Federal nuclear regulators met with NextEra Energy, the company that owns the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, in a public meeting Tuesday to discuss plans to consolidate emergency response activities at four of the company’s nuclear facilities.
Advocates and lawmakers have questioned whether NextEra’s proposal might reduce protections for the public in the event of a nuclear emergency.
The company is asking regulators to approve 49 changes characterized as potential “reductions in effectiveness,” a term nuclear regulators use to refer to changes that would be less effective than the plant’s current plan.
Those included increasing response times for some emergency positions and seeking to reduce the number of staff assigned to particular emergency functions. The plan is still under review by federal regulators.
Tuesday’s meeting was meant to allow members of the public to observe the way the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does its work and to give people a chance to ask regulators questions or make comments. But commission staff said they were not actively soliciting comments about regulatory decisions at the meeting.
For about two hours, regulators and NextEra representatives discussed the company’s proposal. In some cases, federal officials said NextEra had not provided “sufficient justification” for proposed changes including longer response times.
Public officials, advocates and others had about 30 minutes at the end of the meeting to comment and ask their questions.
New Hampshire Executive Councilor Janet Stevens told regulators that Seabrook is an important resource, but she had concerns about the proposal — particularly about whether local fire and police departments were consulted.
“I need assurances that consolidation of safety protocols do not come at the expense of my residents,” she said.
Stevens pointed to a July 2022 incident in which Seabrook’s emergency sirens were inadvertently triggered, highlighting concerns about the plant’s nuclear alert system.
“Over the span of an hour, chaos and confusion engulfed the New Hampshire Seacoast,” she said. “Over the past 20 months, what capital investments and improvements have been made?”
Srinivasan Ravikumar, who sits on the Seabrook select board, said he wants the nuclear plant to be successful. But, he said, some residents feel like they’re being kept in the dark about the changing safety plans.
“One of the issues that the public has brought up time and again is not always being informed of the changes that are occurring that might ultimately affect their safety – the proposals being made – so that they would have an adequate opportunity to respond,” he said.
People can share feedback directly with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about Tuesday’s public meeting through this form.
Regulators said the next step in the process is for NextEra to provide “sufficient justification” for the issues they discussed in the Tuesday meeting, which would allow the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to continue reviewing their application.
