Environmental Group Says Limerick Nuclear Plant Needs New Safety Study

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

November 28, 2011 | 12:31 PM

Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images

Cooling towers from the Limerick Generating Station in Pottstown, Pa.

An environmental group wants to block the re-licensing of Limerick Generating Station, saying the plant’s accident mitigation study needs to be updated. Limerick is located about 20 miles from Philadelphia in Montgomery County and provides electricity to an estimated 2 million households.
Exelon Corporation has applied for a 20-year renewal of their operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a petition with the NRC last week seeking to intervene in the renewal process. The Defense Council says Exelon’s application includes an out-dated “Severe Accident Mitigation Alternatives” analysis that was created in 1989.
In a press release, the Natural Resources Defense Council cites the Fukushima nuclear disaster as a reason for updating the analysis.

“The Fukushima disaster fundamentally happened because the nuclear plant lost power and could no longer keep its reactor cores cool even after emergency shutdown,” said Matthew McKinzie, senior scientist at the NRDC. “This type of power loss can happen in a number of ways beyond the one-two punch of an earthquake and tsunami.”