NRC PRIORITIZES INDUSTRY RESPONSES TO

REQUEST FOR POST-FUKUSHIMA FLOOD HAZARD EVALUATIONS

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has updated part of its March 12 request for 

information from all U.S. nuclear power plants, setting out a schedule for completing flooding 

hazard re-evaluations recommended by the NRC’s Near-Term Task Force, which examined 

lessons learned from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident.

“The information in front of us today shows U.S. plants are capable of safely handling 

the most likely floods at their sites. These re-evaluations will help us better understand the very 

unlikely flooding that could occur in the future,” said Eric Leeds, director of the NRC’s Office of 

Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “We’ve publicly discussed the prioritization process several times 

since we issued the information request, and this schedule provides a solid path towards getting 

the work done correctly and efficiently.”

The prioritization schedule, outlined in a letter to every plant owner, gives plants one, 

two or three years to complete the hazard evaluations. The letter will be available in the NRC’s 

electronic documents database, ADAMS, under accession number ML12097A510. The order of 

prioritization is based on three criteria:

How complex is the re-evaluation? For instance, sites involving multiple upstream dam 

failures, storm surge, tsunami hazard, or large watersheds would be placed later in the 

schedule. 

What resources are (or would be) available, both from the plant to complete the 

evaluation and from the NRC to review it? For instance, if multiple plants are on the 

same river, upstream plants would be prioritized ahead of those downstream. 

Site-specific insights; for instance, if a plant is co-located with an Early Site Permit or 

Combined License location that has already done a similar evaluation, that would 

prioritize the plant earlier in the schedule.

The evaluation results could lead to further assessment of potential flooding effects at the plants. 

The following plants have until March 12, 2013, to complete the flooding re-evaluation:

Callaway Calvert Cliffs Comanche Peak Dresden Fermi

Grand Gulf Hope Creek Indian Point Nine Mile Point

North Anna Oconee Quad Cities Salem

Sequoyah Shearon Harris South Texas Project Three Mile Island

Turkey Point Vermont Yankee Virgil C. Summer Vogtle Watts Bar

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

Washington, D.C. 20555-0001

E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov Site: www.nrc.gov

Blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov

No. 12-055 May 11, 2012
The following plants have until March 12, 2014, to complete the flooding re-evaluation:

Arkansas Nuclear One Beaver Valley Braidwood Browns Ferry

Byron Catawba Clinton Columbia

Cooper Davis-Besse Duane Arnold Edwin I. Hatch

Fort Calhoun H.B. Robinson Joseph M. Farley Kewaunee

LaSalle Monticello Palo Verde Peach Bottom

Prairie Island River Bend William B. McGuire Wolf Creek

The following plants have until March 12, 2015, to complete the flooding re-evaluation:

Bellefonte Brunswick Crystal River Diablo Canyon

Donald C. Cook James A. FitzPatrick Limerick Millstone

Oyster Creek Palisades Perry Pilgrim

Point Beach R. E. Ginna San Onofre Seabrook

St. Lucie Surry Susquehanna Waterford

The NRC continues to evaluate and act on the lessons learned from Fukushima to ensure 

U.S. nuclear power plants implement appropriate safety enhancements. Following direction from 

the agency’s five Commissioners, the NRC’s activities are being led by a steering committee 

comprised of senior NRC management. The agency has also established the Japan LessonsLearned Project Directorate, a group of more than 20 full-time employees focused exclusively on 

implementing NTTF recommendations and related activities.

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