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Madigan, others lobby for tougher NRC relicensing of nukes

Posted November 15, 2007 10:00 pm

Six of the nation's attorneys general, including Lisa Madigan of Illinois, want the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to adopt tougher regulations for re-licensing nuclear power plants that first came online in the 1960s and '70s.

Siting and safety criteria "have significantly changed" since then, the attorneys general wrote in a letter sent Thursday to Dale Klein, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"This is a public safety concern for all Illinoisans, as well as for those throughout North America," Madigan said in a news release. "With a total of six nuclear generating plants and 11 reactors, Illinois has more nuclear generating facilities than any other state in the country."

The six Illinois nuclear plants are in Clinton, LaSalle, Quad Cities, Braidwood, Byron and Dresden. All have two operating reactors except for Clinton, which has one. One of the Dresden reactors is up for re-licensing first, in late 2009.

The letter from the attorneys general said that the NRC's license-renewal procedures do not take into account certain factors, such as security and susceptibility to a terrorist attack, geographic or seismic issues and the adequacy of emergency warning and evacuation plans.

"The tragedy that befell our nation on September 11, 2001, demonstrated the utter folly of ignoring the impact of national security issues on nuclear plant safety," said the letter. "The release of radioactive material into the air and water after the recent earthquake in Japan - forcing the emergency shutdown of the world's largest nuclear plant - demonstrates the vulnerability of nuclear plants to natural forces."

Also signing the letter were Joseph Biden III of Delaware, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Andrew Cuomo of New York, William Sorrell of Vermont and Gregory Stumbo of Kentucky.

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