Nuclear power in the future: risks of a lifetime
Time is a risk factor being ignored by the NRC. The agency’s safety goal put the risk of meltdown at one-in-three for the 100 reactors licensed for 40 years. When the NRC began renewing licenses for 20 and perhaps now 40 additional years, the agency did not revisit its safety goal and seems tolerant of the meltdown risk rising to one-in-two or greater. This is a failure to recognize that aging takes a significant safety toll on nuclear reactors—not just because parts wear out over time, but also because refurbishment and replacement sometimes have unanticipated consequences...
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