Summary

 

• Even as we learn more about what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan—and what is still being done to evaluate and control the damage—it is worth considering how the accident will and should affect nuclear power in the United States.
• U.S. nuclear power plants have been made more robust in the wake of 9/11, both physically and in terms of disaster preparedness and planning. And in the months since the Fukushima accident, the industry has taken a number of steps specifically to analyze, verify, and—if necessary—improve its ability to respond to disasters of the scale and scope of that in Japan.
• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s specially-appointed post-Fukushima task force made its first public report last week. It found that while some plants were not in full compliance with post-9/11 rules, problems have been corrected and there should be no loss of confidence in the safety and emergency planning of the plants.
• Fuel storage remains a sometimes-controversial question. The move toward dry cask storage of spent fuel may accelerate in wake of the Japan incident.

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