Full Title: No More Fukushimas; No More Fort Calhouns (2015)
Author(s): Union of Concerned Scientists
Publisher(s): Union of Concerned Scientists
Publication Date: March 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Two significant nuclear power safety events occurred in the spring of 2011. On March 11, an earthquake and the tsunami it spawned caused the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. Less than a month later, on April 9, operators shut down the reactor at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant in Nebraska for a routine refueling outage. But myriad safety problems discovered during the outage—many dating back to when the plant was constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s—prevented the reactor from restarting for two and a half years.
Following the first event, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which oversees the safety of the nation’s nuclear power plants, formed a task force that examined the Fukushima accident and identified more than 30 lessons that could reduce vulnerabilities in the United States. The NRC ordered plant owners to implement specific safety upgrades and is pursuing additional measures to
further reduce vulnerabilities.