Groups petition US NRC to suspend nuclear power license reviews

[jpak]

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/6998548

A coalition of 45 groups and individuals has asked the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to "immediately suspend" all licensing of new nuclear power reactors and license renewals for operating reactors "until the the agency completes a thorough post-Fukushima reactor crisis examination," the coalition said Thursday.

The groups said "the commission should suspend all decisions regarding the issuance of construction permits, new reactor licenses, combined construction permit and operating licenses, early site permits, license renewals, or standardized design certification" pending completion of reviews now being conducted by the NRC staff of lessons learned from the ongoing accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima 1 plant.

<not much more>

[bananas]

1. If design flaws are discovered after a plant is approved, taxpayers have to pay for it

One of the Bush-Cheney-Republican Congress give-aways to the nuclear industry in EPACT 2005.
Now most of us realize there is a serious design flaw with spent fuel pools.
If the NRC decides the spent fuel pools for a new reactor should be safer after it's been approved,
taxpayers have to pay for the upgrades,
plus the electricity purchased due to any construction delays because of the new regulation.
This is for new reactor licenses, not existing reactor licenses, AFAIK.

[bananas]

2. There's quite a bit more in the article

There's an ad in the middle of the article, you might've missed the part after the ad,
here's some more:

<snip>

Diane Curran, an attorney representing the petitioners, said the NRC is legally obligated under the National Environmental Policy Act to complete its review of the Fukushima accident "before it allows another reactor to operate."

<snip>

Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, said the events at Fukushima are "rewriting the book on nuclear reactor accidents," and "continuing business as usual in licensing and reactor certification in the face of the unprecedented, hugely complicated, and ongoing Fukushima accident would be rash."

<snip>

[flamingdem]

3. yessss nt