Petition to NRC from David Lochbaum regarding reactor safety

["Jacobus, John (OD/ORS)" <jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov>]

I saw this and thought it would be of interest to those involved with

nuclear power plants



-- John 

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist 

3050 Traymore Lane

Bowie, MD  20715-2024



E-mail:  jenday1@email.msn.com (H)      

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[Federal Register: May 15, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 94)]

[Notices]               

[Page 34735]

>From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:fr15my02-104]                         



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

 

Receipt of Request for Action Under 10 CFR 2.206



    Notice is hereby given that by petition dated March 11, 2002, and 

supplements dated March 21, 22, and 27, 2002, Mr. David A. Lochbaum, 

Nuclear Safety Engineer in the Washington, DC, Office of the Union of 

Concerned Scientists (petitioner), and the co-petitioners identified in 

the petition supplements dated March 21 and March 22, 2002, have 

requested that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the 

Commission) take action with regard to the nuclear power facilities 

listed in Attachment 1 to the petition (multiple facilities). The 

petitioners request that the NRC immediately issue orders to the owners 

of all operating nuclear power plants to take measures that will reduce 

the risk from sabotage of irradiated fuel. Specifically, those measures 

are:

    (1) The NRC should ``impose a 72-hour limit for operation when the 

number of operable onsite alternating current power sources (i.e., 

emergency diesel generators) is one less than the number in the 

Technical Specification limiting condition for operation. This 72-hour 

limit would be applicable when the nuclear plant is in any mode of 

operation other than hot shutdown, cold shutdown, refueling, or 

defueled.'' Oconee Nuclear Station does not rely on emergency diesel 

generators but ``equivalent protection for its emergency power supply'' 

should be provided. The NRC should also ``cease and desist issuing 

NOEDs [Notices of Enforcement Discretion] that allow nuclear reactors 

to operate for longer periods of time with broken emergency diesel 

generators.'' This requested action would apply to the facilities 

listed in Attachment 1 to the petition.

    (2) The NRC should ``impose a minimum 24-hour time-to-boil for the 

spent fuel pool water. This limit would be applicable at all times.'' 

This requested action would apply to the facilities listed in 

Attachment 1 to the petition.

    The petition also requested that the NRC hold a public meeting to 

precede ``the Petition Review Board (PRB) non-public meeting regarding 

this petition'' and assign ``someone other than the Director of NRR 

[Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation] to be responsible for our 

petition. The Deputy Executive Director for Reactor Programs or the 

Deputy Director of NRR would be acceptable to UCS [Union of Concerned 

Scientists].''

    The request is being treated pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206 of the 

Commission's regulations. The request has been referred to the 

Director, NRR. As provided by Section 10 CFR 2.206, appropriate action 

will be taken on this petition within a reasonable time. On March 26, 

2002, the petitioner participated in a teleconference with the PRB to 

discuss the petition, as supplemented. The PRB considered the 

petitioner's contributions to the teleconference in deciding on the 

requests for immediate action and in setting the schedule for review of 

the petition. A copy of the petition and its supplements is available 

for inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), at One 

White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, 

Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible from the 

Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public 

Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://

www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have access to 

ADAMS or who have problems in accessing the documents in ADAMS, should 

contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 

301-415-4737 or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov.

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