Every nuclear plant in the country has now purchased a long list of emergency equipment laid out in an industry-led effort to enhance preparedness following last year’s Fukushima Daiichi crisis.
The Nuclear Energy Institute said Monday that all plant operators had met the March 31 deadline to buy the items, some of which have already been received. The gear includes diesel-powered pumps, air-driven pumps for flood equipment, hoses, generators, battery chargers, electrical switchgear, cables, fire trucks, satellite communications and material for emergency responders.
The industry-favored FLEX strategy to enhance emergency preparedness seeks to place a wide range of equipment in diverse locations. It will be on hand in the event of beyond-design-basis accidents, unforseen events and extreme natural disasters like those that blacked out the Fukushima plant in Japan.
“The nuclear industry is responding to the lessons learned from Fukushima with actions that provide the greatest safety benefit in the quickest amount of time,” NEI Chief Nuclear Officer Tony Pietrangelo said in a release.
The trade group spearheaded the FLEX initiative at the same time the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its special committee on Fukushima reviewed lessons learned from the accidents and prepared the regulatory response. The agency has indicated it’s amenable to the FLEX approach, given that it can be put in place much faster than costly plant upgrades and the regulations that precede them. Nonetheless, the NRC issued the first set of its own mandatory plant upgrades last month.