Astonishing tower collapse screams "No New Nukes!!"

Astonishing tower collapse screams "No New Nukes!!"
by Harvey Wasserman

August 27, 2007

A cooling tower at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant has collapsed.

A broken 54" pipe there has spewed 350,000 gallons per minute of contaminated, overheated water into the Earth. "The river water piping and the series of screens and supports failed," said a company spokesman. They "fell to the ground."

The public and media were barred from viewing the wreckage for three days. But when a Congressional Energy Bill conference committee takes up Senate-approved loan guarantees for building new nukes this fall, what will reactor backers say about this latest pile of radioactive rubble?

This kind of event can make even hardened nuke opponents pinch themselves and read the descriptions twice. Who could make this up?

Vermont Yankee has been in operation---more or less---since the early 1970s. Its owner is Entergy, a multi-reactor "McNuke" operator that last year got approval to up VY's output by 20%.

Required inspections revealed worrisome cracks and other structural problems. Entergy dismissed all that, but was forced to issue a "ratepayer protection policy" against incidents caused by the power increase. The guarantee expired earlier this month, not long before the collapse.

The tower came down amidst angry negotiations between Entergy and plant workers. A strike was barely averted, but VY's labor troubles are by no means over.

The reactor's output has now been slashed 50%. A public battle is raging over whether it can dump water even hotter than usual into the Connecticut River. Reactors in Alabama, France and elsewhere have been forced shut because the rivers that cool them have exceeded 90 degrees.

Yankee's cooling system, vintage 1972, centers on 22 (now 21) wood, fiberglass and metal towers that stretch for 300 feet, and are 50 feet high and 40 feet wide. The company calls this giant rig a "rain forest."

Operators admit to hearing "strange sounds" coming from its fans last week, but say Tuesday's collapse was unexpected.

Nuclear opponents who warned about such an event have been scorned by Entergy and its supporters. That something as apparently absurd as the spontaneous collapse of an entire cooling tower could actually occur underlines America's Keystone Kops reality of atomic operation and regulation. "We need to understand what happened," explains the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Diane Screnci.

So does Congress. A definitive Conference Committee battle will be fought after Labor Day over an Energy Bill that includes taxpayer guarantees for $50 billion and more to build new nukes.
Meanwhile Vermonters will pay for this latest pile of radioactive reactor rubble. Maybe a "fall foliage" field trip to the Green Mountain State would do the Congress some good.

--Harvey Wasserman's SOLARTOPIA: OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, A.D. 2030, is available at www.solartopia.org. He is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and senior editor of Freepress.org, where this article first appeared.

NRC finds 'sleeping' Indian Point guard

NRC finds 'sleeping' Indian Point guard
By MICHAEL RISINIT

THE JOURNAL NEWS

August 27, 2007

BUCHANAN - A federal nuclear inspector found an apparently sleeping security guard yesterday afternoon at one of the Indian Point nuclear power plants' interior monitoring points.

"It was only after repeated attempts to get the guard's attention that the officer opened his eyes," Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said today.

The senior resident NRC inspector, who was entering the plant as part of his regular duties, discovered the inattentive guard at 2:05 p.m. The guard was then removed from his post and is now on administrative leave, said a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the plants' owner.

"It's obviously unacceptable that you would have a security officer falling asleep at his post, and he'll be dealt with sternly," said Entergy spokesman Jim Steets.

U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, who heard about the incident this morning from the NRC congressional liaison, said the incident showed the need for a detailed investigation of Entergy's security practices.

"This does not reflect responsible leadership at Indian Point," Lowey said.

Both the NRC and Entergy said the incident did not affect Indian Point's security.

Staff writer Glenn Blain contributed to this report.

Revolution for the ELLE of it!

I'm sitting here thinking this morning, imagine if in the late 70's, rather than tear down that old house on Gorham Island in Westport, Connecticut Paul Newman and his then local lawyer, Leo Nevas, would have taken Jerry Rubin and I up on the idea of creating a renewable energy museum there, restoring the old house, putting in a restaurant, a few solar panels, a wind turbine... Imagine the attention it would have gotten, the tourists, the education... we'd have turned the entire ship around... we could have started to green suburbia 30 years ago... it would have been wonderful.

But it didn't happen. Paul Newman and Leo Nevas tore the house down... one morning they showed up with a bulldozer and plowed it into the ground... built a three story monstrosity with gold windows they've had trouble getting tenants for every since. The island should at the very least been made into a park... they wanted to capitalize on their Uniform Product Code investment. Instead, they doomed the human race. They tried to kill a movement, out of spite, stupidity and greed.

I remember one evening Joanne Woodward calling me up on the phone, screaming at me, because I had the audacity to question their downtown redevelopment judgment. She finally came to her senses... after the house came down, they finally purged the rotten apples from the Westport Historical (some would say hysterical) Society... and began to cherish their colonial heritage a bit more.

But the damage had already been done. In the 50's the Newmans helped to stop a nuclear power plant from getting built on Cockenoe Island in Westport... They stopped the Nike missile base from going operational behind Staples High School... they even made a movie about it, Rally Around The Flag Boys. So what the F*** happened?

They lost hope, that's what... They stopped listening to people... they huddled themselves into a little cocoon of privacy celebrity allows them to curl up into, they cut themselves off from all the people with solutions... they got sucked into the system... forfeited art for commerce... let their friend and business partner A.E. Hotchner rip off my concept for the all-natural plain and mushroom tomato sauce combo when I was a gardener at his home! They became awful people.

For years we tried to get Paul Newman's attention when we were developing alcohol fuels for the racing industry, getting him to endorse gasohol... instead he supported John Anderson which cost Jimmy Carter the presidency and put Ronald Reagan in office, who went on to tear down all the solar panels Jimmy had installed on the White House!

So what's Newman's game? His racing team is sponsored by the nuclear power industry. James Lovelock sells uranium stocks!!! All of Stewart Brand's friends and colleagues at the Whole Earth Review thinks he's completely lost his mind!!! Patrick Moore... well... he's just one big fat sell-out... Everybody at Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd HATES his guts... So I just got to thinking... looking at the pictures of the crumbling infrastructure of all these old nukes, these disasters waiting to happen... they have to be kidding right? They just did this to infiltrate the nuclear power industry... to turn around, wave back and grin... Gotcha! It's all been just a bad dream...

There wouldn't be a solar and wind industry today had it not been for Bonnie Raitt's MUSE, the 1979 NoNukes concert in Battery Park... it's what gave the anti-nuclear movement its "raison d'etre"... Harvey Wasserman never threw in the towel... never sold out... he knows the dynamics at play here... Solartopia... Ecotopia... We had a dream in the 60's... it took flight in Woodstock... but something happened... we forgot something... we forgot to take care of unfinished business... we forgot the Federal Bank Reserve sucking billions from the American people, re-investing them into wars, oil, coal, nuclear... this while suppressing the work of genius inventors who keep coming up with amazing, non intrusive ways of generating clean, limitless power.

It's not a lie, it's not a mirage... friends of mine have died in this fight, have been threatened, intimidated, ruined... I knew this going in... so I built a cage around myself... so they couldn't touch me... making life long unholy alliances with intelligence services just so I could get away with it... it's not just about pulling the plug on Indian Point... it's about putting an end to the IRS reign of terror... which is why we pushed hard so David Rockefeller's Stone Barns would become an organic farm... He didn't see that one coming... yet, once they realized who I was, what I was doing, they tried to poison me at one of their Blue Hill dinners... three days I thought I was going to die... it could have been in the wine glass.

I was just a kid when I stood alone in the Baron of Rothschild's office in Megeve, France as he swore to me I would never be able to do anything because: "he who controls the money, controls the world..." a sentence parroted again and again by his lackey Henry Kissinger... The Baron was terrified of me because of who my grandfather was, George Gurdjieff, a man with tremendous political influence in post-war France, who Louis Pauwels's "Morning of the Magicians" blamed for Hitler and the whole of World War 2. I was the demon child... the inspiration for Rosemary's Baby... You don't want my childhood, OK?

When you see a problem, you identify it's root cause, you yank it out, that's how you cure things. So in the early 70's, after the CIA tried unsuccessfully to recruit me, during a two hour meeting with Carol Foryst, then assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury... and Zbigniew Bzrezinki quietly listening in the other room... I decided I was going to go it alone... that these people were nuts, sick, despicable... war mongers... sad excuses for human beings... perpetuators of hate and terror... ultimately destroying life and nature all over the globe... so I cooked up a plan... told my friends. I also became what I resisted, to quote Nietzsche. I became just like them... it took an angel to break me. Which is what gave birth to Rock The Reactors!

Kucinich will tell you about the trillions of dollars missing from the Pentagon budget... where do you think it all went? To build hundreds of secret bases all over the globe, develop black ops technologies... create a shadow government... what for? I mean think about it... what the f*** for, other than just to play James Bond and Dr. No... bad boys with bad toys... National Security my ass! They managed to create a parallel universe to our own... playing Howard Hughes... using the invention and imagination of hundreds of young prodigies, the CIA methodically brain draining through IQ testing under the guise of relief charities.

The Newmans have been long time supporters and poster parents for Save The Children... an organization which over the years, has been ravaged by scandal, one over paid director after the other caught embezzling funds. Stories which rarely made it past buried pages in the Westport News... But it's there for the investigative journalist, if there are any left, to go dig.

This is the problem... yes, solar and wind could easily take care of all our energy needs if certain chemistries were not chronically under-funded, or worse, suppressed outright! Light Emitting Diodes have been around for a long time... yet, it's not until Home Power magazine started giving away plans to make "last forever" flashlights, that people woke up... rose to the challenge. If we all switched over the LEDs, which in mass production wouldn't cost a thing... we'd instantly reduce our electrical consumption by 60%... I mean, isn't that "The Moral Equivalent of War" was all about? Wouldn't that be more worth while than gearing up another nuclear sub or a new generation of Sikorsky attack helicopters?

But you see, that's not what the powers that be, participants in the annual Burning Man for Skull & Bones graduates at the Bohemian Grove want... they want to keep their system going, at all cost... so they can have their mansions and their yachts... their kids at Yale and Harvard... rich or poor we breathe the same air... as long as they own the air we breathe. And this I won't stand for. Neither will most nations on Earth, or the Native Americans.

Homeland security has already built hundreds of detention camps, ready to cart us off to if there's unrest in this country, if we stop watching television, or play video games... if we get wise to the situation... and we are, because the web, which is controlled by a new breed of renegade billionaires, TED, holding steadfast with the Tesla Motors roadster as their battering ram... are not kowtowing to FED pressures and are allowing the revolution to be cybercast. Otherwise I wouldn't be here typing this and posting it on Green Nuclear Butterfly, a rapidly growing blog!

Join us in the streets on September 7th... in New York, meet us at 11AM in Rockefeller Plaza... walk to News Corp, the FOX TV building, then the Australian consulate... let the puppermasters know enough is enough, the Earth is burning up, we don't need their centralized form of electron production and control... let Al Gore go! He's one of OURS! Let them know fashion will save the world... New York is New York... Broadway, 7th Avenue... it doesn't want an accident up the Hudson that would transform Manhattan into a ghost town...

We want David Rockefeller to stop killing his hogs... to stop rapping the Earth... to stop his wars... to shut down the Federal Bank Reserve and return the responsibility of printing currency to the American people. It's that simple! Ask Ron Paul... ask the thousands of conspiracy theory researchers in the United States who know this stuff inside and out... ask the folks at Paranoia Magazine, who have been chronicling strange bed fellows for years...

It's going down... took awhile in coming... took quite a bit of doing... but it's going down... Liberty and the pursuit of happiness, remember? Well... what makes me happy is a green Earth, fields of wind turbines, solar panels on suburban roof tops... batteries that don't quit... light bulbs that burn bright using barely any juice... rolling out a few secret flying machines from S4 at Groom Lake... for the world to see... so we can live in peace... so we can join the cosmic race. But none of this can happen as long as the bureaucrats and the technocrats running the IRS and the Federal Bank Reserve control the money, control the world.

Shut down Indian Point... make David Rockefeller sweat a little... put Newman, Lovelock, Brand and Moore to the test... how pro-nuclear are they, really? Really? or was it all a parody?

Close-up of Vermont Yankee cooling tower collapse

+++

Investigation begins at VY
By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff
Brattleboro Reformer
http://www.reformer.com/headlines/ci_6716785
Saturday, August 25

BRATTLEBORO -- Hard-hatted workers clambered over and around the wreckage that used to be the wall of one of Vermont Yankee's external cooling fans Friday, looking for clues as to why the structure gave way.

Tuesday afternoon, the plant had to ratchet back on its power output after the wall gave way, spilling plastic slats, asbestos panels and wood beams onto the ground between the two banks of 11 cooling fans each.

Normally, a visitor to the site would see water vapor rising from the cowling around each of the 22 huge fans and hear them spinning, sucking heat from the water and moving it into the atmosphere.

A visitor would also hear the more than 350,000 gallons of water a minute that flow through the system, falling through thousands of plastic slats to cool the water before returning it to reactor, where it is used to cool and convert steam produced by the reactor back into water.

Near the top of the cooling tower, a 52-inch pipe that runs along a platform abruptly ends where a section of the pipe fell to the ground during the collapse. The pipe carried the water from the plant and distributed it to the 11 fans in the bank creating what John Dreyfuss, director of nuclear safety assurance at Vermont Yankee, called "a little rainstorm inside there."

But on Friday, the fans were turned off. With the reactor running at 50 percent its thermal output is reduced, so the cooling towers are not needed. Though its power output has fluctuated since the failure, it is producing on average about 265MWe.

Over the next few days, workers will go through the tangle of debris piece by piece, trying to find the reason for the failure.

"Not the kind of equipment performance to expect," said Dreyfuss. "As we remove timbers, we'll also be performing our investigation to find out what happened," a process he called "very deliberative."

Operators will not crank the plant back up to full power until workers can confirm the structure of the cooling fans is sound, he said.

Prior to the wall failure, technicians had shut down the fan because employees had reported hearing noises coming from it, which they were unable to reproduce.

"There was no evidence of structural issues (at that time)," said Dreyfuss.

As for the debris that collapsed out from the wall, "most the material you see is cosmetic," he said.

On hand to assist in the investigation were state inspectors, two resident inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and officials from the state's Office of Homeland Security.

Dreyfuss said homeland security had determined the failure wasn't caused by sabotage, and discounted the notion that it was related to ongoing contract negotiations between Entergy, the owners of the power plant, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents 157 workers there.

"We've ruled that out as well," he said.

Entergy recently received permission to increase Vermont Yankee's power output by 20 percent, from 540MWe to 650MWe, but Dreyfuss said there was nothing to indicate the power uprate had anything to do with the failure.

But not everyone is convinced.

"Did increased water flow rate through the cooling towers, or higher cooling tower fan turning rates, cause the collapse?" asked David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, in an e-mail to the media. "If so, why didn't the company's and the NRC's pre-uprate reviews identify this threat and prevent it from happening?"

If they did miss the problem, he wrote, "what other misses have not yet revealed themselves?"

Nuclear reactors such as that at Vermont Yankee are 33 percent efficient, wrote Lochbaum.

"While the reactor core may produce three units of energy, only one unit of electricity is generated," he wrote. "The remaining two units of energy must be discharged to the environment as waste heat. Nuclear plants rely on large amounts of water to carry away this waste heat."

Vermont Yankee has a single-unit boiling water reactor that had a maximum reactor core power level output of 1593 Megawatts thermal before its uprate approval. At 120 percent, the plant produces 1912MWt.

Plant cooling is provided by either an open-cycle system, a closed-cycle system or a hybrid of the two. How the plant cools depends on various factors, including river and air temperatures, but its cooling systems are meant to minimize its impact on the river.

When the plant uses its closed-cycle system, the cooling towers dissipate heat to the atmosphere. When cooling towers are used, water from the river is used to replace vapor blown out by the fans. Most of the rest of the water is sent back to the plant's main condenser, thousands of metal tubes that carry cooling water which are used to cool steam from plant turbines and convert it back into water. That water is sent back to the reactor to produce more steam, and the water in the condenser is sent back to the towers for cooling.

In the open-cycle mode, no water passes through the cooling towers. Water is taken from the river and discharged south of the facility.

Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 273.

+++

Isabel Vinson contributed to http://www.theenvironmentals.com/ last year. Her nude picture in front of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant ended up on the cover of the region's largest newspaper, The Brattleboro Reformer... I didn't know until a few minutes ago that she followed it up with a radio interview... where she shines, as usual!
http://www.ewiseradiotools.com/station_files/file_1177666610__.mp3

She has it blogged at: "radio interview oooh"
http://www.myspace.com/isabelv

Indian Point Demonstration in Manhattan Sept 7th

DIRECT ACTION PLANNED IN NEW YORK CITY

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 7TH, 2007

JOIN BENNY ZABLE, REMY CHEVALIER & SHERWOOD MARTINELLI TO DELIVER A LETTER FROM DR. HELEN CALDICOTT ABOUT THE DANGERS OF THE INDIAN POINT REACTORS TO RUPERT MURDOCH AT NEWS CORP. (FOX) (owner of New York Post & MySpace)

For Details
CLICK FLYER
PRINT FLYER
Spread all over New York!!!

Another NRC Email to GE On Commercial Airplanes Crashing Into Reactors

Time that the NRC comes clean, time that the aftermath of a plane crashing into a nuclear reactor like Entergy's Indian Point be included in the EIS and Environmental Scoping Process...and yes, this email also was found on ADAMS. For profit companies can know the TRUTH, but host communities cannot...what a crock of CRAP.

This is not the Official Agency Record. See the image file for the Official Agency Record.

R. Brown Ltr Re Issuance of Order Imposing Safeguards Information Protection Requirements and Fingerprinting and Criminal History Records Check Requirements.
Go To Best Hit Return to Results Find More Documents Like This One (This will delete your previous results.)

1 Safeguards Information is a form of sensitive, unclassified, security-related information that the Commission has the authority to designate and protect under Section 147 of the AEA.

June 15, 2007

Mr. Robert E. Brown
General Manager, Regulatory Affairs
General Electric Company
3901 Castle Hayne Rd, MC A-45
Wilmington, NC 28401

SUBJECT: ISSUANCE OF ORDER IMPOSING SAFEGUARDS INFORMATION
PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS AND FINGERPRINTING AND CRIMINAL
HISTORY RECORDS CHECK REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCESS TO
SAFEGUARDS INFORMATION

Dear Mr. Brown:

The Commission has decided to require, through rulemaking, that nuclear power plant designers perform a rigorous assessment of design features that could provide additional inherent protection to avoid or mitigate the effects of an aircraft impact, while reducing or eliminating the need for operator actions, where practicable. In anticipation of this requirement, and to assist designers in completing this assessment, the Commission has decided to provide the beyond design basis, large commercial aircraft characteristics specified by the Commission to plant designers who have the need-to-know and who meet the NRC [?] ’s requirements for the disclosure of such information. The specified aircraft characteristics that are the subject of the enclosed Order (Enclosure 1) are designated by the Order as Safeguards Information (SGI),¹ in accordance with Section 147 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA).

In a letter dated June 26, 2004, General Electric Company (GE) requested authorization to possess certain information designated by the NRC [?] as SGI and described GE's program for protecting that SGI against unauthorized disclosure in accordance with 10 CFR 73.21. In its May 10, 2005, response to that letter, the NRC [?] agreed to provide GE with the requested SGI, and noted that, based on a review of GE's implementing procedures and observation of GE's facilities, it had determined that GE provided assurance that it will protect the SGI in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR 73.21. Though the NRC [?] recognizes that GE has continued to maintain that SGI protection program, and that implementation of that program is consistent with the requirements of 10 CFR 73.21, GE is not legally-bound by the May 10, 2005 letter to comply with those provisions. Therefore, in order to provide a legally enforceable requirement for GE's continued protection of SGI, as well as to impose the additional fingerprinting requirements that have become effective pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) since GE implemented its SGI protection program in 2005, the NRC [?] is issuing the enclosed Order to GE to impose requirements for the protection of SGI, as well as for the fingerprinting of all persons who have or seek access to this SGI.

R. Brown - 2 -

Before GE grants an individual access to SGI, GE must submit the fingerprints of the individual to the NRC [?] for an FBI criminal history records check. The results of the FBI criminal history records check will be provided to GE and that information must be considered by GE when making a determination of whether an individual, who has a need-to-know SGI, may be given access to SGI (see Attachment to the Order and Enclosure 2 to this letter).

Certain categories of individuals are excepted by rule from the fingerprinting requirement [10 CFR 73.59], including Federal, State, and local law enforcement personnel; Agreement State inspectors who conduct security inspections on behalf of the NRC [?] ; members of Congress; certain employees of members of Congress or Congressional Committees who have undergone fingerprinting for a prior U.S. government criminal history check; and representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency or certain foreign government organizations. In addition, the NRC [?] has determined that individuals who have active federal security clearances, or who have had a favorably-decided U.S. Government criminal history check within the last five (5) years, have already been subjected to fingerprinting and criminal history checks and, thus, have satisfied the EPAct fingerprinting requirement.

In order to implement the enclosed Order, GE must nominate an individual who will review the results of the FBI criminal history records check to make SGI access determinations. This individual, referred to as the “reviewing official,” must be someone who seeks access to SGI. Based on the results of the FBI criminal history records check, the NRC [?] staff will determine whether this individual may have access to SGI. If the NRC [?] determines that the individual may not be granted access to SGI, the enclosed Order prohibits that individual from obtaining access to any SGI. The NRC [?] process that will govern this determination, and the rights of the individual nominated to be the reviewing official, are described in Enclosure 3. Once the NRC [?] approves a reviewing official, that reviewing official, and only that reviewing official, can make SGI access determinations for other individuals who have been identified by GE as having a need to know SGI, and who have been fingerprinted and have had a criminal history records check. The reviewing official can only make SGI access determinations for other individuals, but cannot approve other individuals to act as reviewing officials. Only the NRC [?] can approve a reviewing official; therefore, if GE wishes to have a new or additional reviewing official, the NRC [?] must approve that individual before they can act in that capacity.

In the event that the individual nominated as the GE’s initial reviewing official is not approved by the NRC [?] to have access to SGI, the individual may appeal this decision by following the procedures in Enclosure 3. GE may then nominate a different individual to be the reviewing official. If GE decides to withdraw the nomination of an individual as a reviewing official after submitting fingerprints to the FBI through the NRC [?] , the NRC [?] will still complete the review process for determining access to SGI.

GE is required to submit fingerprints in accordance with the enclosed Order. The current processing fee is $27.00 per submission and payment must accompany the request. Details regarding fingerprint submittals and payment of fees are found in the Attachment to the Order. If the person GE nominates as reviewing official already has a national security clearance, please submit that person’s name along with documentation that supports the claim. NRC [?] staff will verify that the nominated individual has the necessary clearance to be able to be approved as reviewing official.

R. Brown - 3 -

The enclosed Order is effective immediately. These requirements will remain in effect until the Commission determines otherwise.

The enclosed Order requires that GE respond to the Order within twenty (20) days of the date of the Order, and implement the requirements of the Order before providing access to SGI to any individual. Please contact Anissa Coates at (301) 415-1897, or via email [?] to ARC3@nrc [?] .gov, to facilitate resolution of any issues or questions related to compliance with the requirements of the enclosed Order.

GE’s responses to the Order (not fingerprint cards) must be submitted to the Director, Office of New Reactors, and should be addressed to the attention of Anissa Coates, Mail Stop O-17F3. The following mailing addresses should be used:

For normal postal delivery, mail to:

Director, Office of New Reactors U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C., 20555-0001 Attn: Anissa Coates, Mail Stop O-17F3

For delivery services requiring a street address, mail to:

Director, Office of New Reactors
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
One White Flint North
11555 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852-2738
Attn: Anissa Coates, Mail Stop O-17F3

Please include the docket number listed below in all your correspondence to the NRC [?] . In addition, GE responses shall be marked as "Security-Related Information - Withhold Under 10 CFR 2.390." The enclosed Order has been forwarded to the Office of the Federal Register for publication.

Nuclear Reactors and Airplane Attacks

Now, we are all aware that citizens are not allowed to have access to, or even discuss the DBT under the guise we could be tipping off terrorists by holding such discussions. Never mind a community being allowed to know the real risks associated with being forced to play host to a aging, fatigued, FAC plagued reactor such as Indian Point. Besides, the NRC and Entergy have told us that the chance of air planes crashing into Nuclear Reactors are so remote, that consideration of the risks associated with such a scenerio are not even worth considering.

OK, then maybe someone from the NRC (Sam Collins?) can explain to me why air planes flying into reactors, the danger of planes and immenent risks play such an important part of the NRC email (copied below)that discusses phone call protocols. Seems that the risks of planes being highjacked and flown into nuclear reactors is a far more real event than the NRC and Homeland Security want to let on. Said letter was found on the NRC Adams site doing a very simple search.

http://adamswebsearch.nrc.gov/scripts/rwisapi.dll/@pip1.env?CQ_SESSION_KEY=IHUYSZYJNAWU&CQ_QUERY_HANDLE=124757&CQQNUM=3&CQ_DOCUMENT=YES&CQ_SAVE[ResultsReturnPage]=results_list.html&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=47

June 25, 2007

SECURITY ADVISORY FOR POWER REACTORS

SA-07-01 Rev. 1

SUBJECT: VOLUNTARY USE OF AUTHENTICATION CODES TO VALIDATE CALLER IDENTIFICATION DURING THREATS AND PHYSICAL ATTACKS

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC [?] ) has identified the benefit of expediting the verification of caller identity in the case of a threat or attack to a nuclear power plant. This is especially important in the case of an airborne threat.

Background

Appendix G, “Reportable Safeguards Events,” to Title 10, Section 73.71, “Reporting of Safeguards Events,” of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR 73.71) provides the current reporting requirements for security-related events. In addition, the Commission has previously advised licensees of the need to expedite their initial notifications to the NRC [?] in NRC [?] Bulletin 2005-02, “Emergency Preparedness and Response Actions for Security-Based Events,” dated July 18, 2005. This Security Advisory (SA) provides guidance regarding a voluntary process intended to enhance the efficiency of initial notifications and reduce the resource impact of the existing caller identification protocol.

The current verification protocol involves several steps. First, the NRC [?] receives threat information from an external source (e.g., the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command) and telephones the licensee main control room. To verify that the caller is actually the NRC [?] , the licensee has two options. While the licensee stays on the line, another member of the licensee’s staff can call the NRC [?] Operations Center to verify the authenticity of the call. Alternatively, the licensee can hang up the phone and call the NRC [?] Operations Center to perform the verification. NRC [?] staff would perform a similar process if the NRC [?] Operations Center receives a call from the licensee to notify the agency of a security threat or an actual attack.

The current verification protocol involves the use of resources that may be better suited to other tasks, such as licensee immediate actions for an imminent threat and notifying additional State and local first responders. Under the new protocol, the NRC [?] will exchange an authentication code with the licensee’s main control room to verify the caller’s identity whenever a caller makes a threat notification. The proper use of the code will provide a short, simple means of caller authentication that may eliminate the need to perform a callback, unless desired, and will still maintain reasonable assurance of the caller’s identity.

Due to feedback from industry representatives, the Agency is issuing this revision to remove the word “imminent” to avoid confusion with the use of the term with respect to aircraft threats. The revision also clarifies when use of the authentication code is appropriate. Specifically, the code is intended to be used as an operational aid by licensee main control room staff and NRC [?] Headquarters Operations Officers (HOOs) to facilitate rapid caller authentication during a threat or physical attack event.

Seeking Information On Entergy's Hired Legal Guns

As we prepare our contentions, and Petition to Intervene, it is obvious that odd's suggest we will be doing battle with Entergy's hired legal guns over at Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman, LLP. Further, our guess is we'll face former NRC INSIDER David R. Lewis. We are looking for information on the law firm, and it's Nuclear TOP GUN, David R. Lewis. Examples of their filings, any dirt that might be out there, complaints against the attorney, or the law firm that have been filed. Send your information to uraniumhotspot@aol.com

Company Contact, and information on David R. Lewis from the internet:

Mr. David R. Lewis
Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman, LLP
2300 N Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037-1128

David R. Lewis
Partner
david.lewis@pillsburylaw.com

Mr. Lewis is a partner in Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman's energy group. Prior to joining Pillsbury, he worked under an honors program as an attorney-advisor to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in 1982-83.

Mr. Lewis has been involved in numerous initial licensing, license amendment, restart, license renewal, decommissioning, enforcement and whistleblower proceedings. In these proceedings, he has successfully represented his clients in the full range of issues associated with the siting, operation, economics, environmental impact and decommissioning of nuclear units. Mr. Lewis is the leading practitioner in nuclear plant license renewal. He represented Baltimore Gas & Electric Company in the first application for renewal of an operating license for a commercial nuclear plant, and has assisted numerous other utilities with their license renewal efforts. He is a member of the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI) License Renewal Working Group and the author of the Report on the Renewal of Nuclear Power Plant Operating Licenses for the Committee on Nuclear Technology and Law of the Association of the City of New York.

Mr. Lewis has also been involved in reactor design certifications and is on the leading edge of new plant licensing work, assisting with the development of an early site permit application and proposals for combined construction permit and operating licenses. He is a member of NEI's COL Task Force and Financial Issues Task Force.

Mr. Lewis has been extensively involved in nuclear business and organizational transactions. He has represented numerous clients in the sale or acquisition of nuclear plants, in sale-leaseback transactions, in the formation of operating companies, and in approvals related to the formation of holding companies, mergers, spin-offs, and electric utility deregulation.

Mr. Lewis has considerable experience assisting contractors of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on nuclear matters. He is the author of "An Industry Perspective on the External Regulation of DOE Facilities" and has advised on space nuclear applications.

Mr. Lewis was recently acknowledged as a leading Energy/Nuclear lawyer for the District of Columbia in the third edition of CHAMBERS USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business for 2005-2006.

Entergy, Indian Point Lying Again...Have No Intent of Meeting August 24th Siren Deadline

Entergy has known for quite some time now (notified NRC in May) that they will not be able to meet the August 24th Siren system deadline. Question is, will the NRC start fining them on a daily basis, or instead bend over backwards and MODIFY their order in a fashion that gives Indian Point more time to comply? Sure we will know where we stand on Friday...this from a July document from the NRC:

Pursuant to section 223 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, any person who willfully violates, attempts to violate, or conspires to violate, any provision of this Order shall be subject to criminal prosecution as set forth in that section. Violations of this Order will result in additional enforcement action. Also, the requirements of this Order may be modified or relaxed by the Director, Office of Enforcement, where good cause is shown, such as implementation delays that clearly were not under the control of Entergy. In addition, the NRC has been verbally informed by Entergy that some additional time beyond August 24, 2007, may be needed to place the new ENS in service, and that if so, Entergy would supplement its May 23, 2007 response to the NOV. NRC will review Entergy’s supplemental response, if submitted, and may modify or relax this Order, if appropriate, as provided in the enclosed Order.

SRO Speaks out on Nukes & her Cherokee roots...

John LeKay, publisher of Heyoke Magazine asked Summer Rayne Oakes:

What are your thoughts on alternative energies?

Summer Rayne Oakes: I'm becoming more and more vocal in this area as my work unfolds. I've written letters to my state Senators urging them to stop the $50 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear energy and voiced my concerns on coal. We need individuals, communities and the federal government behind clean renewables. The amount of subsidies and loan guarantees still supporting dirty energy is absolutely mind-boggling!

On the clean energy front, I like to put most of my own energies into positive movements. Over the last few months, I've been working with a number of young leaders on PowerShift 2007, which is the first national youth Climate Summit headed by Energy Action and the Campus Climate Challenge. The organizations have really been the backbone of much of the climate change actions, like Step it Up, Focus the Nation, and the President’s Climate Commitment. I feel invigorated when the youth take the lead in getting their campuses and communities to start taking progressive steps in reducing their carbon footprint.

For the rest of the interview, logon to:
http://heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.9.Fashion.htm

No Coal!! No Nukes!! No Kidding!!

Find Harold One Feather wearing the camo-hat videotaping the SouthEast Convergence for Climate Action demonstration in front of the Bank Of American in Asheville, North Carolina on August 13th. Harold attended the event as a roving reporter for Electrifying Times magazine. Harold is the real life incarnation of the character Harry Redhorse in Henry O'Point's book "From The River's Edge To The World Beyond."



(Video Courtesy http://www.citizentimes.com)

EPRI, DOE, NEI, NRC and The Defense and Commericial Nuclear Industry Keeping Public in Dark?

For those of us who find ourselves living within the shadow of death that is the 50 mile circle around an aging, decaying nuclear reactor here in America, we have sadly come to know what it is like to be kept in the dark. We are asked to accept the risks associated with the NRC rubber stamping of 20 year license renewals without being told just what the real risks are that we will be faced with. Accidents caused from FAC (Flow Accelerated Corrosion), stainless steel fatigue, concrete degradation and weld failures are all serious concerns, with the true risks hidden behind the closed doors of the EPRI documents room.

Security is another issue, with the DBT hidden from public view, and any attempts to get honest answers met with a STONE WALL as Sam Collins and other members of the NRC refuse to answer our questions put forth at public meetings. Why can't we know the truth, be told why it was that the NRC commissioners removed from the weapons lists mortars, shoulder launched grenades and rockets (RPG's), and armor piercing munitions? Is it true that NEI pressured the NRC to remove these weapons because they would render 85 percent of the industry's security infrastructure obsolete?

Now, lets look at public health and safety should a nuclear event or terrorist attack at say, "Indian Point". Obviously, one of the things citizens want to know, want to understand is plume modeling. When we try to discuss this with NRC officials (Richard Barkley) we get vague answers, and promises of more information later...that then never arrives. This area is one of great concern to myself, so I did some research this evening, and in a word we want access to NARAC! Why is this valuable software that would allow local communities and citizens to evaluate their risk being SECRETED AWAY behind the walls of Lawrence Livermore Laboritories by the DOE? Could it be, that the truth of Plumes in the event of a significant nuclear incident see citizens demanding the closure of all NUCLEAR REACTORS? Below is some very SOMBERING information on NURAC, and the DOE's involvement in safeguarding public safety. Get involved, demand that this valuable software tool be made available to citizens in Nuclear Reactor host communities...we have a right to know what risks we are facing.

http://www.llnl.gov/tid/lof/documents/pdf/318555.pdf

The NARAC suite of software tools include simple stand-alone, local-scale plume modeling tools for end-user’s computers, and Web- and Internet-based software to access advanced modeling tools and expert analyses from the national center at LLNL. Initial automated, 3-D predictions of plume exposure limits and protective action guidelines for emergency responders and managers are available from the center in 5-10 minutes. These can be followed immediately by quality-assured, refined analyses by 24 x 7 on-duty or on-call NARAC staff. NARAC continues to refine calculations using updated on-scene information, including measurements, until all airborne releases have stopped and the hazardous threats are mapped and impacts assessed

1 Introduction
The dispersion of radiological material in the atmosphere poses potential risks to human health. Releases may occur from accidents involving nuclear power plants, nuclear material processing and transportation, or nuclear weapons. The post-coldwar proliferation of nuclear material has increased the potential for threats from radiological dispersal devices and nuclear weapons. In order to prepare for airborne releases and mitigate the resulting impacts, tools are needed that can accurately and quickly predict the environmental contamination and health effects.

Read The DOE Directive:
http://www.directives.doe.gov/pdfs/doe/doetext/neword/153/o1531.pdf

Other Important Directives:

http://www.directives.doe.gov/cgi-bin/currentchecklist#ORDERS

DOE/NRC's One Strike Approach

http://www.directives.doe.gov/pdfs/doe/doetext/oldord/5480/o548030c1.html

(1) Single Failure. Safety class SSCs shall be able to accommodate a single failure and still meet their intended safety function, as required, to ensure compliance with the facility acceptance criterion. A "single failure" means an occurrence which results in the loss of capability of the safety class structure, system or component to accomplish its required safety functions. Multiple failures resulting from a single occurrence are considered to be a single failure.

Some Important Manuals can be found here:

http://www.directives.doe.gov/cgi-bin/currentchecklist#MANUALS

Do DOE Nuclear Reactor Sites afford American citizens a higher level of protection than those afforded communities forced to play host to commercial nuclear reactors such as Entergy's failing Indian Point reactors? Read DOE guidelines here:

http://www.directives.doe.gov/pdfs/doe/doetext/oldord/5400/o54005c2.html

Where are our protections from the NRC?

Below is and excerpt from DOE's Nuclear Energy Policy, which you can read at: http://www.directives.doe.gov/pdfs/doe/doetext/senord/35/n3591.html

Reading the excerpt, one has to wonder where our similar EQUAL RIGHTS are when looking at NRC's commercial licensees.

SUBJECT: NUCLEAR SAFETY POLICY

It is the policy of the Department of Energy (DOE) that the general public be protected such that no individual bears significant additional risk to health and safety from the operation of a DOE nuclear facility above the risks to which members of the general population are normally exposed. The purpose of this document is to establish the basic nuclear safety policy from which specific safety rules, orders, standards, and other requirements shall follow.* DOE facilities will be designed, constructed, operated, and decommissioned to assure the protection of the public, workers, and the environment.

Some General News Items From Green Nuclear Butterfly

Rare Picture of the elusive Australian Outback Twin Ass Monkeys.

Greetings Readers:

Do apologize for the lack of fresh articles lately, but 1) it is summer, and that in and of itself comes with its own set of distractions, and 2) the deadline for filing contentions is fast upon us. Our volunteer staff over at FUSE USA are busy with document research, and crafting our contentions, which will be extensive. FUSE USA is now officially registered as a Not-For-Profit corporation, and will be bringing you more on that development in the very near future (watch for our new blog launch). Between now and October 1st, 2007, a huge amount of GNB's efforts will be dedicated over to document research and crafting petitions, so be patient, as the Blog takes a back seat to our important fight to shutdown the aging Entergy reactors known as Indian Point.

There is a new blog out there that I encourage my readers to stay abreast of it. This Green Blog is published by long time environmental activist titan Harvey Wasserman. Harvey has recently published a book (featured on this blog earlier this summer) called Solartopia...a must read for Green people the world over. Wondering here if Harvey knows what ever happened to Scott Powers who used to be a great journalist for the Columbus Dispatch back in the early 90's.

NRC is trying to RUSH THE PROCESS of relicensing Indian Point. They have scheduled an Environmental Scoping Meeting for September 19th, and the public comments period closes very shortly after the meeting. This meeting, and the public comments received will shape the Supplemental EIS that will be appended to the Generic EIS being used to relicense these aging reactors that are leaking tritium and strontium into the Hudson River.

1. If you live in the area, and are concerned about Indian Point, it is imperiative that you attend the meeting. We will be posting details on this meeting in very early September.

2. Submit written comments to the NRC that express your concerns. Be specific, use real examples. Where possible, grab some cites to back up your contentions and/or worries by using Google. (FAC or Flow Accelerated Corrosion) is one example of a Google search that should bring up some very interesting articles and studies.

We have seen in recent events (Earthquake that struck the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Plant and the collapsing bridge in Minnesota) that the effects of aging, fatigue issues, and seismic activities can and will take their toll on man made infrastructure...factor in the risk of a terrorist attack, and Indian Point needs to be closed down.

Entergy was delivered a STUNNING defeat when their Motion For Summary Judgement attempting to dismiss a well written and defensible contention was denied. Our tip of the hat to the warriors in Vermont trying to close down the Vermont Yankee reactor...their victory ranks right up their with the one out in California at the Diablo Canyon site. Neither Entergy, NEI, EPRI or the NRC is happy about this event. The grassroots anti-nuclear movement is prying the lid off the can of worms, are about to expose the wretched stench that is the License Renewal Process. The NRC has been trying to ram these license renewals through before we got ourselves up and running...problem is, we are now WIDE AWAKE, and the tide is turning.

Bush is going to be traveling to Australia for APEC 2007 to meet with Prime Minister John Howard, with plans for Australia (against the will of the people) to join GNEP, and the push for a Nuclear Renaissance. There are some MAJOR protests being planned for his visit down under. As a show of solidarity with the Anti-Nuclear movement in Australia, world renowned activist Benny Zable and Remy Chevalier, GNB contributor, are planning a direct action in NYC on September 7th to coincide with Bush's visit to Australia. More details on this action as they arrive on our desk. If you would like to be vetted for this event, please write uraniumhotspot@aol.com with details about who you are, and what organization(s) you are affiliated with.

Lastly, GNB, Rock The Reactors and FUSE USA have been invited to table during EcoFest Sunday, September 30th at Lincoln Center. We encourage all Green Anti-Nuclear Folk to plan on attending this late September Earth Friendly spectacular in New York City.

Maria Sharapova plans trip back to Chernobyl

Maria Sharapova plans 1st trip back to Chernobyl since family fled

By BETH HARRIS

AP Sports Writer

August 13, 2007

CARSON, Calif. (AP) -- Maria Sharapova travels the world as the highest-paid female athlete, cocooning in fancy hotels, dining at swanky restaurants and indulging her love of shoes.

Yet there's one place the 20-year-old tennis superstar's journeys have never taken her -- the region devastated 21 years ago by the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster.

Sharapova's mother, Yelena, was pregnant with her only child when the plant in Ukraine exploded and spewed radioactive clouds over the western Soviet Union and northern Europe.

"A lot of families were moving, but not a lot of them could because they didn't really know where to go," Sharapova told The Associated Press. "My mom's dad happened to be working in Siberia, so that's why we had a sense of direction."

Sharapova's father, Yuri, and her mother fled the city of Gomel in Belarus -- about 80 miles north of Chernobyl -- shortly before she was born in Nyagan, Siberia.

Gomel was one of the areas most affected by radiation. Sharapova said she still has family there, including grandparents.

Sharapova plans to visit Chernobyl as a United Nations goodwill ambassador, perhaps after Wimbledon next July.

"It's in the beginning stages of what exactly I'm going to be doing," she said. "But I want to visit the facilities that they're building right now for the children -- computer labs and hospitals."

Sharapova started hitting tennis balls at age 4. Two years later, she was discovered by Martina Navratilova at a Moscow exhibition. At 9, Sharapova and her father moved to Florida, beginning a two-year separation from her mother because of visa restrictions and limited finances.

She's never forgotten her roots.

In 2004, Sharapova won the season-ending WTA Championships and received a car worth more than $56,000. She donated the money to those affected by the Russian school hostage crisis in Beslan in which 334 people died, more than half of them children.

In February, when Sharapova was appointed an ambassador for the U.N. Development Program, she donated $100,000 to help recovery in the Chernobyl region.

Goodwill ambassadors try to draw attention to the plight of some of the world's poorest spots. Sharapova, who has earned more than $9 million in career prize money, has a two-year contract with the UNDP that pays her a symbolic salary of $1 a year. Goodwill ambassadors pay their own way on trips.

"They wanted me to work with them because they felt like people in those areas didn't really feel like they had a chance to survive," Sharapova said. "They wanted me to help raise the awareness that by building schools, hospitals, cleaning the air that there is pride and a side they can head towards instead of thinking all those negative things."

Her trip to Chernobyl will last just a few days.

"Unfortunately, I have about 28 days a year for the work that I do and for the sponsors, for the photo shoots and the visits," she said. "Time is very, very limited."

Sharapova won her first title of the season a week ago near San Diego. During the tournament, she met with a group of Russian children visiting the United States.

Their trip was sponsored by The Children of Chernobyl, a nonprofit group that brings healthy children from Belarus between ages 8 and 12 to America for a six-to-eight week visit. They are placed with host families and the children receive free medical, dental and eye care treatment.

Upon meeting Sharapova, some of the families asked what advice she could give the children.

"It's tough because most of them don't have any parents, and what's really helped me in my life was having my mom and dad be so supportive and around me," she said.

Despite her Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles and No. 2 world ranking, Sharapova didn't expect the children to know who she was.

"They had all these questions lined up for me. The kids are pretty young and the questions they were asking me were so mature and so beyond their years," she said. "This young kid asked me how I wanted to raise my children. I was like, 'Geez, you're a kid yourself.' It was very strange."'

The children knew only rudimentary English phrases, like 'How are you?,' so they questioned her in Russian and Sharapova responded in her native language.

Hearing the kids squeal about their trip to Sea World brought back memories. As sophisticated as Sharapova comes off in photo spreads and on red carpets, she says she acts like a kid away from the court and cameras.

"I still love things that you don't even need to pay for," she said. "Going to the beach and being around five of your friends and having a good time means so much more than going out and spending hundreds of dollars. It did make me realize that, 'Wow, all these small things are making them happy."'

Sharapova is to begin her U.S. Open title defense Aug. 27. She withdrew from the semifinals of last week's tournament in Carson because of a leg injury. She said she plans to compete for another seven years.

"I have so many other things in my life that I want to try and do," she said, ticking off marriage and children among her goals. "I'd love to open a tennis school for children in my hometown of Sochi."

Sharapova said she recently read a book about Africa, and it, along with her charity work, has helped expand her world of forehands and backhands.

"If you're able to help some people and make them smile and make them realize that life is good," she said, "then that's worth so much more than buying a pair of shoes."

(Thanks to Susan Gordon of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability in Seattle for this item)

What EPRI, NEI, NRC and Nuclear Industry Do Not Want Reactor Workers Knowing

Nuclear Industry Workers, Killing Them Softly With Your REMs.

As we watch the nuclear industry rubber stamping license renewal for 104 failing American Nuclear Reactors in the name of a Nuclear Renaissance, we have to wonder where worker protections are at plants like Entergy Nuclear's Indian Point. To push through license renewals for failing reactors, the NRC has allowed EPRI and NEI to rewrite major sections of 10 CFR, the NRC regulations meant to protect human health,safety and the environment. Meanwhile, one simple rule change that would provide nuclear workers with a great deal of protection from cancer causing REM exposures sits on the back burner.

Almost universally, the world has a 2 REM a year exposure rating for people working in nuclear facilities...not so in America, and not even close for many workers at Nuclear Reactor sites. A quick rule change could enact this exposure rating for every NRC licensee...however, the NRC buckled to industry pressure (EPRI and NEI), and is taking no action on changing the rules to lower worker exposure limits until after EPRI (using statistics provided by NEI) conducts a study on the effects of lowering the yearly exposure limits from 3 REM to 2 REM on the industry! Let's save the industry a LOT OF TIME and MONEY by spelling out what such a rule change would do.

1. It would reduce worker radiation exposures by 1/3 from 3 REM to only 2 REM per year.

2. It would propably cost nuclear plant owners like Entergy who reported profits last year of almost half a billion dollars a few million a year in added staff.

3. It would provide union workers more job opportunities, as nuclear plants would have to schedule in more workers to keep individual employee exposures under 2 REM.

So, why not make this simple rule change? Because MANAGEMENT cares more about PROFITS than their workers, especially when those workers are the laborers, the pipe fitters, the welders, nozzle damn insertion-removal workers, radwaste technicians, in-house maintenance, valve and pump vendor technicians...in short, the blue collar, union workers, the back bone of American Industry.

It is a known fact that Indian Point workers read this blog...go to your management at Indian Point. Ask them if it is true that NRC is/has been considering a REM dose reduction. Ask them about the EPRI study on this topic, ask them why worker personal information was shared with EPRI for this study. Demand they explain to you, the worker being exposed why they as a company, as an industry are not pushing the NRC to make this rule change IMMEDIATELY.

Further, so that the NRC has ACCURATE records on every employee in the nuclear industry, demand that PADS tracking be mandatory for every worker in the industry, including in-house employees. Where is your union demanding this rule change? Where is your union in demanding that the NRC not grant exemptions to this exposure and tracking rule? One would think the Pipe fitters Local would be ALL OVER THIS VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE. Grow a backbone, demand that EPRI make public their study entitled:

Evaluation of 2 Rem per Year Occupational Dose Limit:
Potential Impacts on U.S. Nuclear Utilities

While Pushing For Nuclear Renaissance, EPRI, NEI, NRC and Nuclear Industry Hide Dangerous Labor Shortages Affecting Reactor Safety

The Nuclear Renaissance-ROTTEN EGGS Waiting To Hatch.

In EPRI's latest propaganda news publication, they had an article about the birth/hatching of the Nuclear Renaissance. If you look beyond the surface of the nuclear industry sales pitch, you quickly recognize the lies and stench that is the fetid reality of a industry that needs to die, plans for its rebirth set aside as the world investigates workable Global Warming solutions. One such lie, or serious issue as the nuclear industry races fool hearted down a pathway to hell, is a severely dangerous and hidden shortage of qualified craftsman. With this shortage, host communities are being put at and even greater risk and danger as these aging apocalyptic behemoths leak, degrade and move towards visiting one or more nuclear Holocausts upon the people of the world. Pick a reactor, Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim, Oyster Creek, Diablo Canyon or Indian Point to name a few...eventually, as the worker shortage deepens, we will see a catastrophic event.

As the nuclear industry races to be competitive while enhancing corporate profits communities are being put at serious and unacceptible risk as aging, crumbling reactors find themselves short of adequate numbers of qualified staff. Ruthless cut backs of personnel coupled with ever shorter outages has seen the loss of many qualified craftsman who, unemployed or under employed have moved on to other jobs in other industry. The shortage is reaching epidemic proportions, and will grow far worse in the next few years as many older employees retire, or seize the opportunity for lucrative positions as consultants as competition for a shrinking qualified work force in the nuclear industry intensifies.

According to the industries own whispered admissions, the shortages are extensive (see page 11), and cover almost every aspect of reactor safety and maintenance. NDE technicians, carpenters, grid personnel, welders, pipe fitters, insulators and people willing to do asbestos abatement are all in short supply. With the aggressive, even unrealistic goals found in the GNEP/Nuclear 2010 iniative documents, this worker shortage will only grow worse at a time when aging reactors being wrongfully relicensed will require ever more man hours to keep them up and running, let alone safe. Already many nuclear reactor licensees are seeing their FAC programs negatively impacted by these qualified worker shortages.

In industry meetings held in posh hotels where executives from DOE, EPRI, NEI, NRC and the nuclear industry are hidden from public scrutiny, management and regulators are scrambling to find ways to stem the arterial bleeding as the worker shortage grows worse with each passing day. Many of the ideas being bandied about are a recipe for disaster. The suggestions of desparate men as they struggle to keep a dying industry alive, breath new life into a decaying radioactive corpse. Without exception, their ideas are aimed at keeping their contaminated money machines up and running, with human health and safety getting nothing more than a cursory glance as safeguards are tossed to the curb with the full knowledge and blessing of the NRC.

How can we as a world even think about a Nuclear Renaissance when the industry cannot take care of the failing reactors they already own? Imagine corporate executives, members of industry groups such as EPRI and NEI sitting around a polished conference table suggesting that fewer safety inspections could ease the worker shortage. Competitors suggesting, even offering to share their work forces, transfering them temporarialy from plant to plant to do the work necessary for a refueling outage, while leaving their home reactors vulnerable and short handed should a serious radioactive incident and/or terrorist attack occur. Suggesting that corners be cut, less insulation, less scafolding as workers and the public are placed at ever increasing risks. To save time, to reduce man hour needs, areas requiring scaffolding for proper inspection simply ignored, or worse traded in for a pipe or similiar valve in a area that is easier, quicker to access. These supposedly honorable men are even willing to eliminate heat treatment of critical repair welds, that are already failing, even under idea conditions.

Perhaps, before Congress continues throwing billions of dollars in pork at the nuclear industry, it is time we citizens of America begin demanding some truthful answers to some hard questions.

Conservative safety measurements have been set aside, replaced with a cost benefit analysis that allows the nuclear industry to avoid, or postpone important inspections and/or repairs as they claim the benefits do not justify the costs. A dangerous trend, Russian Roulette with and accident only a matter of time, David Besse a perfect example of a bullet just dodged.

Regulations meant to protect human health and the environment are routinely set aside with another Generic Finding issued on the part of the NRC as they eliminate yet another safety reguirement or regulation meant to keep host communities safe. When do these dangerous actions and safety sacrifices end? Do we have to experience another Chernobyl for EPRI, NEI, NRC and the IAEA to admit they have sold their souls to the devil of greed? Are they blind to the incestous relationship that has given birth to a nuclear Rosemary's Baby? A line must be drawn in the proverbial sand, we as host communities must say enough is enough. You do not, and cannot man an aging nuclear reactor with a skeleton staff, and this aging management issue has not been addressed in any of the License Renewal Application processes yet...why?

People miss the various ironies and warnings associated with the nuclear industry, miss the cosmic warning signals of a scam perpetrated upon the world. Indian Point's reactor 1, as if in some cruel joke shut down on Halloween (October 31), 1974, yet the horrors of its existence are still haunting our community as radioactive contaminants leak from its spent fuel pool, putting it in violation of its SAFESTOR agreements. How many saw the irony in the IAEA arriving in Japan, starting to inspect the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant on the same day that Hiroshima was bombed? (August 6th)

The Japanese Government, officials of TEPCO are anxious to A) save face, and B) get their reactors back up, and so are prepared to bury the truth under a flourish of FAKE INSPECTIONS, cursory walk throughs by the revered United Nations watchdog, the IAEA. Smiling under their false claims of repentance, knowing a rubber stamped inspection, and a green light to start back up is just around the corner. This suspicion was born out when the IAEA inspection team in Japan said they had time constraints that required them completing the inspection of SEVEN reactors in just one week. 68 known and serious violations, seven reactors built atop a faultline, and the people of Japan, of the world are supposed to believe the IAEA can do a full and complete SAFETY INSPECTION in one week? Who are we kidding?

Much like the truth about the nuclear industry's worker shortage, honesty about the severity of the damage at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant could deliver a knock out blow to the Nuclear Renaissance. Imagine the world wide reaction, the reaction of Wall Street if it was announced that TEPCO's seven reactors had suffered severe damage, could not be restarted because of their position atop and ACTIVE EARTHQUAKE FAULT. Even NEI's desparately sought 100 percent loan guarantees would not save the industry's Nuclear Renaissance if these truths were adequately covered by the major media outlets.

This past week we watched the news story, saw the tragedy of the bridge collapse in Minnesota unfold before our eyes. As we thank God that the catastrophy was not worse than it was, let us not miss out on what should be lessons learned. Failed, inadequate or postponed infrastructures contributed to that bridge collapse. Steel fatigue, concrete embrittlement and other aging issues contributed to the collapse of that bridge, which is about the same age as many of Americans oldest reactors, such as Indian Point. Government and industry took a chance, believe they could postpone necessary repairs, avoid closing down the bridge...they were wrong.

The nuclear industry, EPRI, NEI and the NRC want us to believe they can sacrifice maintenance and eliminate safety inspections, while keeping us safe. They want us to believe that reactors license and designed for a 40 year life span can be operated for another 20 years if the plant owners have an adequate aging management plan in place. What if they are wrong? What if worker shortages, discarded regulations, and eliminated safety margins are setting us up for a nuclear reactor infrastructure failure as steel fatigue, embrittlement and radioactive bombardment of reactor cores see a nuclear plant give up the ghost, just as that bridge in Minnesota gave up its ghost? Is it fair for the nuclear industry and the NRC to dictatorially force such risks on host communities? Is it wise to jeapordize the safety of 21 million people here in New York by relicensing Indian Point?

Like George W. Bush, Obama Is Nuclear Industry Poodle

George W. Bush sold out to the nuclear industry, became their bitch back in 1996 while he was Governor of Texas. As Senator Barack Obama plays with the idea of being President one day he seems more than willing to borrow a page out of President Bush's play book, and play the part of the nuclear industry's Poodle. In the photographs above, you can see him sucking up to the nuclear abortion monsters from Exelon...course, let's remember that Hillary Clinton wants to play both sides to the middle, flip flopping on all issues nuclear depending on where in America she is speaking. Maybe they both need to come out strongly on the side of closing the failing Indian Point reactors if they want to carry New York in 2008.