Full Title: Improving Spent-Fuel Storage at Nuclear Reactors
Author(s): Robert Alvarez
Publisher(s): The Institute for Policy Studies
Publication Date: March 1, 2012
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, which began with an earthquake in March 2011 and continues today, is cast- ing a spotlight on nuclear reactors in the United States. At the Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, at least one of the pools used for storing spent nuclear fuel—indeed, the pool holding the largest amount of spent fuel—has leaked and remains vulnerable. Because U.S. nuclear plants also use cooling pools for storing spent fuel, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) formed a task force to assess what happened at the stricken facility and identify lessons for the U.S. nuclear industry. In a July 2011 report, the NRC placed upgrading the safety of storage pools at reactor sta- tions high on its list of recommendations.