Anti-nuke group decries fuel rod temp. limits

[ Originally published on: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 ]

A Brattleboro, Vt.-based antinuclear group is arguing that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should lower the allowable fuel rod temperature for Vermont Yankee's reactor, saying that current limits don't leave enough margin for error in case of a ''loss of coolant'' accident.

A nuclear reactor generates tremendous amounts of heat to generate electricity but must be constantly cooled to prevent a catastrophic meltdown.

Using expert testimony that pointed back to the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident in 1979 and experimental data going back to the 1950s, anti-nuclear activists argue that in the event of a coolant failure, the pressurized reactor core would lose water and the temperature of the zirconium-alloy-clad fuel rods would dramatically increase in a matter of seconds, leading to a partial or complete meltdown. A meltdown carries the danger of nuclear contamination of the environment.

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