(Tarrytown, NY) Today, Riverkeeper supports New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s legal challenge demanding tougher security measures at U.S. nuclear power plants. AG Cuomo filed an appeal in the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s final rule revising security requirements for nuclear power plants, arguing that the revised regulations fail to require private security forces to defend against the size and scale of attack launched by Al Qaeda on 9/11. The NRC also refused to require existing nuclear power plants to defend against suicide aircraft attacks, despite the agency’s willingness to require newly built plants to withstand an aircraft crash.

“Again we see the Nuclear Regulatory Commission failing to base its security regulations on real-time, real-life threats. If new nuclear power plants must be able to withstand an air attack by terrorists, then surely the nation’s 103 aging nuclear reactors should be able to do the same. And if they can’t, the NRC should require upgrades to the current standards,” noted Hudson Riverkeeper and President Alex Matthiessen. “Riverkeeper commends AG Cuomo in his ongoing commitment to force the NRC to do its job mandated by the U.S. Congress – that is, protect the public and environment from exposure to radiation.”

Background:
On November 7, 2005, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a Federal Register Notice asking for public comment on the agency’s proposed rule regarding changes to the “Design Basis Threat” (DBT) requirements, which describe the type of attack or sabotage against which a nuclear plant operator has to defend with “high assurance.” The NRC rulemaking was also required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and was in response to a petition filed by the Committee to Bridge the Gap, calling on the NRC to require existing plants to defend against 9/11 style aircraft attacks. The NRC’s proposed rule contained few details on what actual improvements would be made to existing security requirements, citing national security as the basis for withholding any details of the security revisions. The NRC also refused at that time to require defense against air attacks.

Riverkeeper submitted public comments to the rule on January 23, 2006, requesting that the NRC adequately address the threats of air-based or water-based attacks on operating nuclear power plants and to comply with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which require the NRC to improve its evaluation of nuclear plant security exercises in order to better determine whether the private security force would be able to defend against the design basis threat. The final rule being appealed by AG Cuomo was released on March 19, 2007.