For Immediate Release
Contact: Scott Cullen
November 01, 2025
(516) 819-4886
Groups Sue the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for Protection Against Catastrophic Fires at Nuclear Power Spent Fuel Pools
Citing the risks of terrorist attacks, the STAR Foundation and the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone filed suit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to seek actions that would prevent a catastrophic spent fuel pool fire at Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Connecticut. The groups point to NRC research completed in October 2000, which shows that the loss of cooling water in reactor spent fuel pools, could result in severe radioactive fires. Because there is much more radioactivity in spent fuel, release from a fire would be comparable or worse than a reactor meltdown. Currently, there are some 40,000 tons of nuclear power plant spent fuel stored in pools near the nation�s 110 operating and closed reactors. The total radioactivity in these pools is among the largest concentrations of radioactivity in the world. A spent fuel pool fire at Millstone could severely contaminate an area larger than the state of Connecticut and Long Island combined.
Millstone�s owner, Dominion Nuclear Connecticut Inc, is seeking approval from the NRC to more than double the amount of spent fuel into its storage pool. �As a mother of three children living twelve miles away from Millstone on Long Island,� said Christie Brinkley, a STAR Foundation board member, � I am appalled to learn that the NRC hasn�t factored in terrorist acts against spent fuel pools at reactors. Even if such an event would occur the NRC assumes that people will magically evacuate. Where is the plan to ensure our safety is being protected?�
The STAR Foundation is calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as state and federal agencies to:
� Increase the level of protection at reactor spent fuel pools at all open and closed reactors.
� Establish adequate emergency response, and evacuation measures.
� Deploy anti-aircraft capabilities, as France has done with to protect its spent reactor fuel pools.
� Halt efforts to expand spent fuel storage; and
� Develop a plan based on an Environmental Impact Statement to ensure the safe and secure storage of spent fuel throughout the United States.
�It�s no secret that spent fuel pools are vulnerable,� said Robert Alvarez, Executive Director of the STAR Foundation. � It has been publicly acknowledged by the nuclear industry since the 1970�s that spent fuel pools are covered by buildings that cannot withstand the impact of even small aircraft. They hold much more long-lived radioactivity than reactors, generate tremendous heat, and bear risks of severe radiological fires, even after reactors are closed permanently.�
�The NRC uses the excuse that terrorist acts are unforeseeable and therefore are not germane to the nuclear spent fuel safety requirements.� said Diane Curran the attorney representing the groups. �Citizens and local governments have been raising legitimate concerns for over 20 years about the dangers of stuffing spent fuel into pools that were originally designed to hold far less than they do now. �
This year, the NRC was forced to reopen the intervention filed by the STAR Foundation and the Citizen�s Coalition Against Millstone, after it was discovered that Northeast Utilities, Millstone�s previous owner, couldn�t find two missing spent fuel rods. Nancy Burton, attorney for the groups, said, � If reactor operators cannot keep track of some of the most dangerous objects in the world, how do we expect the NRC and Millstone�s operator, to have safe and secure spent fuel storage?�
The spent fuel pool at the Millstone Nuclear Station currently holds 4 spent reactor cores- containing about 31 million curies of cesium-137. Dominion Nuclear Connecticut Inc., is seeking to add storage up to a total of almost ten cores. This will more than double the amount of radioactive cesium, a dangerous long-lived isotope, with a 30-year half-life. The Millstone Spent Fuel would hold more than 10 times the amount of radioactive cesium than inside of the reactor core itself.
According to Dr. Gordon Thompson, Senior Scientist at the Institute for Resource and Security Studies. �Once a fire has begun, it could be impossible to extinguish. According NRC research, it is reasonable to assume that 100% of the cesium-137 in the pool would be released to the atmosphere. This would be vastly greater than was released during the accident at Chernobyl.�
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