Power struggle ahead over Seabrook extension

[struggle4progress]

Owner wants to keep nuke plant working; opponents see an aging time bomb

By PETER WARD, Sun Staff
SEABROOK, N.H.

.... Seabrook went online in 1990 .... Florida-based FPL .. Energy Group .. believes it could have begun operating in 1986 and therefore .. wants the NRC to extend its current 40-year license to 2030.
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Twenty-three nuclear plants in the United States want license renewals, according to the NRC. Another 21 plants are well in the process of renewing licenses. Critics want Seabrook to join the list of 19 plants now in the process of shutting down. Among the 19 is the 600-megawatt Yankee Rowe plant in rural Rowe, Mass., which operated from 1960 to 1991 and finally closed after the reactor vessel was declared too brittle to continue.

... Mary Metcalf of the Seabrook Anti-Pollution League .. noted that many plants "have gone down" long before they reach the 30-year mark.

.... Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists said a typical renewal application contains 1,000 pages of data, much of it highly technical. The NRC takes up to two years to review such a document while the public has 30 days. "So the NRC expects the public to do in 30 days what it needs two years to do," Lochbaum said ....

http://www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105~4746~2318610,00.html