Press Release-07-082, - NRC Consolidates Security Upgrades for Operating Reactors
| ML071790340 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 06/27/2007 |
| From: | Office of Public Affairs |
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| Category:Press Release | |
| References | |
| Press Release-07-082 | |
| Download: ML071790340 (1) | |
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NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov No.07-082 June 27, 2007 NRC CONSOLIDATES SECURITY UPGRADES FOR OPERATING REACTORS The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today began consolidating existing security-based enhancements for each of the nations nuclear reactors, including the requirement that the utilities be prepared to mitigate the effects of large fires and explosions that could result from a terrorist attack, including the impact of a large commercial aircraft. The site-specific safety evaluation reports are part of a broader agency effort over the past five years to significantly upgrade plant safety and security.
Most of the measures being required of plants through these legally binding revisions to their operating licenses are already in place and have been verified by the NRC, and with minor exceptions all will be completed by December 2007. Inspection of these measures will become part of the routine inspection regime at all operating reactors.
From the outset we set very high standards for plants to meet. Todays action consolidates the steps we have required over the past five years, said NRC Chairman Dale Klein.
The measures being required at each site build upon the unilateral steps the NRC ordered the plants to take in early 2002 following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
On February 25, 2002, the NRC ordered a sweeping series of security upgrades at nuclear plants around the nation. Within that broad directive were instructions to bolster not just physical security but add measures to mitigate the possible effects on spent fuel pools, reactor cores and containment buildings of a large fire or explosion, including those caused by the deliberate or accidental impact of a large commercial aircraft. Nuclear power plant operators have been implementing site-specific measures since the issuance of NRCs Order. The safety evaluations being issued today ensure that these measures are maintained by utilities.
Letters containing the safety evaluations were sent today to the operators of eight of the nations 104 operating reactors with the remaining 96 to be issued over the next two months. The letters making changes to licensing conditions will be made publicly available. However, specific details of steps taken at each site will not be available because the NRC does not release information that might assist terrorists. Plants being sent letters today were: Beaver Valley, Braidwood, Byron, Callaway and H.B. Robinson.
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