All of America's power reactors can now access supplemental emergency equipment within 24 hours from centers set up as part of the industry's response to the Fukushima Daiichi accidents in Japan.
On Friday, a response center in Memphis, Tenn., joined a similar facility that opened last month in Phoenix to provide centralized warehouses of equipment like emergency generators, pumps and gear for first responders. The centers each house five sets of emergency equipment, four of which will be ready to mobilize at any given time, according to a release from the Nuclear Energy Institute. The Strategic Alliance for FLEX Emergency Response was set up to develop the centers, which have contracted with the Pooled Equipment Inventory Company and Areva. The centers cost $40 million apiece and will cost $4 million annually to operate, an expense shared by all of the utilities that operate reactors in the U.S.
“This is part of the industry’s strategy to provide flexible and tailored backup safety equipment at nuclear power plants in the event of extreme unexpected events," Exelon Chief Nuclear Officer Mike Pacilio said in a release. By truck or by air, he said, "Each of these centers is designed to deliver emergency backup equipment anywhere in America within 24 hours.”