This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 14, 2011 - WASHINGTON - The four oldest nuclear power reactors in Illinois are the same type as the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 reactor in Japan that may be undergoing a partial meltdown after being struck by an earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
In the wake of the Japanese crisis, nuclear energy critics contend that the safety of the four Illinois reactors -- Quad Cities Generating Station reactors 1 and 2 near Moline and Dresden Generating Station reactors 2 and 3 in northern Illinois -- needs to be reassessed, along with the safety of the 19 other U.S. reactors of the same design. (Missouri's Callaway reactor has a different design.)
"We need to take a look at these old reactors, especially any of them that are located in areas near seismic zones," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a Washington-based interest group that opposes expanding nuclear power facilities. "We've brought up this issue repeatedly over the years -- long before the earthquake and tsunami in Japan."
Mariotte told the Beacon on Monday that nearly one out of every five operating U.S. nuclear reactors used the General Electric Mark I design, and all but two of those began commercial operations between 1971 and 1976. He said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and power companies should examine "what lessons can be learned from the Japanese experience that would apply to so many aging U.S. reactors."
But a spokeswoman for the utility company that owns and operates the Illinois reactors, a division of Chicago-based Exelon Inc., asserted that the reactors are completely safe -- recertified by the NRC in recent years and designed to withstand an array of potential threats such as earthquakes and flooding.
"All of our plants are operating safely and our plant neighbors are safe," said Krista Lopykinski, communications manager at Exelon Nuclear, a subsidiary based in Warrenville, Ill. "Our plants are equipped with numerous redundant safety systems designed to protect them from earthquakes, flooding and other natural disasters."
Lopykinski told the Beacon, "It does appear that the damage to the [Fukushima] plant that you may have seen was primarily related to the tsunami, and not the earthquake." She declined to compare the Japanese reactor with the four Mark I reactors in Illinois because of differences in the containment and other areas of design. "Even though it may be the same or a similar [reactor] model, I can't talk about the specifics because I don't have the information" about the details of the Japanese reactor, she said.
But several nuclear critics were willing to make such comparisons. Dave Kraft, director of the Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service, said the Fukushima-2 reactors "are the same type and roughly the same vintage as the two Dresden and two Quad Cities reactors operating in Illinois."
The Dresden reactors, in rural Grundy County southwest of Joliet, came on line in 1970 and 1971, while the Quad City reactors -- co-owned (25 percent) by Iowa-based Mid-America Energy Corp. -- began commercial operations in 1973. The Fukushima reactors came on line in the early 1970s, he said. In all, 11 nuclear reactors now operate at seven sites in Illinois.
Kraft told the Beacon that the impact of earthquake on the Japanese reactors can give experts "a rough idea of how these reactors would respond to, say, the New Madrid fault" if a major earthquake would strike the region. Even though the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 struck mainly in southwestern Illinois and southeastern Missouri -- relatively far from the sites of the four Mark I reactors -- Kraft contended that, because quakes inside continents can cause "soil liquification," that can impact wider areas.
So far, the NRC has approved 20-year license extensions for 18 of the nation's Mark I-design reactors, including all four in Illinois. Marriotte said two relicensing applications are currently under review and three reactors have not filed for license renewal.
While Exelon contends that the license extensions certify that the reactors are safe, Kraft contends that "the generic relicensing progress is nothing but a rubber stamp, with no meaningful participation or acknowledgement of the public input."
For its part, the NRC stands by its license extensions as valid assessments. "We are confident that all U.S. nuclear plants are safe," said NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre, noting that those plants -- depending on their location -- "are designed to withstand earthquakes, tsunamis and other events."
McIntyre told the Beacon that the process of extending the license of reactors mainly involves making sure that the reactors have withstood years of operation without significant damage or problems. The NRC's websites on the four Illinois reactors in question are at: Dresden 2, Dresden 3, Quad Cities 1 and Quad Cities 2.
The NRC has sent several experts to Japan to monitor the situations at the damaged nuclear reactors, McIntyre said, "and when this is over, we will look at any information ... that we can use to improve our regulation and oversight of the nuclear plants here."
NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko told reporters Monday that "we will always take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the safety and security of nuclear power plants in this country. But right now we believe we have a very strong program in place. As we get more information from Japan, as this immediate crisis ultimately comes to an end, we will look at whatever information we can gain from this event and see if there are changes we need to make to our system."
Asked if U.S. reactors could withstand earthquakes of the magnitude of the one that struck Japan, Jaczko said, "We have a strong safety program in place to deal with seismic events that are likely to happen at any nuclear facility in this country."
Responding to the crisis in Japan, Kraft of the Nuclear Energy Information Service said his and allied groups planned to push for a serious reassessment of the Mark I-design reactors in Illinois and elsewhere -- a campaign that "may have to involve Congress or the governors" to try to force the NRC to take action.
There are already calls in Congress for the NRC and other federal agencies to reassess the government's nuclear accident response plan. On Sunday, U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., argued that this country does not have a coordinated plan to deal with a natural disaster striking a nuclear plant.
"I am concerned that it appears that no agency sees itself as clearly in command of emergency response in a nuclear disaster," writes Markey wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama. "In stark contrast to the scenarios contemplated for oil spills and hurricanes, there is no specificity for emergency coordination and command in place for a response to a nuclear disaster."