It turns out you don’t have to run at all. First, they really can’t melt down. Second, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission just agreed that any emergencies that could possibly occur at a small modular nuclear power plant probably won’t even get past the fence.
No need to come up with huge evacuation plans for nearby cities or anyone living near the plant, like we did for older plants. You can just stand there at the fence and watch what’s going on.
The NRC’s openness to reducing the EPZs for SMRs came in evaluating a Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) application for an early site permit to determine a reasonable Emergency Protection Zone (EPZ) for their proposed new small modular reactor site near Clinch River. TVA’s application included information on NuScale’s SMR which is the most detailed and the farthest along of all reactors.
Of course, the process is still ongoing and no final conclusions have been made since this was just the first step in the application and TVA hasn’t chosen a final design. But there’s no indication that it won’t be.
James Conca – Forbes – August 29, 2018.
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