Pollution Threats Spark Concern about Nuclear Power Plant near Columbia, SC

摘要

State regulators are pressing the federal government to look more carefully at an atomic fuel plant's potential threat to Lower Richland before giving the factory a new 40 year license to operate. In a letter to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, South Carolina officials raised concerns about earthquakes, as well as previously unknown pollution they have found, at the 51-year-old Westinghouse plant southeast of Columbia. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control wants the NRC to conduct a full environmental impact statement, which could delay a decision on a new operating permit for the fuel plant for a year or more. The current license expires in 2027 but the NRC, which must approve a new permit, is weighing whether to issue one sooner, perhaps as early as this year.