Markey, Warren ask NRC for stricter conditions at Seabrook Station

May 11—SEABROOK — Massachusetts' Democratic Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday, calling for stronger safety standards at the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant.

The plant at 626 Lafayette Road is owned by NextEra Energy.

The letter, addressed to NRC Chairman Christopher Hanson, responds to the commission's order March 5 to extend the time for review of the license amendment for Seabrook Station.

In August, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board provided an initial decision with four license conditions regarding a license amendment request by NextEra Energy.

While Markey and Warren said they appreciated the inclusion of the four license conditions, the senators did not feel they went far enough in ensuring public safety.

"We therefore urge the NRC to reopen the record for consideration of supplemental testimony and strengthen the four license conditions in the ASLB's Initial Decision," they wrote.

One of their main concerns is alkali-silica reaction degradation at Seabrook Station.

"ASR degradation at Seabrook — which NextEra first identified in 2009 — is a serious concern because the station sits on a marsh and its concrete has continual contact with water," Markey and Warren said. "Currently, there are no NRC regulations on aging concrete at nuclear reactors.

"As the NRC has acknowledged, the ASR expansion monitoring program at Seabrook is 'a first-of-a-kind' program," they added. "Thus, it is imperative that the NRC pursue all measures necessary to monitor and mitigate ASR degradation at Seabrook."

While the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board included increased testing and monitoring of alkali-silica reaction degradation as one of its conditions for Seabrook, it is not clear enough how "timely and reliable" the detection of cracks in the concrete will be, the senators explained.

With the NRC extending the time for its review of the license amendment, it has more time to make adjustments in how it handles the threats of alkali-silica reaction degradation, they said.

The senators shared four recommendations based on the supplemental testimony that Victor Saouma, a University of Colorado Boulder civil engineering professor and consultant for C-10 Research and Education Foundation, provided during the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board's initial decision proceedings.

These recommendations include requiring the use of error bars to quantify the reliability of concrete expansion monitoring, the installation of acoustic sensors to detect when a material deforms under stress, the elimination of ambiguous terms such as "significant expansion," and an effort to specify that the "petrographic analysis" required in one of the license conditions should be capable of detecting a specific microcrack size.

Peter Robbins, NextEra's director of nuclear communications, wrote in an email to The Daily News, "Seabrook Station is an important regional asset that continues to play a vital role in our energy infrastructure by supplying clean, reliable and low-cost electricity to New England."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted a highly detailed, multiyear evaluation of Seabrook's infrastructure and systems," he added. "This process involved years of scrutiny by independent technical experts and more than a dozen public meetings with opportunities for the public to comment.

"The NRC confirmed that Seabrook is positioned for 20 additional years of operation and that Seabrook's plan to monitor and address ASR is effective," Robbins said. "In addition, every aspect of Seabrook Station's operation is evaluated by NRC inspectors 365 days a year."

An NRC spokesperson confirmed that the commission received the letter and plans to respond directly to the senators.

Read the full letter at www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/seabrook_letter_re_strengthening_license_conditions.pdf.

This initial NRC decision can be read at www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2025/ML20254A339.pdf.