[NukeNet] Study by NRC

[Beth Wellington]

Cartoon by Peter Welleman from Rotterdam (email, website) via Sciencebase, the website of British science writer David Bradley (email).
   
  
  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will begin the first phase of its State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analysis (SOARCA), to study two sites, the boiling water reactors at Peach Bottom in Pennsylvania, and the pressurized water reactors at Surry in Virginia. 
   
  
  Both sites volunteered to take part in the study. NRC staff will gather relevant information from the plants, then conduct the analysis along with contractors from Sandia National Laboratories. Later this year, the Commission will examine the results and provide guidance on how to analyze the remaining reactor and containment designs at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants.
  
  The project will analyze U.S. reactorsto develop realistic estimates of possible consequences from a potential accident and use site-specific weather and population data to determine the effects on public health and safety. A public document once the entire project is complete is due in 2009. Director of the Division of Risk Assessment and Special Projects in the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research Farouk Eltawila said in a news release today,
  
    Both sites have significant databases available from earlier studies, and this detailed information will make it easier to judge where the analysis can be improved, The results will also help us ensure we know what information we’ll need from other sites.
  
  We’re undertaking this research to replace work that’s almost 25 years old – studies that were so conservative that their predictions are not useful for characterizing results or guiding public policy. Those predictions have sometimes been misinterpreted and often misused. Today’s computer-based analytical tools are much more capable of realistically evaluating potential nuclear power plant accidents, and this project should improve everyone’s understanding of the realistic consequences of such potential accidents.
  
  One has to wonder if the NRC hopes to lessen criticism of power plants, given all the new construction soon to take place. NRC claims, 
  
    Nuclear power plant accidents are extremely unlikely; should one occur, existing plant components and procedures would mitigate most types of accidents. 


Beth Wellington 
POB 1361 
Roanoke, Virginia 24007 
http://360.yahoo.com/beth_blog


 	      
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