[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1242 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1242

   To ensure that nuclear power plants can withstand and adequately 
 respond to earthquakes, tsunamis, strong storms, or other events that 
                        threaten a major impact.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 29, 2011

  Mr. Markey introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To ensure that nuclear power plants can withstand and adequately 
 respond to earthquakes, tsunamis, strong storms, or other events that 
                        threaten a major impact.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Nuclear Power Plant Safety Act of 
2011''.

SEC. 2. NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SAFETY.

    (a) Amendment.--Chapter 14 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 
U.S.C. 2201 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
section:
    ``Sec. 170J. Revision of Nuclear Power Plant Safety Regulations.--
    ``a. Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of the 
Nuclear Power Plant Safety Act of 2011, the Commission shall initiate a 
rulemaking proceeding, including notice and opportunity for public 
comment, to be completed not later than 18 months after such date of 
enactment, to revise its regulations to ensure that each utilization 
facility licensed under this Act can withstand and adequately respond 
to--
            ``(1) an earthquake, tsunami (for a facility located in a 
        coastal area), strong storm, or other event that threatens a 
        major impact to the facility;
            ``(2) a loss of the primary operating power source for at 
        least 14 days; and
            ``(3) a loss of the primary backup operating power source 
        for at least 72 hours.
    ``b. The revision of regulations under this section shall provide 
for--
            ``(1) a requirement that each licensed utilization 
        facility, including any onsite spent nuclear fuel facilities, 
        be equipped with resilient containment, safety, and diagnostic 
        systems sufficient to withstand the circumstances described in 
        subsection a., including requirements to ensure that the 
        reactor core remains cooled, that the containment remains 
        intact, and that the spent fuel cooling and spent fuel pool 
        integrity are maintained;
            ``(2) a requirement that licensees have at least 14 days 
        worth of emergency power system fuel onsite with which to power 
        the licensed facility in the event of a loss of the primary 
        operating power source;
            ``(3) a requirement that licensees have sufficient 
        secondary emergency power to power the licensed facility in the 
        event of a loss of both the primary operating power source and 
        the emergency power system described in paragraph (2) for at 
        least 72 hours;
            ``(4) a requirement that licensees develop, and obtain 
        approval from the Commission for, a plan to obtain sufficient 
        additional fuel or batteries in the event of a long duration 
        loss of operating power or total station blackout;
            ``(5) a requirement that licensees amend, and obtain 
        approval from the Commission for, any guidance and strategies 
        developed by the licensees that are intended to maintain or 
        restore core cooling, containment, and spent fuel pool cooling 
        capabilities under the circumstances associated with loss of 
        large areas of the plant due to explosions or fire, in order to 
        incorporate lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear power 
        plant meltdown into such guidance and strategies;
            ``(6) a requirement that spent nuclear fuel rods be moved 
        from storage pools to certified dry cask storage within one 
        year of the nuclear fuel rods being qualified to be placed in 
        the certified dry casks;
            ``(7) a requirement to configure spent nuclear fuel rods in 
        spent nuclear fuel pools in a manner that would minimize the 
        chance of a fire in the event of the loss of the water in the 
        spent nuclear fuel pool;
            ``(8) a requirement that emergency response exercises 
        include scenarios that are based on the near-simultaneous 
        occurrence of circumstances described in subsection a. such as 
        the near-simultaneous earthquake, tsunami, and total station 
        blackout that occurred at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 
        2011; and
            ``(9) appropriate requirements for periodic verification of 
        compliance with the regulations issued under this section.
    ``c. The Commission shall not issue an approval for any 
construction permit, operating license, license extension, design 
certification, combined license, design approval, or manufacturing 
license until the revisions of regulations under this section take 
effect.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of contents of the Atomic 
Energy Act of 1954 is amended by inserting after the item relating to 
section 170I the following new item:

``Sec. 170J. Revision of nuclear power plant safety regulations.''.

SEC. 3. LOAN GUARANTEES.

    Section 1702(b) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 
16512(b)) is amended by inserting after paragraph (2) the following:
``In the case of a guarantee for advanced nuclear energy facilities, 
the Secretary shall ensure that the cost of the obligation is 
calculated using a consideration of the Tohoku earthquake of 2011 to 
estimate the risk characteristics of the project.''.
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