NRC defends current nuclear plant evacuation rules

Facing new criticism that nuclear plant evacuation planning rules don’t go far enough, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official said Friday that current standards offer a “reasonable assurance of protection,” but worst-case accidents could require wider action.

At issue is the adequacy of plant operator and government requirements to plan for evacuations in a 10-mile radius circle around nuclear plants, as well as potential food safety and population exposures inside a 50-mile radius.

The Maryland-based Disaster Accountability Project raised the concerns after surveying disaster plans and agency information in parts of 11 states within 50 miles of five operating nuclear plants, including the Salem-Hope Creek complex along the Delaware River southeast of Port Penn.

“Most people that live 20, 30, or 40 miles away from plants do not realize that their communities are only adhering to bare minimum standards for radiological emergency preparedness,” said Ben Smilowitz, executive director of the disaster planning group.

The issue has particular relevance to northern Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, where millions live within multiple, overlapping emergency zones of up to seven reactors.

In December, The News Journal reported that NRC planning rules obscured the fact of rapid population growth even inside the 10-mile circle surrounding Salem/Hope Creek.

A study commissioned by PSEG and released in 2012 estimated up to half the population of the 10-mile radius evacuation zone could flee the area in 50 to 90 minutes, even during snow on a mid-week day. But that estimate was based on projected future population for nearby areas of Delaware and New Jersey that already has been far exceeded in Delaware alone, according to a News Journal review of state forecasts.

“I think it's safe to say there’s a lack of planning in most jurisdictions within 50 miles of nuclear plants,” Smilowitz said at the time. “If someone lives in an area that overlaps a number of plants and each one of their jurisdictions are not planning because they’re not legally mandated to, that would make me very uncomfortable as a local resident.”

Less than 20 percent of jurisdictions appeared to have planned for “shadow,” or voluntary, evacuations beyond official 10 mile zones, despite concerns that increased traffic could complicate and delay removal of those closer to risk, the group said.

Only 13 of 19 jurisdictions provided radiological emergency planning materials required to be shared with residents. Less than a third between 10 and 50 miles provided emergency plans relevant to nearby reactors.

Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC’s regional office near Philadelphia, said that the NRC will review the report from Smilowitz’s group. Similar calls to expand the 10-mile EPZ have been studied in depth, he said, with the agency concluding in a report released last year that the move was unwarranted.

“That does not mean the protective actions could not expand beyond the 10-mile radius. Rather, emergency planners have always known such actions could be necessary if the situation warranted it,” Sheehan said.

That position could be reviewed in the future as lessons from the Fukushima reactor disasters in Japan and a United Nations evaluation of “multi-unit” accidents are considered.

Sheehan said Friday that the NRC is continuing to work with PSEG on its early site permit application, which could pave the way for construction of one or two more reactors comparable in output to the three now operating along the river.

NRC officials want “to ensure the data being reviewed accurately reflect estimated rates of growth for those areas of Delaware and New Jersey that would fall within the plant’s 10-mile-radius,” Sheehan said.

PSEG’s permit application assumes that just 61,000 Delaware and New Jersey residents will live within 10 miles of the plant by the year 2081.

Official Delaware population forecasts approved in October project that New Castle County alone will reach 60,000 by 2021, and pass 68,000 by 2025.

By 2040, Delaware’s population inside the 10-mile ring is expected to increase to nearly 86,000, counting the roughly 600 residents inside Kent County’s tiny part of the 10-mile, circular “Evacuation Planning Zone.

Forecasts for New Jersey’s share, now about 12,000, were not available.

Contact Jeff Montgomery at 463-3344 or jmontgomery@delawareonline.com