Community Corner

Nuclear Regulatory Commission speaks to public on nuke plant's safety record

Plant receives high marks in report; local residents speak out at Limerick meeting.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission representatives hosted a well-attended town hall at the Limerick Township building on Wednesday night to report on the Exelon Limerick Generating Station's 2010 performance. Branch chief Paul Krohn, senior resident inspector Gene DiPaolo and resident inspector Nicole Sieller were on the panel to deliver the report and answer audience questions. They also briefly spoke about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan. 

Krohn said that the Limerick plant was in the top tier of grading on the commission's “action matrix”, a scale that delineates degrees of regulatory response to inspection reports. Violations are identified as green, white, yellow or red, with green indicating that the violation has little impact on safety while a red violation is an unacceptably unsafe condition. 

If a plant has findings of green and above, the NRC conducts baseline inspections the following year. Each level on the scale brings more regulatory oversight to a plant, with the lowest level meaning a plant is shut down until all its issues are corrected. 

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Sieller gave two examples of green-level violations that were discovered at the plant. One involved procedure for maintaining a diesel generator at the plant and the other was the failure of a temperature sensor in a cooling room. Both conditions were corrected as quickly as possible once they were identified. 

Krohn also spoke on what the NRC is doing in regards to nuclear plant safety after the incident Japan. The NRC recognizes that safety has become a more openly discussed issue because of the Japanese disaster, and it is working to learn what they can from the disaster to improve safety at US nuclear plants. He said there are four steps that the NRC takes in regards to plant safety. 

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First, a plant has to be designed to withstand site-specific external events, meaning plants at risk for hurricanes will be designed differently from ones that would be at risk from an earthquake.  

Second, the NRC requires plants to have backup power systems and multiple layers of physical barriers to contain radioactive material. 

Third, inspections of plants are rigorous and constantly ongoing. DiPaolo and Sieller are full-time onsite inspectors who live in the community. “They are community members, so they have a stake in the plant safety as well,” Krohn said. 

Fourth, the NRC is always looking at safety issues and learning from them, and making adjustments and improvements to policies and procedures. Krohn said, as an example, plants stepped up security after the September 11, 2001 attacks.  

The NRC is currently “methodically reviewing” all the information that can be gleaned from what happened in Japan, Krohn said, and expects to release a report in mid-July on their findings and on any changes to safety measures as a result.  

During a lengthy public comment section, several area residents brought up their own safety concerns. Dr. Fred Winter, a former radiologist, expressed his concern about radiation around us, and mentioned studies that had been done showing that strontium-90 radiation is present in baby teeth. Krohn said that several scientific studies had been done that showed that that radiation came from isotopes ejected into the atmosphere during atomic bomb testing. No scientific studies have linked the incidence of cancer with living near a nuclear plant. 

Resident William Fulmer asked about .

Krohn said that the increase wasn't as large as the article made it sound.  “The probabilities have increased slightly,” he said, thanks to updated research from the US Geological Survey, but the report was “small probabilities converted into a percentage.” Public Affairs officer Diane Screnci pointed out that the NRC does not rank the safety of nuclear plants; the ranking was solely the work of the reporter who wrote the story. 

Beverly Boyer asked a question about evacuation plans and how residents are supposed to know what the plan is. Krohn said that most townships have the plans available and plant operators are required by law to mail information out yearly. Boyer also asked about evacuating with pets, and Krohn said that the NRC is working with county animal response teams to put plans in place to allow residents to take pets with them. 

Resident Bill Fontaine expressed several concerns. He asked how much insurance the plant has in case of a disaster. Screnci said that the plant has $375 million in insurance for each unit and $12.6 billion in supplemental insurance. Fontaine also questioned the feasibility of an emergency evacuation plan given the population increase in this area. Krohn said that the emergency plans are constantly being assessed and updated, and that the plans are given a dry run every two years. 

Dr. Lewis Cuthbert and Donna Cuthbert, representing the Alliance for a Clean Environment, spoke about their concerns about backup power sources, safe radiation levels and fire safety in the plant. Dr. Cuthbert said that ACE's concern is that most plants only have enough battery power to stay online for four hours after a loss of power and that ACE would encourage the NRC to find a way to use batteries that would last much longer.  

He also asked if the generators were in the most secure place possible in the plant, given that during the tsunami in Japan the plant's backup systems were damaged by the flood and did not work. Krohn said that the Limerick plant's backup generators are underground in bunkers which would protect them from severe weather or seismic events. 

DiPaolo said that the generators are tested monthly at 100% capacity, and every two years are run at 100% capacity for a full 24 hours. Sieller said that the backup generators are set up to keep four of the six spent fuel pools working in case of emergency. 

Mrs. Cuthbert spoke about safe radiation levels and the recent increase in the estimated average exposure that a person experiences in their lifetime. The average was recently increased from 360 millirems to 620 millirems. Rich Barkley, a nuclear engineer, said that the increase is a result of people being exposed to more background radiation from medical tests such as CAT scans and dental x-rays. The legal limits of allowable exposure have not changed.  

Mrs. Cuthbert also expressed concern about fire safety at the plant. Sieller said that the plant's safety procedures are focused on flooding and fire risks and Krohn reiterated that the plant is continually inspected for problems.  

Approached after the meeting, the Cuthberts said that ACE has been investigating the Limerick plant for ten years and are very concerned about radiation levels in groundwater and the amount of air pollution the plant produces.  

Krohn said after the meeting that he was pleased with how it went. “It's good to see people invested,” he said.


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