The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is rejecting calls from watchdog groups and some U.S. senators to speed up moving spent nuclear fuel from the pools where most of it is stored now to dry casks.
An NRC memo provided to The Associated Press on Tuesday shows the commission accepted its staff's recommendation to drop expedited transfer of the spent fuel from consideration. The memo, issued Friday, says the NRC doesn't want to deal with the issue again.
Five U.S. senators wrote to the NRC earlier this month complaining of relaxed safety standards at closed nuclear power plants. They said the spent fuel pools are possible sites of fires that could release as much radiation as a reactor accident and said research shows the pools could be targets for terrorists.
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