UPDATE 1-NRC delays decision on filters at nuclear plants
Source: Reuters
* NRC chairman endorses hardened vents after Fukushima visit
* Nuclear critic Markey said agency action too lenient
(Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Tuesday delayed a decision to order operators of more than two dozen older nuclear plants to install filtered vents as part of the agency's post-Fukushima safety review, according to an NRC memo posted on its website.
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Rep. Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and nuclear industry critic, said the NRC "abdicated its responsibility to ensure public health and safety" by delaying a decision on use of filtered vents for several years.
Markey has long called for the NRC to endorse its own technical staff's work and to quickly adopt all recommendations made by the agency's Near Term Task Force on Fukushima, including the use of filtered vents that would work in a severe nuclear accident situations.
"Instead of following its top experts' safety recommendations, it chose to grant the nuclear power industry's requests for more studies and more delays, and even after the study is completed there is still no guarantee that the NRC will ever make this common sense requirement mandatory," Markey said.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/19/utilities-nuclear-nrc-idUKL1N0CBF6G20130319
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