us nrc - crisis ibecoming more stable

Japan Reactor Crisis is Becoming More Stable, U.S. NRC Says
By Jim Snyder and Simon Lomax - Mar 30, 2011 4:22 AM GMT+1300

Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant "continues to further stabilize," said Bill Borchardt, the executive director for operations at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The three operating reactors at the six-unit plant appeared to have been damaged after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in the release of radiation, Borchardt said today during a briefing for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in Washington.

Cooling systems lost power and backup generators failed, allowing radioactive fuel rods in reactors and storage pools to overheat after the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami disabled the reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant. Utility workers and government officials have used helicopters and fire trucks to douse the plant with water to avert a meltdown.

Radioactive water found in the basement of a turbine building that serves one of the reactors is "a result of the water that they've been injecting" to keep nuclear fuel rods cool, Borchardt said.

"The water is the result of the 'bleed and feed' process that they have been using to keep water in the reactor cores and in the containment of the units," he said. "The exact flow path of that leakage has not been determined."

U.S. officials may keep granting 20-year license extensions to nuclear power plants after Japan's reactor crisis, Borchardt said.

"There's no technical reason that I'm aware of that this would impact the license-renewal process," he said.

If U.S. reactors need better protection from natural disasters, the NRC would require those changes "without hesitation," independent of a license renewal, Borchardt said.