NRC Earthquake Upgrades "Nothing New"

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently put out a press release identifying multiple nuclear reactors throughout the central, south and eastern portions of the United States as needing upgrades to "better withstand earthquakes."

The list included: Crystal River 3, Florida; Dresden 2, Illinois; Dresden 3, Illinois; Duane Arnold, Iowa; Farley 1, Alabama;Farley 2, Alabama; Indian Point 2, New York; Indian Point 3, New York; Limerick 1, Pennsylvania; Limerick 2, Pennsylvania; North Anna 1, Virginia; North Anna 2, Virginia; Oconee 1, South Carolina; Oconee 2, South Carolina; Oconee 3, South Carolina; Peach Bottom 2, Pennsylvania; Peach Bottom 3, Pennsylvania; Perry 1, Ohio; River Bend 1, Louisiana; Saint Lucie 1, Florida; Saint Lucie 2, Florida; Seabrook 1, New Hampshire; Sequoyah 1, New Hampshire; Sequoyah 2, Tennessee; Summer, South Carolina; Watts Bar 1, Tennessee; Wolf Creek 1, Kansas.

Both of Limerick's nuclear reactors are on that list; however, according to site communications manager Joseph Szafran, this is nothing new within the NRC.

"This is something that is part of the normal process that they re-evaluate risk," Szafran said. "We re-evaluate risk all the time with a lot of things we do at the plant. This is just another area where we’ll do that. There’s no immediate safety concerns. It’s just a routine re-evaluation of risk."

Although this goes back a few years, according to Szafran, awareness was heightened in light of what happened in Japan.

"They started re-evaluating seismic risk at nuclear plants around the country a couple years ago," Szafran said. "This is not a new issue. The press release that the NRC put out was just announcing that we were going to be doing that at certain plants around the country."

The withstood an and activity within the same week last week. Szafran was happy to report no problems at the plant.

"Again, we’re very confident in the plant," he said. "We had a significant earthquake last week and a hurricane. Both of those events did not cause any issue to the plant. It continued to operate safely and reliably through both of those natural occurrences. Hopefully that can demonstrate to the community the care we take in operating the plant and that the plant can operate through specific natural occurrences."