U.S. senators were told Tuesday that no U.S. reactors are immune to the kind of blackout problems that have led to radiation leaks in Japan.
“I cannot emphasize enough that the lessons from Japan apply to all U.S. reactors. … None are immune to station blackout problems. All must be made less vulnerable to these problems,” said Chattanooga’s David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer who has worked both at TVA’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant and as a Nuclear Regulatory Commission training officer.
Now director of the nuclear power project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, Lochbaum was one of several U.S. nuclear power plant regulators and critics who gave nearly two hours of briefings Tuesday to the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
He told committee members in Washington, D.C., that he sees two very important lessons from the Japan disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor: improve backup power and reduce the risks at spent-fuel pools – swimming pool-like structures where used hot and radioactive fuel rods are kept.
But most importantly, he said, he hopes Congress will “force” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to “not merely chart a course to a safe place, but actually reach that destination as soon as possible.”