Posted on 04/22/2010 2:31:37 PM PDT by RS_Rider
Anti-nuclear power activists petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday to investigate their claims of design flaws in new Westinghouse Electric Co.'s reactors that could lead to radiation emissions.
Both the company and the regulator rejected claims the yet-to-be-built reactor would likely corrode and said regular inspections would catch any deterioration early on.
The AP1000 Oversight Group — named for the "Advanced Passive" Westinghouse AP1000 design — said the commission should suspend license approval of the nuclear reactor until the design "defects" are corrected.
The group alleges the space between the outer shield building and the structure that contains the reactor vessel lets in air and water. That would accelerate any corrosion that might start, the group claims, and could lead to a radiation-emitting hole in the vessel.
"In the event that the containment is breached by corrosion, the chimney-like design may draw a significant volume of radioactivity-contaminated air into the environment, causing a major threat to the public," the group said in a letter to the regulator.
Currently, 14 of the AP1000 reactors are slated to be built and operated at seven power plants in the Southeast, assuming Westinghouse gets final design approvals from the commission. Westinghouse expect the first reactors to come on line in 2016.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
Morons at the gate.
Worse, Obots.
A little nookie never hurt anyone.
An activist on the other hand injures millions. Harm should come his way
Indeed. They will find any way to blog progress. The law has been twisted in favor of the regulator bureaucrats who have no incentive to let the private sector do anything. They may not be as obsessed as these “activists”, but they’re two peas in a pod nonetheless.
I worked at a German research lab in the 80’s. They had found that the oxides on the outside of nuclear reactors blocked radiation. So there.
Really, I’m gonna withhold judgment until Jackson Browne or Bonnie Riatt weight in on the reactor design.
As usual, it is the serious nature of the charges, NOT the veracity of the evidence. Only in this country could someone sue to stop building something that has never left the drawing board yet.
Wonderland in 1984...
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