Word: nrc
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...NRC shuts some plants
Ever since the near disaster at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear plant, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been debating whether to order the shutdown of other nukes designed and built by the same company, Babcock & Wilcox. Some of the watchdog agency's critics have had no doubts about what the NRC should do: they want a shutdown of all nuclear plants in the U.S. Cooler heads, however, pointed out that most of the plants have relatively good safety records. Besides, any major loss of generating capacity at the onset of the summer months-when electrical consumption...
...week's end, after several days of public agonizing and behind-the-scenes bickering with the utility companies, the NRC reached a Solomonic decision that was face-saving for everyone. It issued a shutdown agreement, but only after the utilities "voluntarily" offered to suspend operations at the nine B & W plants, including Three Mile Island's disabled reactor. One objective was political: the beleaguered NRC wants to convince critics that it is indeed a vigilant watchdog...
...rattling that cage is proving more difficult than anyone anticipated. But the NRC and its newly recruited experts from almost all over the nuclear map think they finally have a "non-textbook" solution that may succeed. For starters, they have settled on a series of complex, interlocking steps, some of which have already been initiated...
Every degree will be a battle. Even under the best of circumstances, Operation Teakettle will take at least five days to lower the core temperature the final 28° C. But the NRC team is determined not to hurry the process with pumps or other heavy-duty machinery. All in all, the technicians at Three Mile Island are cautiously optimistic. But even after cooldown, their job will not be done. They must still purge the stricken and perhaps permanently wrecked plant of its overburden of frighteningly dangerous radioactivity, a process that could easily go on for months. Then they must figure...