NRC OKs change in emergency plan at shuttered Duke Energy plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) agreed on Wednesday that because Duke Energy Florida’s Crystal River Unit 3 nuclear plant  is being decommissioned its emergency preparedness plan can be changed.

The changes are NRC exemptions from certain regulations that ordinarily wouldn’t apply to a nuclear power plant that has completely stopped operations. As a result of the exemptions, local governments will no longer need a dedicated radiological emergency response plan approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Instead, they can rely on a comprehensive emergency response plan for potential incidents at Crystal River Unit 3, a single pressurized water reactor.

The NRC agreed with Duke’s analyses seeking the exemptions because the risk of an offsite radiological release is minimized, and accidents are fewer at a nuclear plant that has shut down operations and has removed fuel from the reactor vessel, as is the case with Crystal River Unit 3.

Crystal River Unit 3 is in Citrus County, Florida. It was shut down in September 2009, and fuel from its reactor was removed in May 2011.