AGs seek rule change-- considering terror impact when evaluating nuke plant license renewal

[Ian David]

AGs seek NRC rule change on terrorism

By Associated Press | March 23, 2007

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Nine state attorneys general, including those in Vermont and Connecticut, have asked the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to change its rules to allow consideration of a potential terrorist attack on a reactor when it decides whether to extend a plant's license.

Reports by the National Academy of Sciences, the NRC's staff, and outside specialists have shown that the pools where reactors store highly radioactive spent fuel "are susceptible to fire and radiological release from a wide range of conditions," seven of the attorneys general wrote in a March 16 letter to the NRC.

The letter from attorneys general in Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont followed by one day an NRC decision affirming and earlier ruling that Massachusetts could not raise the potential for terrorism in hearings on the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant's request for a license renewal.

"What the NRC did was say, 'Under our existing, rules we can't consider the spent fuel storage issues," said Attorney General William Sorrell of Vermont.

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/03/23/ags_seek_nrc_rule_change_on_terrorism/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+City%2FRegion+News