So as you can imagine, almost every component of a nuclear plant has to be “certified” in some way or another. That is, anything and everything that is even remotely close to the “nuclear containment” zone must meet the highest level of specifications. This is for safety purposes, of course.

A License to Profit…

How can anyone keep track of all of this? It is certainly not easy. But every nuclear reactor is licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The NRC issues a license to operate only if the operator can demonstrate that it has figured out how to account for all of the systems, training, personnel requirements and everything else that you need to run a safe plant.

Under provisions of the Atomic Energy Act, the NRC issues licenses for commercial power reactors to operate for up to 40 years. Then the NRC may renew the licenses for up to another 20 years. Why 40 years? Congress selected a 40-year license term on the basis of economic and antitrust considerations, not technical limitations. Even after 40 years, there’s a lot of life left in a well-maintained nuclear plant.

Still, licensing and re-licensing are complex processes. The NRC-mandated paperwork extends to hundreds of thousands of pages, even millions of pages in some instances. The technical specifications are just mind-boggling. Many of the pipes and welds, as well as other metal objects, have to be X-rayed and inspected for quality.

Most U.S. nuclear power plants were designed in the 1960s and 1970s. Most plants were built in the 1970s, or completed in the 1980s. After the Three Mile Island incident in 1979 — when there was a partial loss of nuclear containment — new plant licensing in the U.S. came to an abrupt halt. Many plants under construction went on to be completed. But due to public and political concerns about nuclear power, there has been almost nothing in the way of new nuclear design or construction activity for the past 30 years.

Indeed, due to the lack of business in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, many nuclear equipment vendors just closed their doors. The ones that haven’t closed, basically, have a license to profit…

Until we meet again,
Byron W. King

Source: Fixing the Nuclear Family

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Pages: 1 2