As the Westchester Board of Legislators is poised to call on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expand its 10 mile Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) around Indian Point, the federal agency Tuesday announced it sees “no basis at this point” for expanding it. The NRC’s statement applies to all US nuclear power plants.

The current EPZ size has been in use since the 1970s and was the result of extensive emergency planning studies performed by a federal task force, the agency said. That group concluded a 10 mile radius EPZ would assure that “prompt and effective actions can be taken to protect the public in the event of an accident” at a plant.

The study was based on research showing “the most significant impacts of an accident would be expected in the immediate vicinity of a plant and therefore any initial protective actions, such as evacuations, or sheltering in place, should be focused there.”

The NRC said the protective actions could go beyond the 10 mile radius if the situation warranted it.

The advice to Americans living within 50 miles of the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan was based on calculations done by NRC experts indicating releases from the three hobbled reactors and two fuel pools could possibly exceed conservatively set safe radiation-exposure limits for the public, the NRC said. That advisory was made using “limited data and conservative assumptions.”

(Source: MidHudsonNews)