I heard this Nuke Bonanza being promoted on National Petroleum Radio
like it's the next best thing since sliced bread! Nukes for Peace is
now Nukes for global warming! People eat up this Techno-Spiritual b.s.
Lyman explains that the nuclear industry wants nuclear safety standards significantly weakened because the “advanced” nuclear plants are “much more expensive” than existing plants. And they would be more costly to operate than using energy alternatives such as wind and solar. So, the NRC is “accepting on faith” the industry claim that the “advanced” nuclear power plants are “going to be safer and wants to adjust its regulations accordingly, to make them less stringent.”
It’s a demonstration of one of the alternatives that’s been applied as the acronym for the NRC — Nuclear Rubberstamp Commission.
Already, in a decision in July, the NRC moved to allow nuclear power plants to be built in thickly populated areas. For a half-century, the NRC sought to have the plants sited in areas of “low population density” because of the catastrophic accident threat.
The lone NRC vote against the change came from Commissioner Jeffery Baran, who declared: “Multiple, independent layers of protection against potential radiological exposure are necessary because we do not have perfect knowledge of new reactor technologies and their unique potential accident scenarios.”
Under the new policy, noted Baran, a “reactor could be sited within a town of 25,000 people and right next to a large city. For reactor designs that have not been deployed before and do not have operating experience, that approach may be insufficiently protective of public health and safety.”
That is just one of the many reductions proposed in safety standards. The list of them in Lyman’s presentation before the Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service, under the categories of “Cutting corners on safety and security to cut costs” and “what the nuclear industry wants,” included, in addition to the already altered siting criteria:
• Allowing nuclear power plants to have a “small containment — or no physical containment at all.”
• “No offsite emergency planning requirements.”
• “Fewer or even zero operators.”
• Letting the plants have “fewer inspections and weaker enforcement.”
• “Fewer back-up safety systems.”
• “Zero” armed security personnel to try to protect an advanced nuclear power plant from terrorists. Lyman commented: “I could go on and on.”
His presentation included a slide saying the “NRC is not currently” accepting comments on its plan for changes in its regulations for “advanced” reactors. But, it said, “the public is always free to weigh in” on NRC actions and recommended people attend any public meetings held on the issue.
