Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

86
All of our eggs are In the basket of core-melt prevention
The legislation granted broad safety powers to the Federal regulators.
Very fundamental policy decisions had to be and were made.
The safety approach of Federal regulators has Its origins In a policy
adopted In the early 1960's. The policy allowing civilian reactors to be
located relatively close to cities was called "engineering out the distance
factor." The key to this safety approach was increased emphasis on
assuring that equipment failures and operator errors would not turn into
core meltdown accidents.
Plants did not have to show that systems were able to prevent a major
release to the public even if a core meltdown were to occur. The pressures
and temperatures associated with water escaping from a large pipe break set
the basis for containment design. A core meltdown was called "incredible"
and neither the regulators nor the industry was required to answer the
question of "what happens if ? core meltdown occurs."
General design criteria were subsequently Issued that encouraged use of
inherent characteristics in the reactor that would tend to maximize the
ability of the powerplant to be self-correcting and minimize the
consequences of equipment malfunction. The regulators also called for
diversity and redundancy in the engineering of the plant to promote safety.
These criteria have helped to assure that the inherent nuclear
characteristics and the engineering of U.S. powerplants are fundamentally
sound from a safety standpoint.