ML040430265

Comment (222) of Stephen Knowlton Regarding Stricter Fire Standards at Nuclear Plants

ML040430265
Person / Time
Site:	Browns Ferry
Issue date:	01/21/2004
From:	Knowlton S - No Known Affiliation
To:	NRC/ADM/DAS/RDB
References
68FR66501 00222
Download: ML040430265 (1)

Text

I NRCREP - Nuclear plants need stronger safety codes, not weaker INROREP Nuclear plants need stronger safety codes, not weaker fPage 1 Page 1 4 1491/935 From: <knowlton@att.net>

To: <nrcrep~nrc.gov> 6 gpF~~&6S-0 Date: Wed, Jan 21, 2004 7:39 AM

Subject:

Nuclear plants need stronger safety codes, not weaker

Dear Chief Rules & Directives Bra,

Right now, there are nuclear power plants that do not meet the basic fire safety regulations in nearly a dozen states! This puts communities at risk of serious nuclear accidents resulting from fires inside nuclear power plants. Instead of exempting these plants from meeting fire safety regulations, we need to demand they come into compliance.

The rule was originally put in place as the result of a near catastrophic fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Station in 1975. The rule mandates that the electrical circuits that control the automated shutdown of a reactor be duplicated within the plant and protected in case of a serious fire. This would help avoid nuclear meltdown by ensuring that no single fire disables the reactor's ability to shutdown during a fire.

The new rule would allow the automated shut down areas to be sacrificed to fire and instead plan to send a worker into the burning area to perform a manual shutdown during an emergency. In some cases the manual shut down involves several steps that can be nearly impossible to accomplish under the adverse conditions of a fire and call upon plant workers to perform heroic, even suicidal tasks to prevent a catastrophic accident.

[Weakening the regulations will put communities, the environment and workers at serious risk of nuclear accidents. At a minimum, the automated shutdown equipment should be safe during a fire. Instead of weakening fire codes, you should enforce the law and require that all plants comply with the strictest standards for fire safety. Please consider this an official comment.

Sincerely, Stephen Knowlton 77 Church St r-.3 Fair Haven, NJ 07704-3320 c CD Cr) C-

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