Climate change poses threats to nuclear power plants like Seabrook Station, report says

SEABROOK — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should take action to fully consider the potential effects of climate change — including sea level rise, flooding and hurricanes — according to a new government report.

The U.S Government Accountability Office recently released its 17-month-long study as requested by U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Tom Carper, D-Delaware. The study relates to the need to protect and maintain the supply of electric power, the demand for which is expected to grow in coming decades.

“Congress and others are turning to nuclear power as one means of meeting the increased demand while reducing carbon emissions,” the report states. “For example, in recent years, Congress has provided incentives for the continued operations of existing nuclear power plants and for the construction of new plants, which, if licensed could operate into the next century.”

According to the GAO, climate change can affect the frequency and intensity of natural hazards, such as “heat, drought, wildfires, flooding, hurricanes, sea level rise and extreme cold weather events,” which can impact the operation of nuclear power plants and the nation’s energy supply.

The NRC’s mission is to ensure the safe operation of nuclear power plants in order to protect public and environmental health and safety. According to the GAO, the NRC should take into consideration projected climate change data when assessing the licensing and oversight of the nation’s fleet of new, operational and even off-line nuclear power plants.

A significant supply of water is critical to the safe operation of nuclear power reactors, which is why most are located near large bodies of water, according to the report. NextEra Energy Seabrook, for example, is located about two miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, on uplands 20 to 30 feet above sea level. According to the report, it and other plants located similarly could be at risk to hurricane activity, sea level rise and flooding, which could possibly grow more severe in decades to come due to climate change.

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What the GAO wants the NRC to do to address climate change

Released April 2, the GAO’s report offers three recommendations to accommodate potential climate change related issues.

The first is for the chairman of the NRC to direct the agency’s staff to assess whether the agency’s licensing and oversight processes adequately address the increased risk climate change presents to nuclear power plants.

It also calls for the NRC to develop and implement a plan to address any gaps they identify in the agency’s current assessment processes.

Thirdly, it calls for the NRC to incorporate climate projection data into relevant assessment processes, including which data to use, when and how.

The NRC’s formal response to the final GAO report is expected by September, according to NRC Region 1 spokesman Neil Sheehan. But Ray Furstenau, NRC acting executive director of operations, issued an initial response after reviewing the GAO’s draft report. In it, Furstenau wrote the agency is “in general agreement” with the findings.

“The three recommendations in the draft report are very broad but are consistent with actions that are either underway or under development (by the NRC),” Furstenau wrote, depicting the report as, “... a fair characterization of (the NRC’s) regulatory structure, processes and strengths.”

However, Furstenau added, in light of the NRC’s implementation of three structural requirements for nuclear plant construction, “the NRC does not agree with the conclusion that the agency does not address the impacts of climate change.”

Furstenau is referencing three regulatory requirements related to the manner in which nuclear power plants must be built, or as some describe it, over-built. They are conservatism, safety margins and defense-in-depth.

Conservatism refers to the NRC’s consideration of the most severe natural phenomena that have historically occurred to the site of a nuclear power plant and its surroundings when reviewing plant licensing or oversight.

Safety margins relate to the extra capacity factors built into a plant’s structural design, its systems and components.

Defense-in-depth includes the multiple layers of defense built into power plants to compensate for potential mechanical or human failures so that “no single layer is exclusively relied upon.”

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Lessons learned from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident

The GAO report acknowledges the NRC instituted further safeguards against natural disasters after the March 2011 major accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant when an earthquake and tsunami caused power loss at the plant preventing normal cooling operations, leading to a subsequent meltdown.

The NRC required additional “safety measures in existing power plant designs, measures to prevent radioactive releases should a natural hazard event exceed what a plant was designed to withstand, and maintenance of backup equipment related to safety functions,” the report states.

However, the GAO does not see those actions as fully addressing potential climate change risks, according to the report, claiming the NRC uses “historical data” in its licensing/oversight processes rather than “climate projections data.”

According to Sheehan, the NRC learned from Fukushima Daiichi and instituted multiple safety aspects for power plants that relate to natural hazards.

“One of the most significant changes to U.S. nuclear plants following the Fukushima disaster was our requirement that nuclear plants acquire FLEX – short for flexible coping strategy – equipment,” according to Sheehan. “This includes portable pumps and power generators so that in events like earthquakes, hurricanes or flooding that can cause the loss of power – both from off-site and on-site – this equipment could be used to help protect the reactor. It’s another layer of protection.”

Sheehan added there are also national warehouses storing additional emergency equipment that can quickly be airlifted to plants all over the country.

Currently, there are 93 operating commercial nuclear reactors, in 54 nuclear power plants located in 28 states. Two are in New England: NextEra Energy Seabrook’s single reactor plant on the state’s coastal plain and Millstone Nuclear Power Station, with three reactors — two operating and one shut down — in Waterford, Connecticut located at a former quarry.

All other New England nuclear power plants are permanently shut down, according to Sheehan. They include Maine Yankee, Connecticut Yankee, Yankee Rowe and Pilgrim (both in Massachusetts) and Vermont Yankee. All that remains at the first three facilities are dry cask storage facilities holding the spent fuel from when those units were operational, but Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee are still being decommissioned, or dismantled, and have Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations, according to Sheehan.

In its investigation, according to the report, the GAO interviewed numerous parties, from both governmental and private entities, in addition to visiting two nuclear power plants — Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona and Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station in Florida. Turkey Point is owned by Florida Power and Light, the same company that owns NextEra Energy Seabrook.

Often called the “congressional watchdog,” the U.S. Government Accountability Office is an independent agency within the legislative branch that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: GAO report: Climate change poses new threats to nuclear power plants