The siting and licensing of a nuclear power plant is a lengthy, complicated and expensive process. In the U.S. it can take up to ten years to make all the preparations necessary for the construction of a nuclear power plant. Each nation that utilizes nuclear power has its own licensing process although there has been work on standardizing the process across the globe.
        Nuclear power reactors around the world are being modernized and having their licenses lifetimes extended. Now, more than ever, it is critical than ever for the nuclear industry to be able to utilize and rely on standard high-quality components being used in other industries that required a high level of safety and reliability. Finland has a well-deserved reputation for high safety standards and continuous improvement in nuclear power plant safety and efficiency. Currently, Finland is trying to streamline the process of nuclear licensing.
       Finland’s nuclear industry as well as other related companies in European countries are intent on creating an efficient and reliable supply chain of structures, systems and components that can be used to maintain and modernize their nuclear reactor fleets. They also believe that the long and difficult licensing process for nuclear power reactors and their components needs to be made more efficient. They want to retain their current high level of safety and efficiency in the nuclear industry while making the licensing process more efficient, shorter and less expensive. A three-stage solution has been proposed with the name KELPO.
       The first phase would involve a change to the scope of supervision. Authority supervision will be concentrated on higher safety classes and on plant and system levels. The license holder’s responsibility would focus more on the equipment level in the lower safety classes.
       The second phase would reduce the overlap between the work done by separate license holders while cooperation between license holders would be supported. National approvals would be introduced in the Finnish nuclear industry.
       The third phase would introduce new methods to change practices in the nuclear industry so that they would be closer to practices on other industries. The requirements for equipment suppliers and manufactures would be clarified. Methods and standards similar to those in other industries would be utilized.
       Pilot projects are being planned to test out the new methods which will be developed and placed in practices with cooperation between the license holders and the Finnish regulatory agency STUK. A pilot project for dealing with the licensing and qualification of mechanical equipment is already in operation. Similar projects involving electrical and information and control equipment are scheduled to begin soon. These pilot projects will help identify needed changes to the methods, legislation, regulation and existing practices.
       The Finns also intend to share the results of their program with other European nations. Initiatives similar to the KELPO project are being developed in other European countries. FORATOM, the European nuclear trade association in assisting in these projects. These new programs to streamline the nuclear licensing process are also aimed at making it easier to license and construct the new small modular reactors (SMR) that are under development. One important goal is to standardize licensing across multiple nations to enable components for the new SMRs to be licensed and built in several different countries before final assembly.

Ambient office  =  124 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 130 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 127 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 85 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
        The horrible nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan in March of 2011 prompted a lot of countries including the U.S. to reconsider their regulations directed at earthquake and flood preparedness. Following a tsunami triggered by a massive undersea earthquake, flooding of emergency generators led to explosions and meltdowns in three of the six nuclear power reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. To this day, large areas of land and water are contaminated with nuclear materials and evacuated villages are still empty eight years later.
       The NRC released a draft version of a rule in 2016 that required all nuclear power plant owners to reassess all flood and earthquake risks for the sites of their reactors. Following the reassessment, the plant owners were then required to implement new safety measures that were suggested by the reassessment.
       By January of 2019, commissioners appointed by President Trump held a majority on the NRC. This version of the commission approved a final draft of the new rule that made the call for new safety measures voluntary. This means that the nuclear power plant operators would still be required to make the reassessment but that they would be able to decide for themselves whether or not to implement any suggested changes to improve the safety at their plants.
       In addition to making safety changes voluntary, the U.S. nuclear industry has also been pressuring the NRC to reduce the number of mandatory safety inspections and to rely on the plant operators to monitory themselves. The Associated Press recently reported that it appears that the Trump NRC is “listening” to these requests and taking them seriously. The AP said that “Annie Caputo, a former nuclear-energy lobbyist now serving as one of four board members appointed or reappointed by President Donald Trump, told an industry meeting this week that she was ‘open to self-assessments’ by nuclear plant operators, who are proposing that self-reporting by operators take the place of some NRC inspections.”
       It is obvious that self-regulation would appeal to U.S. companies. It costs a lot of money to monitor private businesses to prevent them from injuring or killing people in their never-ending quest for more profit. Going back to the Boeing 737 Max situation, NPR reported that an estimated two billion tax dollars and ten thousand new federal employees would be required for the federal government itself to properly certify new airplanes. This could be done but the FAA budget of about eighteen billion would have to be increased by ten percent and their workforce of thirty-five thousand would have to be increased by almost thirty percent.
        Unfortunately, private U.S. companies have been caught cheating, lying and ignoring government regulations and laws in order to boost their profits when they were allowed to self-regulate. Millions of U.S. citizens have lost homes because of the abuse of laws and regulations by private companies. Thousands of people have gotten sick. Hundreds of people have died. The Trump administration is working hard to remove many regulations that directly affect the health, well-being and fortunes of millions of people in this country. It will take years to repair the damage that has been and is being done to the proper role of government in insuring in the proper behavior of private companies.

Ambient office  =  118 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 126 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 128 nanosieverts per hour

Butternut squash from Central Market = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 75 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 68 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
       One of the problems with nuclear power that I keep returning to concerns the federal regulation of nuclear power plants by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). There have been many cases where operators of nuclear power plants have failed to obey NRC regulations. In some cases, the NRC itself failed to hold nuclear plant operators accountable for such disregard of the rules. In other cases, the NRC conspired with nuclear plant operators to help them avoid regulatory compliance.
       Going beyond the compliance with or disregard of NRC rules for the operation of nuclear power plants, we are also confronted with the constant pressure on the federal government to weaken or eliminate NRC rules that nuclear power plant operators view as interfering with their quest for profits.
       The Republican Party began a relentless war on government regulation forty years ago during the Reagan administration. They say that federal regulations can be excessive and financially punitive. They claim that private companies can suffer stunted growth and fall behind foreign competition because of excess regulation. However, most Republicans admit that there is a need for some regulation when public health and/or safety are in danger. In 2017, the White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report titled “The Growth Potential of Deregulation.” In the report, the WHCEA said that “society is better off with regulations that prevent toxic waste dumping, outlaw child labor, and protect endangered species.”
       Private companies complain that while some regulation is needed, they do not understand why the federal government should do the regulating. They say that taxpayers should not have their taxes spent by federal regulators making life hard for private businesses. They say that companies have an economic incentive to run their businesses in such a way as to not threaten public health and safety.
       Unfortunately, experience has shown that private companies cannot always be depended upon to put public health and safety above profits. Two professors at a prestigious business school once penned a paper that said that the primary goal of any company’s management was to make money for the shareholders or owners. They actually said that if more money could be made by ignoring government regulations and/or breaking laws, then the company managers should go ahead and do it. Any fines that resulted should just be considered part of the cost of doing business. This philosophy does not instill confidence that private companies can be relied upon to make public interest a priority.
      Industry self-regulation has often been tried and found wanting. People have suffered and died when self-regulation failed. Recently two Boeing 737 Max airliners crashed and people were killed. The federal government has turned over to Boeing a lot of the testing of their own jet. Some critics say that the Federal Aviation Administration allowed Boeing to certify regulatory compliance of their own planes.
       The Trump administration has taken the Republican deregulation crusade to new heights. Recently, the Senate Environment and Public Works held a hearing on the NRC. One of the reasons for the hearing was to discuss a new safety regulation to protect the fleet of U.S. nuclear power reactors from earthquakes and floods.
Please read Part 2

Ambient office  =  90 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Cauliflower from Central Market = 78 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 105 nanosieverts per hour