Spent fuel pools are the most vulnerable part of a reactor. At some sites, these pools are covered only by a corrugated metal shed. At one-third of US reactor sites, the spent fuel pool is located above the reactor outside the primary containment structure. Meanwhile, spent fuel pools have been densely packed. If water is lost from these pools, there could be insufficient ambient air to prevent a fire that would release large quantities of radioactivity. Utilities are moving some of the spent fuel into onsite dry cask storage, essentially big containers on concrete pads. These casks are not designed to resist a terrorist attack. Nor has the NRC analyzed the environmental impacts of a terrorist attack for any of the 42 sites for which it has granted dry cask storage licenses.

In addition to the security threats posed by nuclear reactors, safety failures continue to be discovered at operating nuclear plants. These failures include aging equipment, management that ignores safety concerns raised by workers, under-trained and overworked security guards, poor emergency planning, lack of NRC oversight, and weakening of safety standards by the NRC. For example, Davis-Besse, a relatively young nuclear reactor near Toledo, Ohio, developed a hole in its reactor vessel head, caused by a boric acid leak. Only a 3/8-inch metal cladding was left as protection against a reactor breach. The NRC had specific knowledge of the type of problem that caused the leaks at Davis-Besse more than a year before they were actually discovered in March 2002.

At Shearon Harris in North Carolina, the NRC has allowed the plant to operate for 14 years while in violation of federal fire safety regulations. The three Palo Verde nuclear plants, which together have the largest nuclear generation capacity in the country, have also had serious ongoing and uncorrected safety problems for over a decade. For example, the owner unilaterally changed safety procedures at the site, resulting in an increased probability over a 12 year period that emergency pumps would not work in an accident. More recently, NRC found that workers added excessive amounts of chemicals to the cooling water over the past decade and ignored the resultant clogging of essential safety equipment. The NRC has described the decay of “key safety systems” at the plant as “egregious.”

Radioactive contamination of groundwater is also an ongoing problem. Tritium from nuclear reactors has leaked into groundwater at more than 10 reactor sites—at least one leak goes as far back as 1997. At Indian Point in New York, tritium and strontium are leaking from the

facility and have migrated into the Hudson River. Yet the NRC denied a request by nearly a dozen public interest groups for mandatory reporting on radioactively contaminated water at other sites, and instead has agreed to voluntary reporting by utilities. As of September 12, more than 26 reactors have failed to report to the NRC.

Global warming also poses safety problems for nuclear reactors. During recent heat waves in Europe and the United States, reactors have had to reduce output and some have even been shut down because cooling water in nearby rivers or lakes becomes too hot. As climate change worsens, it is expected that heat waves will become more severe and frequent.

Renewables Can Meet Our Energy Needs

Not including hydroelectric power, renewable energy currently provides only 2.3 percent of electricity in the United States. According to a draft analysis by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, it is technically feasible for a diverse mix of existing renewable technologies—including wind, solar, advanced hydroelectric power, and geothermal heat pumps—to completely meet our electricity needs by 2020. As much as 20 percent of US electricity could immediately come from non-hydro renewable energy sources without any negative effects on the stability or reliability of the electrical grid. Despite the vast discrepancy in federal support, wind power, which costs between 4.2 and 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, is already competitive with new nuclear power plants. Over the long term, improvements to the grid can be made, and renewable technologies could supply increasingly higher percentages of our power. Renewable energy and efficiency are viable solutions for climate change, air quality, and energy independence. We cannot afford to waste our time and limited resources on building even a few new reactors.