Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Study shows severe nuclear accident at Point Lepreau





For Immediate Release February 6, 2013

Study shows severe nuclear accident at Point Lepreau
is 40 times more likely than initially thought

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Press Release in pdf format : http://tinyurl.com/a93beuu
Backgrounder with details : http://tinyurl.com/bxr8h93
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On Friday January 18 2013 NB Power released the preliminary results
of a study that showed that NB Power has grossly underestimated
earthquake risk. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC)
ordered a new site specific seismic hazard study be completed as a
result of CCNB Action’s intervention at the licensing hearings for
Point Lepreau on Dec 2 2011.

For refurbishment in 2007, the CNSC told NB Power to show that there
was only a 1 in 10,000 years chance of core meltdown and a 1 in
100,000 years chance of a large release of radiation if earthquakes
were added to its probabilistic safety analysis. In 2007, NB Power
reported to the CNSC that the chances of core meltdown and a large
radiation release at Pt Lepreau from earthquakes were 1 in a million
years.

Using data from the new study, CCNB Action calculated that the
chances of core meltdown are 1 in 7,825 years. For a large release
of radiation, chances are 1 in 25,000 years, an increase of almost
40 times the original NB Power submission.

CCNB Action’s Chris Rouse is not surprised at the results. “Whether
or not Point Lepreau is able to handle earthquakes has been a
controversy ever since it was built. The lead seismic engineer quit
stating that the regulator was downplaying the seismicity of Point
Lepreau, and that he recommended not building it at that location.

Recently, we found many errors in NB Power’s technical assessments
that we reviewed as interveners in the licensing hearings. We hope
this study will alert the CNSC as to how dangerous Pt Lepreau really
is and hope they start doing their job and shut it down before
something serious happens.”

New data warns us:

- Pt Lepreau no longer meets internationally accepted safety goals,
as stated at the time of licensing.

- the chance of a severe accident with a large release of radiation
(1 in 25,000 yrs) is 4x more likely than the regulator believed
at the time of licensing (1 in 100,000 yrs)

- Pt Lepreau is now one of the most dangerous reactors in North America

CCNB Action’s Saint John Fundy chapter chair, Sharon Murphy, stated her
group’s concern. “We know they seriously underestimated the costs and
the time it would take to refurbish. Now, this new study shows that the risks
have also been underestimated. Science not only shows that the next
significant regional earthquake will likely be near Pt Lepreau, it now is
clearly showing that Pt Lepreau won’t survive the shaking.”

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