Stored Fuel Rods: A Y2K Risk

Storage pools are five times as radioactive as reactor cores

The risks of a nuclear meltdown in a power reactor owing to loss of control during a power failure are well-known. Less attention has been paid to the risks associated with the storage of used fuel rods in on-site cooling pools.

These fuel pools - which can contain five times the radiation of the reactor's core - are not surrounded by containment shells and, unlike reactors, they have no back-up systems for emergency cooling in the event of a power failure.

Without effective cooling, the latent heat in the stored fuel rods would cause the water to boil off. Exposed to the air, the fuel rods would begin to melt down. Some fuel pools have been so densely packed with radioactive fuel rods that the possibility that, in the absence of water, a chain reaction could occur.

A meltdown could occur within days or weeks, depending on how recently the plant has been refueled. Ignoring the Y2K risk, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has permitted 26 US nuclear reactors to refuel in October. This will fill the storage pools with tons of dangerously hot fuel rods. According to the San Francisco Bay Area World Atomic Safety Holiday campaign [(415) 868-1900], the NRC "is suspending normal safety regulations for reactor operation especially for Y2K. The regulations requiring reactors to be shut down if the safety systems are not operating are being lifted."

Nuclear safety activists are demanding that all reactors have working diesel generators and three months of fuel on site prior to December 31. They are are demanding that spent-fuel pools be immediately retrofitted with reliable Y2K-proof cooling systems.

In August, a Public Citizen [215 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Washington, DC 20003, (202) 546-4996] survey concluded that "between October 1996 and May 1999, 102 of the country's 111 reactors were operated outside the safety parameters established in their licenses." NRC inspectors found that reactor operators had ignored key safety rules governing emergency core cooling systems and the cables controlling the nuclear reactors core. During the survey period, the NRC determined, US reactors were operated "outside design basis" more than 500 times.

"Rather than holding nuclear utilities accountable," Public Citizen charged, the NRC responded by announcing "an amnesty program that will last until March 30, 2001." Public Citizen characterized the amnesty program as "an irrational move by an ineffectual regulator" and accused the NRC of delaying action "due to the potential financial impact on the nuclear industry."

"If these nuclear reactors don't meet safety requirements," said Public Citizen's Wenonah Hauter, "they should be shut down until they do." Design basis problems have already lead to the shutdown of three reactors in Connecticut and Maine. The reactors cited most often by the NRC for operating "Outside Design Basis" include: Vermont Yankee Unit 1 (VT), Pilgrim Unit 1 (MA), Three Mile Island Unit 1 (PA), Cook Units 1, 2 and 3 (MI), Point Beach Units 1 and 2 (WI), Millstone Units 1 and 3 (CT), Oyster Creek Unit 1 (NJ), Prairie Island Units 1 and 2 (MN), Catawba Units 1 and 2 (SC) and Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2 (CA).