U.S. Needs Better Nuclear Power Safety, Report Finds

The U.S. could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by relying more on nuclear power, but it first needs to better address the industry's serious safety and security risks, according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

The 74-page report outlines how the U.S. could improve the safety of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste storage, and evaluates the designs of new nuclear facilities currently on the drawing board. However, the document doesn't deal with the economics of nuclear energy, or compare how nuclear stacks up against other alternative energy sources that could help reduce fossil-fuel emissions.

"The risks posed by global warming may turn out to be so grave that the United States and the world cannot afford to rule out a substantial expansion of nuclear power," said Lisbeth Gronlund, a co-author of the report and co-director of UCS's Global Security Program. "However, it also may turn out that nuclear power cannot be deployed worldwide on the scale necessary to significantly cut emissions without resulting in unacceptably high safety and security risks."

The U.S. currently gets about 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear power plants -- 104 in all across the country. Most of today's reactors are scheduled to retire by 2050, but 31 new nuclear facilities are now in the works.

The UCS report finds that only one out of the 10 new nuclear plant designs under consideration improves on the safety and security of today's facilities. That design is based on European safety standards that are stricter than the U.S.'s.

While the U.S. in general does have strong regulations for the nuclear industry, its main regulatory agency -- the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) -- doesn't consistently enforce them, the report said.

"Nuclear power is less safe and more costly than it should -- and could -- be," said David Lochbaum, another co-author of the report and director of UCS's Nuclear Safety Project. "Congress must protect its investment in nuclear power by transforming the NRC into an aggressive safety enforcement agency."

The report also found the U.S. needs to beef up security requirements to better protect nuclear power plants from terrorist attacks. Right now, for instance, nuclear facilities aren't mandated to have adequate defenses against such threats as shoulder-launched, rocket-propelled grenades. The report's authors said the U.S. could improve security for nuclear reactors by putting the Department of Homeland Security in charge of identifying potential threats. That job currently falls under the NRC's jurisdiction.

Union of Concerned Scientists, "Serious Safety and Security Risks Undercut Nuclear Power's Role in Minimizing Global Warming, New Report Finds." URL: (http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/nuclear-power-global-warming-0087.html)