Weld Concerns See NRC Issuing RED ALERT WARNING to Four Reactors

Could Your Community Be The Next Hiroshima?

Entergy, the Nuclear Industry and NRC don't really want us to know the reality...all of the old, aging fleet of reactors are held together with a never ending patchwork of welds and patches. Green Nuclear Butterfly raised this issue in a previous article. Our attempts to raise the alarm were, for the most part met with deaf ears, and denials from the long ball hitters in the Nuclear Industry who will use any trick in the book to save their dilapidated fleet of reactors.

Well, the cat is OUT OF THE BAG, though the industry is already attempting to mitigate the news. Four North Eastern Reactors have received ALERTS after a nuclear reactor in Monticello, Minn. shut itself down. The CULPRIT...WELDS. Yes, the very welds that we have raised serious concerns about, the welds that have been used to make repairs deep in the bowels of the reactor itself.

"The Monticello plant has been shut down since Jan. 10 when welds failed that held in place a 35,000-pound box containing valves that control steam pressure. No radiation was released, officials said."

As communities are raped and plundered through a re licensing process that can only be called RUBBER STAMPING, these relics of an era long gone are plunging towards the cataclysmic MELTDOWN that we are told can never happen. How big was this "incident" in Monticello you ask? We are talking a 17 TON TOOL BOX CRASHING DOWN on the very pipe that carries radioactive STEAM! In short, only the God's above allowed us once again to dodge the bullet of another Chernobyl, though company officials are trying DESPERATELY to mitigate the scare...but of course. Of IMPORTANT NOTE HERE, Monticello just two months ago received their NRC RUBBER STAMP to continue operations for another 20 years. Even the spokesperson for the plant admitted, "I don't want to sugarcoat it; this was a significant problem," What this writer finds MOST DISTURBING though was the next quote shared here, "I think we have our arms around what caused it." HE THINKS? These reactors are now being operated on guesses? The rubber stamping of license renewals needs to stop, the WEAKENING of the rules has to stop...you can only cut corners so much, and for so long before one or more communities here in America become a radioactive WASTELAND.

This disturbing and stressing news is of immense importance to those of us who live in the epicenter of death that is Indian Point...you see, Entergy's entire fleet of reactors are old, antiquated and breaking down...more IMPORTANTLY, three of the reactors who have received the ALERT belong to Entergy's fleet! The reactors that are involved in this RED ALERT are Pilgrim, Vermont Yankee, Oyster Creek, and Nine Mile Point, another dangerous facility RIGHT HERE IN NEW YORK. Perhaps because Entergy plans to submit its application for license Renewal in just over one month, NRC threw them a bone in leaving Indian Point off the Red Alert list?

The only person who seems to have a real clue is George Crocker, executive director of the North American Water Office who was quoted, "Market forces that push nuclear plants to the limit, coupled with aging issues, coupled with the lack of understanding about how these components and materials perform over time as they're subjected thermally and radiologically-- all of these factors are increasing the likelihood that a really unforgiving event will occur..."

This event makes Green Nuclear Butterfly's question all the more important,"Where is Green Peace?" For that matter, where is NIRS, where is the Sierra Club, where are the national and international groups in this, our hour of need?