The Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, visited the Seabrook Nuclear Plant for the first time Thursday. Chairman Allison MacFarlane was looking into concrete degradation at the Seabrook plant.
Chairman Allison MacFarlane says the NRC is concerned about fracturing in the concrete walls at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. In Seabrook Thursday, MacFarlane held up a sample of cement affected by the alkali-silica reaction.
We’re concerned about it , we’re watching it, we feel that the plant is being responsive, they’re putting resources behind it, and they’re doing some analyses to try to understand the situation better.
MacFarlane says Seabrook is the only nuclear plant in the United States experiencing this problem, although the same reaction has occurred at a plant in Belgium, and another in Canada.