Seismic concerns long predate Fukushima, NRC spokesperson Dave McIntyre told Breaking Energy.

Yet the nuclear disaster in Japan and the recent earthquake and hurricane on the US East Coast have heightened awareness of nuclear power and its potential risks.

In response to these growing concerns and its own assessment that seismic reevaluation might be necessary to more accurately determine which nuclear plants lie in seismically dangerous areas (on top of underground fault lines, for example), the NRC issued this draft letter on September 1 with a request for public comment.

According the the document: “The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing this
generic letter to inform addressees that the NRC requests addressees to evaluate their facilities to determine the current level of seismic risk and to submit the requested information to facilitate the NRC’s determination if there is a need for additional regulatory action.”

Read our in-depth coverage of the NRC’s approaches to safety over the past decade since the attacks of 9/11, and the Commission’s plans for addressing heightened concerns since Fukushima in our story about comprehensive new rules.

The full letter can be downloaded with this post.