14 May (NucNet): Opponents of Southern Company’s plan to build two reactors at subsidiary Georgia Power’s Vogtle nuclear site have failed to persuade a federal appeals court to revoke the construction and operating licences (COLs) and the reactor design certification granted by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Washington today rejected arguments by nine environmental groups that the NRC did not fully consider the lessons learned from Japan’s March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident before approving the Vogtle project.
“The NRC thoroughly analysed the environmental consequences of severe accidents for Vogtle,” US Circuit Judge Harry Edwards wrote in the decision.
The decision said the NRC’s original environmental impact statement (EIS) for Vogtle “considered precisely the types of harm that occurred as a result of the Fukushima accident”. The EIS considered consequences and mitigation of severe accidents involving reactor core damage and the release of fission products, the court said.
The environmental groups sued after the NRC last year denied a request to delay construction. The regulator ruled that the opponents failed to show that building the new Vogtle-3 and -4 units would irreparably harm the environment.
The alleged environmental impact of building the reactors, as opposed to operating them, is not related to the lessons learned from the Fukushima-Daiichi events, which were caused by an earthquake and tsunami, the NRC said in April 2012.
Southern Company said in a statement emailed to NucNet that it was pleased with the court’s unanimous decision upholding the NRC's issuance of the Vogtle COLs.
The company said: “The review and approval of the Vogtle COLs has been a thorough, thoughtful and detailed process by the NRC staff and commissioners.”
The statement added: “We… look forward to working with the NRC to incorporate lessons learned from Fukushima into the construction and operation of Vogtle-3 and -4.”
The environmental groups that brought the challenge include the Blue Ridge Environmental Defence League, Friends of the Earth and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
In February 2013 the NRC approved plans from Southern Company for two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the Vogtle nuclear site – the first reactor construction approval in more than three decades. The reactors could begin commercial operation as soon as 2016 and 2017.
The NRC last approved construction of a nuclear plant in 1978, a year before a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
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