Two Massachusetts Democrats introduced a House bill today that would prevent the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from extending the life of a nuclear reactor if its operator applies for a license extension more than a decade before the old license expires.

Reps. Ed Markey and John Tierney said H.R. 6554, their "Nuclear Reactor Safety First Act," would ensure the NRC reviews aging plants when their 40-year licenses expire, not decades earlier when the facilities aren't as worn down. Operators currently can apply for 20-year extensions at any time, which Tierney and Markey said creates dangerous situations for people living near the plants.

"It seems crazy that the NRC would even consider relicensing aging nuclear plants more than a decade before its license expires," Tierney said in a statement. "As these facilities age, safety concerns inevitably arise."

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC, said the commission established the 20-year time frame to allow companies time to collect operating history data while putting a plan in place to replace retiring reactors if the license isn't approved.

"We would also note that NRC oversight of plant aging management programs would not ebb merely because a license renewal application was approved," Sheehan wrote in an email. "We would continue to inspect those activities, in addition to performing our normal day-in-and-day-out assessments of plant performance."

Markey and Tierney are taking aim at the 22-year-old Seabrook reactor, located about 40 miles north of Boston in Seabrook, N.H.

NextEra Energy Seabrook LLC, the plant's operator, asked the NRC two years ago for permission to continue operating the reactor for an additional two decades after its license expires in 2030, but Markey and Tierney have repeatedly called on the commission to deny the company's request.

The lawmakers have pointed to NextEra's discovery two years ago that a concrete tunnel related to the cooling system was weakened from water saturation during the past decade. Two 3-mile-long tunnels are used to carry water to the plant from the Atlantic Ocean (Greenwire, June 8).

Now, experts from the University of Texas are running tests and models on concrete samples from the plant and will report back to the NRC. Sheehan said the NRC also sent one metal and one concrete specialist inspector to the site to independently review NextEra's fresh assessment of the concrete degradation.

Alan Griffith, a spokesman for NextEra, said the condition, known as "alkali-silica reaction," is a well-known phenomenon that's manageable and hasn't affected the plant's structural integrity.

Michael Waldron, a spokesman for NextEra, said the 20-year time frame for filing license renewal applications under current federal laws is appropriate and allows the company enough time to make major investments for plant upgrades.

Waldron also pointed out that the NRC in May rejected a request to shorten the time frame for which operators can seek license renewals. The commission, he said, ruled that "the 20-year time frame is appropriate as it allows operators of nuclear plants 'a reasonable and flexible time frame to perform informed business planning.'"

Different issues have surfaced at other aging U.S. reactors.

Inspectors discovered cracks in the outer shield building of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ohio. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) then called on the NRC to deny a license renewal for the plant operator (Greenwire, Aug. 16).

License renewals have also been thrown into question by the NRC's decision to revise its policy for storing nuclear waste. The agency said earlier this year that it would hold off on approving licenses for new nuclear plants or renewing the licenses of existing facilities for up to two years, during which time the agency will tackle the issue of how to store hot, radioactive waste at sites across the country (Greenwire, Sept. 6).