off the
hook and allow plant owners to police themselves when it comes
to safety. When disaster strikes, public officials and plant
operators would have to figure out—on the fly—how to protect
people, who and when to evacuate, how to notify people, how to
transport and shelter them, and more.
The comment period for this terrible idea closes in
three weeks. Tell
the NRC: Don’t play with our emergency
plans.
Since the Three Mile Island disaster, emergency planning
has been a bedrock of nuclear safety regulation for the last
40 years. It is the very last line of defense to protect
public health and safety when all else fails. If anything, the
nuclear disasters at Fukushima and Chernobyl prove that the
NRC’s emergency planning requirements should be more
stringent, not less.
The NRC seems to think that the small modular reactors and
non-light water reactors covered in their proposal don’t need
the same level of emergency preparedness as their older
counterparts. But there’s no reason to think this. They may be
smaller than current reactors, but they would still contain
large amounts of radiological material. And since they are
untested and unproven, they should be at least as
tightly regulated as their older counterparts, if not more
so.
With its latest proposal, the NRC is putting the economic
interests of the nuclear industry ahead of the health and
safety of the American people. The comment period for this
terrible idea is open right now. Tell
the NRC: Don’t play with our emergency
plans.
We need emergency planning for nuclear facilities more than
ever. Climate change is increasing the severity and frequency
of natural disasters that could cause nuclear emergencies, as
well as complicate emergency response plans. But the NRC
doesn’t even mention climate change or extreme weather events
in their proposal.
It’s high time the NRC put the health and safety of the
American people above the economic interests of the nuclear
industry. The comment period for this terrible idea closes
in three weeks. Tell
the NRC: Don’t play with our emergency
plans.
We’ll keep you updated about this and other nuclear policy
developments during the rest of the summer. In the meantime,
we hope you’re staying healthy and safe.
Thanks for your all you do,
The NIRS Team
Diane D'Arrigo
Luis Hestres
Denise Jakobsberg
Tim
Judson
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