Should Governors Use National Guard Troops To Close Down and Secure Aging Reactors

Time and again (49 times to be exact) a biased and prejudice Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has ignored the will of the people, ignored safety and health concerns, and granted NRC reactor licensees 20 year extensions to operate. Anything they find incovenient (such as radioactive waste) it is simply deemed to be out of scope, and when citizens such as myself have the balls to tell seemingly ignorant ass monkeys like Lawrence G. McDade the truth, that the boards are made up of Pro-Industry Pricks, he thumps his chest, and tosses out our contentions like some anal retentive chimp tripping on LSD. Seems in his w0rld, he believes he is worthy of some respect by virtue of his position, comes from the old school of thought that judges, elected officials and the president of the United States are ENTITLED to our respect by virtue of their office...as the old saying goes, FUCK THAT NOISE. Just for the record, I'd classify George Bush as a prick as well, and would not hesitate to state such to his face.

So, back to the question. 49 communities so far are being FORCED to play host to aging and dangerous reactors for at least 20 more years. The DOE, the NRC and our federal government have FAILED to deal with the waste streams from nuclear power, defacto turning every reactor site into high level radioactive waste storage facilities without adequate safeguards, such as those required if Yucca Mountain ever gets licensed and built. The NRC acts as if it is above the law, and licensees simply buy off whoever they need to in their attempts to keep their aging, leaking, cancer causing facilities up and churning out profit.

Which raises the question...should state governors take manners into their own hands, and use the National Guard to seize control of, and shut down these facilities. Here in New York, the DEC could simply refuse to grant a discharge permit, could demand that the Indian Point facility shut down until such time as it has installed a Closed Cooling system that was promised some 30 years ago. Further, the State Attorney General could state that future committments to come into compliance are inadequate, could state that New York is no longer willing to wait for the Siren Systems to be up and operating correctly. All this being so, and based on the very real reality that the NRC has NEVER TERMINATED a license against the reactor owners wishes, is it time to use our State National Guard to shut down Indian Point? What is George Bush going to do, call out the Army to go to war against us? DOUBTFUL.

The state could hire whatever former Entergy employees were needed to maintain safe shut down, and to decommission the reactors. Might seem harsh, but lets be real. Our community agreed to play host for 40 years, and only if the operator obeyed ALL LAWS and REGULATIONS as written. The NRC has granted Indian Point hundreds of exemptions to the rules, so they have broken their contract with our community. We would be fully within our rights as a state to use our military troops to shut down a dangerous facility that is endangering human health and the environment.

While we are doing some radical thinking, here is some more food for thought. The State of New York, and all counties being forced to pay for Emergency Planning and Security have the LEGAL RIGHT to simply STOP PAYING FOR THOSE COSTS, and the NRC has no choice but to force FEMA to step in and pay them...sure if FEMA were suddenly having to pick up the tab for ENTERGY, they might have a change of heart about the adequacy of Indian Points Emergency plan. By the way, EVERY REACTOR COMMUNITY IN AMERICA HAS THAT RIGHT.

Pilgrim waste needs critical look, AG says

The state has gone to court to force the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to look at the safety of waste storage at Pilgrim. (File/The Boston Globe)

EmailPrint Text size – + By Robert Knox

Globe Correspondent / December 13, 2007

The state attorney general's office has gone to federal court to argue that the storage of nuclear waste at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant should be studied by federal regulators as a possible danger to residents.

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Assistant Attorney General Matthew Brock, in oral arguments in the US Court of Appeals in Boston last week, challenged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's refusal to hold a hearing on the safety of storing spent fuel at the Plymouth plant. Briefs in the case will be prepared over the next month and filed by the end of January.

Brock's office is arguing that the potential risk of fire in the spent-fuel storage pools - whether sparked by accident or terrorism - should be weighed by the NRC in its decision on whether to extend Pilgrim's license for another 20 years.

Last year, the five members of the NRC, appointed by the president, rejected that notion. Instead, they accepted their staff's conclusions that the consequences of a "spent-fuel pool accident" are unlikely to be serious.

The state appealed, leading to last week's hearing.

The possible danger of storing nuclear waste on site has become a rallying cry for critics of the NRC, which regulates the nuclear power industry.

Local advocates, including residents of Plymouth and Duxbury, signed a letter to Attorney General Martha Coakley this week backing her action in taking the spent-fuel issue to court. The letter states that Massachusetts's actions have set a precedent that other states such as New York are following.

The governor and attorney general of New York have gone to court to question the security of the Indian Point reactor.

New York officials contend that the attacks of Sept. 11 changed the nature of risk at nuclear plants, warranting a new and critical look at the safety of on-site spent fuel storage.

A New York Times editorial last week backed that state's actions and also questioned how other plants across the nation, such as Pilgrim, can be permitted to operate with on-site, above-ground nuclear waste storage systems.

While spent nuclear fuel rods are stored outside New York's Indian Point reactor facility, at Pilgrim they are stored in water inside the plant.

Critics of that method, including the National Academy of Sciences, have argued that Pilgrim's storage method renders the plant vulnerable to a spent fuel fire caused by an attack or by human or mechanical error.

Both NRC and Pilgrim officials have repeatedly defended the safety of the plant. The NRC has pointed to security upgrades it required plants to institute after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said his agency took the possibility of a terrorist attack into consideration in previous court challenges and concluded that even under the "most severe, plausible-threat scenarios" - ground assault and aircraft impact - radiation emissions would probably be too low to pose a problem for Pilgrim's neighbors.

Local critics of the NRC say the outcome of the state's appeal may have important consequences for Pilgrim's neighbors.

Without a victory on appeal, "highly toxic spent fuel assemblies will be stored on site for the indefinite future," said Mary Lampert of Pilgrim Watch, a regional advocacy group that also raised the spent fuel storage issue.

The NRC has ruled that both issues of stored nuclear waste and plant security - concerns frequently raised at public meetings held on relicensing in the Plymouth area over the last two years - are outside licensing proceedings and therefore off the table when the NRC decides whether to extend Pilgrim's operating license.

But those issues are considered in the ongoing regulation of the nation's nuclear facilities, the NRC states.

Having heard the oral arguments, the court asked the two parties whether they could agree on a date for holding a review of the state's appeal, Sheehan said.

Amie Breton, spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office, said the court is expecting written briefs by Jan. 31 if a date has not been set.

In addition to the current appeal, the state has also filed a so-called rule-making petition asking the agency to change its current licensing policy and consider spent fuel storage in relicensing reviews. The appeal was necessary, Lampert said, because relicensing could occur before the petition to change the rules is decided.

Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.

Bombs and Nuclear Reactor Sites

Seems we have another case involving a worker, a homemade bomb, and a nuclear reactor site that are making the news. This one involves a man working at the Sellafield Reactor over in England. Seems that authorities found the bomb in a recently employed contractor's flat/home, and the authroities are searching for the man who was last seen enjoying a pint in a local pub.

This incident raises two important questions.

1. How can the NRC claim that nuclear sites are not the target of terrorist, that the chance of a terrorist attack is so remote as to be unworthy of consideration in and Environmental Report when this is the second such BOMB SCARE for a reactor site in a period of well under two months?

2. Was the first bomb scare here in America a STAGED FAKE EVENT to make the reactor site look good during and NRC investigation? We posed this question at the time of the event, and it seems rather odd that we have seen NO FOLLOW UP ON THAT STORY since the day it happened. The worker that had the truck in the bed of his pickup truck was cleared almost INSTANTLY, and police and the NRC both almost instantly said they had no clue how such and explosive device ended up in the man's pick up truck bed, but reasoned it was probably TOSSED THERE by someone at the apartment complex. Where is the news media in bringing us and update on this important story? Sorry,but we here at GNB smell a skunk, and until we learn otherwise believe the event at Palo Verde was a staged propaganda event.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=a5krYQE2Wue4&refer=uk
U.K. Man Held; Bomb Found at Nuclear Worker's Home, BBC Says

By Paul Dobson

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Police arrested a 30-year-old man after a bomb was found at the house of a contractor who worked at the U.K.'s Sellafield nuclear site, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported, without saying where it got the information.

Sellafield worker in bomb scare

Darren Morris was last seen at Egremont's Red Lion pub A bomb has been discovered at the home of a contractor recently employed at the Sellafield nuclear plant. Explosive experts were called to Southey Walk in Egremont, Cumbria, on Monday afternoon, where the "rudimentary device" was made safe. Police are now seeking Darren Morris, the property's current occupant, who was last seen in a local pub. The 30-year-old is understood to have been involved in maintenance work at the nuclear reprocessing complex. Cumbria Police are liaising with Sellafield Ltd in a bid to trace Mr Morris. Acting Supt Gary Slater said: "I would like to reassure local people that this is an isolated incident and something which is rare in Cumbria. "A thorough investigation is under way, but we are asking for the public's help in finding Mr Morris." 'Security measures' The contractor was last seen at the Red Lion pub in Main Street, Egremont, on Monday afternoon. A spokesman for Sellafield Ltd said: "Following an incident in Egremont on Monday, Sellafield Ltd and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary were asked to assist Cumbria Police in its search for Darren Morris, who has recently worked on the site as part of externally contracted work. "The request came following the discovery of a suspicious package at a house occupied by Mr Morris. "Sellafield Ltd and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary will continue to work with Cumbria Police in an effort to trace Mr Morris."

was disarmed by safety experts, the BBC said.

In Attempt to Hide Truth, NRC SCRUBBING ADAMS!

OK, so I am a conspiracy nut, or perhaps I just have a NOSE for truth, but when ADAMS does finally come back up...it has been inaccessible now for over a week...you are going to find a whole bunch of documents have DISAPPEARED in preparation for the NRC taking serious steps, through proposed rule changes, to lower SAFETY MARGINS at America's 104 aging reactor sites.

It is no accident, no glitch in the system that has ADAMS out out of commission right now. Instead, what we are witnessing (or not witnessing)is a deliberate scrubbing of ALL DOCUMENTS that the NRC and NEI have decided they do not want the America public to have continued access to.

Within hours of NRC's press release announcing their intention to IMPROVE the reactor thermal shock rule by lowering the SAFETY MARGINS, nuclear watch dog groups were quick to point out the truth. The rule is going to be rewritten, the safety margins greatly reduced because none of America's currently operating PWR's can meet the existing rule during the 20 year period of license renewal. The NRC tried to pass off a lie by claiming the new rule would improve a current regulation that was written far to conservatively.

It was shortly after this that ADAMS suddenly was totally and completely NOT AVAILABLE to anyone. Why? It is the belief of GNB that the NRC is trying to make the evidence of this, and other issues VANISH. For instance, will the Environmental Reports from eight different License Renewals that all had the same language in them still be found on ADAMS? Wait and see, but you can bet the new ADAMS when it comes back online is NOT the old ADAMS when you do a document by document comparison of the site. So, the question is, "What is the NRC trying hide?"

What if Today's Nuclear Reactor Bomb Scare Was A Industry Publicity Stunt?

OK, call me jaded here, but as I look more closely at today's pipe bomb scare at the Palo Verde nuclear reactor site the question arises, "was it a con job by nuclear industry insiders?" If it looks like a skunk, smells like a skunk, and walks like a skunk, maybe someone should start asking some probing questions to get to the truth.

I became aware of the incident on CNN. However, my first suspicions arose when I watched a FOX News report on the incident. Someone acting as a spokesperson stated the usual NRC, nuclear industry canned "the public was never in any danger" remark. However,they then went further to state that the facility, which could withstand the attack of a 737 airliner was never in any danger. They finished off talking about how the Security (Wackenhut)performed flawlessly at this trouble plagued facility.

The story for me became even more unbelievable as they went further into describing the event. First, there was not even enough explosives to blow up the truck, let alone anything at the plant. Additionally, authorities would not identify the plant worker who conveniently is a temporary staff member FROM OUT OF STATE who usually rides his motorcycle to work, but today brought his truck onto the nuclear site....hmmmm...so, bomb sniffing dogs that DO NOT sniff every vehicle just happened to sniff his truck on the one day he decided to bring it to work. Wonder what the odds in Vegas would be on that stroke of PERFECT LUCK.

The report went on to state, that this UNIDENTIFIED WORKER claimed to have no knowledge of how the pipe bomb ended up in his truck, and some speculation was made that someone might have PUT IT THERE. Sure, someone just walked through the apartment complex this man is staying in, and tossed a small pipe bomb into the back of his pick up truck, and I have a bridge I would like to sell Neil Sheehan and Sam Collins.

So, with the black eye that Wackenhut and the industry have taken recently about SLEEPING GUARDS, from out of nowhere a perfect event presents itself where Wackenhut and the nuclear industry can THUMP THEIR CHESTS and claim the security at the nuclear facility performed FLAWLESSLY, the guards reacted perfectly, and the plant was never in any trouble because it could withstand a direct attack from a 737 airliner.

SORRY, but I smell a SKUNK in this story. perhaps the news media needs to find out if they have been duped. Perhaps, NRC, NEI and the nuclear industry decided to borrow a page out of the Pentagon play book (Lincoln Group), or thought they could do a better job than FEMA at creating fake news...whatever the truth is, do not think todays event is exactly what is being presented to us.

Nuclear plant worker stopped with explosive

A contract employee of an Arizona nuclear plant was stopped at a plant entrance Friday with an explosive device in his truck, officials told CNN. The capped pipe was found in the truck bed during a regular security search outside the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station -- the country's largest nuclear plant. developing story