NRC Petition on Spent Fuel Pools

Eric: My group, the Foundation for Resilient Societies, has a proposal for safety enhancements to spent fuel pools at nuclear plants. Backup cooling power would be provided by solar panels and other unattended, high reliability electric generation. This could prevent spent fuel pool fires and radiation releases. Our proposal has been submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the form of a Petition for Rulemaking. PRM-50-96 is the only Petition for Rulemaking currently on the NRC docket for 2011. On May 6, the NRC published the petition in the Federal Register for comment: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/rulemaking-ruleforum/petitions-by-year/2011/ A blog moderated by the NRC is covering the status of the petition. Already, there are some very interesting public comments on the blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/2011/04/22/the-nrc-were-ready-to-respond/ A full copy of the petition can be downloaded from: www.resilientsocieties.org If people in your group would comment on the petition, either on the NRC blog or as a formal comment for NRC rulemaking, this would further the discussion about safety enhancements for spent fuel pools. The deadline for formal comments is July 20, 2011. Comments on the NRC blog before this date would be very helpful as well. A notice on your website about the petition would be ideal, if you can do this and believe it would fit with your group’s goals. Many thanks for considering this. If you have questions, please email thomasp@resilientsocieties.org or call at the number below. Thomas Popik Foundation for Resilient Societies 603-321-1090