Tag: NRC

NRC Continues to Respond to Irma

Update (Sept. 12, 2017 4:15 p.m. EST):

Late Monday afternoon, Hurricane Irma had diminished to the point that the NRC exited monitoring mode and stopped staffing the Region II Incident Response Center in Atlanta. (The Operations Center at NRC headquarters in Maryland remains staffed 24/7 as usual.) Neither the Turkey Point nuclear plant nor the St. Lucie nuclear plant, both in Florida, lost offsite power during the storm, and both units at each plant are expected to be operating again this week. St. Lucie Unit 2 remained at full power throughout the storm, and Florida Power & Light tells the NRC it expects to restart St. Lucie Unit 1 today after local emergency management officials confirm they could implement their emergency plans for the plant. FPL has also indicated that it plans to restart both units at Turkey Point after emergency officials in South Florida provide the same assurances for the site. The NRC has returned to its normal inspection and oversight of Turkey Point, St. Lucie, and the other plants in the Southeast and will begin to evaluate lessons learned from Hurricane Irma in preparation for future storms that may affect nuclear plants.

Roger Hannah
Senior Public Affairs Officer, Region II

(Sept. 11, 2017): As Irma (now a tropical storm) continues to track through the southeast, the NRC continues to monitor its path and the nuclear power plants potentially along that route.

Turkey Point Unit 3, in south Florida, remains safely shut down, as it has been since Saturday. Operators at the Turkey Point plant shut down Unit 4 just before 7 p.m. Sunday evening due to a valve issue. The shutdown was uncomplicated, the plant is in a safe condition, and winds and rain have diminished at the site such that the plant staff exited their declaration of an unusual event at 4 a.m. Three NRC resident inspectors remain at the site, but the agency is now assessing steps to return to its normal inspection staffing within the next day or two.

At St. Lucie, also in Florida, operators are reducing power on Unit 1 due to salt buildup on insulators in the switchyard that supplies offsite power and plant employees are working to resolve this situation. St. Lucie Unit 2 remains at full power. Two NRC resident inspectors remain at the site, but it is expected that NRC will return to normal inspection staffing at this site, also within a day or two.

As of Monday morning, the Region II Incident Response Center staff is monitoring potential effects from the storm on the Hatch nuclear plant in south Georgia and the Farley nuclear plant in south Alabama. The two units at Hatch and the two units at Farley are currently at full power. Even though the staffs at both sites have completed storm preparations, it appears that projected winds will not be strong enough to affect plant operations at these two locations.

The NRC’s Region II continues to be in monitoring mode and the Incident Response Center in Atlanta is staffed. However, predicted wind and rain from the storm has prompted the closure of the Region II office as well as other federal agencies in the area.

Taking a Long-Term View on New Reactor Licenses

Scott Burnell
Public Affairs Officer

Since 2012, the NRC has licensed 11 new reactors in the United States. The first four of those are under construction, two in Georgia and two in South Carolina.

The other seven? Their licenses are ready to go whenever the companies involved choose to start building them, and here’s why.

These new reactors are authorized through the NRC’s Combined License process. Under this approach the license includes permission to both build a reactor and operate it later, as long as a detailed list of completion requirements are met.

A Combined License includes the same 40-year operating period as the licenses for today’s reactors. Those 40 years start when the NRC concludes the reactor has been built according to its license and can operate safely. The construction portion, on the other hand, is set up without a definitive expiration date.

We base our permission to build the reactor on our review of technical and environmental information the applicant provided. Issuing a license means we found all that information acceptable.

Let’s imagine Company X receives a Combined License and waits 10 years before deciding to start construction. If the original information is still valid, the project could get underway. Most categories of information won’t change in that time. The license includes provisions where the company must account for new information when it decides to start construction.

All of this means that companies with a Combined License can therefore take additional time to consider those issues affecting the business decision to construct or not that fall outside the NRC’s jurisdiction. For example, a state’s utility agencies can create or revise policies on how the state obtains and pays for electricity. Changes in interest rates, prices for other electricity sources and even the makeup of regional electricity markets can affect the company’s overall business case.

Once a company concludes conditions are right for using a Combined License, the utility will give the NRC advance notice of its intent to start construction. The NRC will inspect construction activities and otherwise ensure the company meets relevant requirements for protecting the public.