NextEra seeks NRC approval to change Seabrook nuclear plant's emergency plans: Here's why

SEABROOK — The owner of the Seabrook nuclear power plant is looking to alter the company’s 40-year-old emergency response operations plan, drawing a number of questions from leaders intent on ensuring public safety.

NextEra Energy owns the nuclear power plant in Seabrook, as well as two in Florida and one in Wisconsin. The company submitted a licensing amendment to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that would update and modernize the company’s plan for all its plants in ways that would “broaden” its capabilities to respond to emergencies, according to its spokesman, Bill Orlove.

The proposal, he said, plans to utilize technology that can bring additional expertise to bear, should it ever be needed in an emergency in any of its plants.

The current emergency plan is old, Orlove said, and the proposed amendment before the NRC would give NextEra Energy more flexibility by allowing for remote as well as on-site response to emergencies, should they ever occur and should more help be needed.

This isn’t a plan that would move emergency personnel away from Seabrook, Orlove said, or move Seabrook’s Portsmouth-based Emergency Operations Facility, established for use should a significant emergency occur. The Portsmouth facility would remain the “focal point,” should such problems ever arise, he said, utilizing the expertise of Seabrook power plant personnel, all of whom have roles during emergencies.

The proposed amendment to the plan would increase the “bench strength,” of each nuclear power plant in NextEra’s fleet, Orlove said, to permit each to reach out remotely to bring in “the right experts to support an emergency from any of our nuclear facilities, should it be necessary.”

“(NextEra Energy) has sufficient staffing at its four nuclear facilities to handle an emergency,” according to Orlove. “The proposed changes to the nuclear emergency plan provide the company with the ability to increase our response from several hundred employees to several thousand employees, based on the way our company operates and collaborates.”

A scenario might include convening a group of experts in a remote conference room to augment handling an emergency that arises, Orlove said, should a need for additional help be warranted. Not only would NextEra Energy Seabrook plant personnel be able to reach out remotely, he said, but personnel from NextEra’s other plants could reach out for Seabrook’s expertise.

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NextEra’s proposal under review byNRC

NextEra’s licensing amendment was submitted to the NRC for review in October of 2022, in hopes the agency that regulates nuclear facilities in the U.S. would decide within a year, according to NRC Region 1 spokesman Neil Sheehan. However, NRC staff have requested more information from NextEra, most recently in November of 2023, Sheehan said.

“As of now,” Sheehan said, ‘the (NRC) staff is determining whether it has the information it needs. There is not a firm date at the moment for a decision.”

According to Sheehan, NextEra is proposing to standardize the emergency plans for its various nuclear power plant sites, while consolidating some of its emergency personnel positions, as well as using remote staff to fill some positions.

But, according to Sheehan, “It is not asking to shift Seabrook’s Emergency Operations Facility to Florida.”

This is not the first time an organization such as NextEra Energy – which owns more than one nuclear power plant – has filed to update its emergency plan in ways similar to this, according to Sheehan. Those plans were reviewed carefully by NRC staff, he said, and only approved after staff had sufficient information that demonstrated those plans would be effective, adhere to regulations, and protect the public health.

In an industry as heavily regulated as nuclear power, every change requires approval from the NRC.

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NH delegation air concerns about emergency plan changes

The current proposed amendment change has garnered criticism from the Seabrook nuclear power plant watchdog group, C-10 Research and Education Foundation, headquartered in Amesbury, Massachusetts, as well as from Massachusetts U.S. Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren.

New Hampshire’s federal legislators – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, as well as U.S. Representatives Chris Pappas and Ann Kuster – also weighed in through a letter to the NRC sent Dec. 5, 2023, requesting additional information.

The four legislators acknowledged the need to update emergency protocols and recognized the need for “coordinated planning and synchronization among facilities.” However, they asked the NRC if and how the changes proposed by NextEra would “improve safety in Seabrook, ” for their letter implied they believed the changes would result in a reduction in personnel at Seabrook’s power plant.

However according to Orlove, the licensing amendment “does not change the number of employees at Seabrook.”

“Every employee at Seabrook has an emergency role,” Orlove said. “There will be no reduction in staff at Seabrook, period. This plan allows us to utilize support staff – in person or remotely – if it’s necessary.”

The NRC’s response to the four legislators was that according to its understanding, NextEra’s proposed “Common Emergency Plan would take advantage of changes in technology and make program-wide improvements by standardization of response, duties and responsibilities, processes, procedures, equipment and training.” According to the NRC, NextEra’s license amendment requests “approval for an increase in the number of remote responders in the emergency response organization.”

Since remote communications play a significant role in the new emergency plan, the four legislators asked the NRC about cybersecurity. According to the NRC’s response, the agency has strict cybersecurity rules that a nuclear power plant must maintain to protect its systems.

According to Orlove, cybersecurity is something NextEra takes very seriously. It has “very robust” protection systems in place that are consistently maintained, he said. Just as its emergency practices are tested through regular drills, Orlove said, its cybersecurity systems are tested repeatedly through drills as well. One was completed as recently as November, he said.

The legislators asked whether the NRC or NextEra held public forums detailing its new proposed plan, urging one be held if one had not.

The NRC wrote that NRC staff held two public meetings – February and May of 2022 – before NextEra filed the following October. As with other amendment notices, on Feb. 21, 2023, the NRC published a notice in the “Federal Register” letting the public know about NextEra’s licensing amendment and its opportunity to request public hearings. According to the NRC, it did not receive any hearing requests at that time.

However, on Oct. 6, 2023 – a year after NextEra submitted its license amendment request– the NRC received comments from the C-10, which the NRC is considering as it reviews the amendment.

According to its overall response to New Hampshire’s Congressional Delegation, the NRC wrote its staff is currently reviewing NextEra’s license amendment request to determine if it complies with regulatory requirements, “including maintaining reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety and the common defense and security.”

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This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Seabrook nuclear plant moves to update emergency plans