Environmental Group Says Limerick Nuclear Plant Needs New Safety Study

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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.”