Limerick Patch: Nuclear Regulators Address Limerick Generating Station Safety Record

Representatives of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission visited Limerick Township Building Wednesday to speak with residents about the safety record of the town's nuclear plant.

, the Exelon Limerick Generating Station, which is located approximately 17 miles north of Malvern, had a good 2010 and is very safe overall:

[NRC branch chief Paul] Krohn said that the Limerick plant was in the top tier of grading on the commission's “action matrix”, a scale that delineates degrees of regulatory response to inspection reports

One member of the audience, radiologist Fred Winter, voiced concern about environmental radiation:

[Winter] mentioned studies that had been done showing that strontium-90 radiation is present in baby teeth.

Krohn said that several scientific studies had been done that showed that that radiation came from isotopes ejected into the atmosphere during atomic bomb testing. No scientific studies have linked the incidence of cancer with living near a nuclear plant.

The regulators also fielded questions from the crowd about the threat of an earthquake or a fire posing a danger at the nuclear plant. They explained that the backup generators—the failure of which was a large part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan—are located underground for extra protection. They also noted that systems are continually tested.

Limerick resident Bill Fontaine asked how much insurance the plant carried.

[NRC Public Affairs officer Diane] Screnci said that the plant has $375 million in insurance for each unit and $12.6 billion in supplemental insurance. Fontaine also questioned the feasibility of an emergency evacuation plan given the population increase in this area. Krohn said that the emergency plans are constantly being assessed and updated, and that the plans are given a dry run every two years.

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