NEI Nuclear Notes

Timothy Rausch The following is a guest post by Timothy Rausch, Talen Energy’s Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Companies that operate America’s nuclear energy facilities today have made significant progress in their evaluations of  seismic safety  as part of a series of actions the industry is taking to implement  lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima accident . The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2012 required energy companies to reevaluate potential seismic hazards for each of America’s 99 reactors. Nuclear energy facilities were designed and built with extra safety margin, in part  to be able to withstand an earthquake even beyond the strongest ever at each site . Nonetheless, over the past decades, the industry has re-evaluated the seismic safety of its facilities. Each time new seismic information became available, plant operators have confirmed, and in many cases, enhanced the facility’s seismic protection.  The nuclear indus...