Meltdown Madness

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• Reader Comments (6)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  Hear no evil. See no evil. It worked for the asbestos industry so why not the American nuclear industry? To all the partiotic citizens of America, good luck.

  Posted by Doug on Apr 8, 2004 at 12:09 PM

  Articles like this betray a fundamental ignorance of the nuclear power industry.

  1) The regulatory barriers to building new nuclear power facilities are nearly insurmountable.  The large amount of money spent by the nuclear industry PACs is lobby money intended to protect their existing investments from over-regulation.

  2) The lethality of a nuclear power accident is nowhere near what this article implies . . . and even in a worst case scenario, emergency action measures mentioned (covering food, washing exposed persons and clothing) would in fact mitigate much of the hazard in even a worst-case scenario.  Are the authors trying to suggest that nuclear power plants shouldn’t make emergency information available?

  3) High pressure to fine companies for errors creates a “no-tolerance” workplace where errors are swept under the rug by middle management.  As I recall this kind of thinking cost NASA two space shuttles.  As for the large number of errors reported, this is because in the current regulatory requirement, even minor errors _are_ reported, because there is no threat of punitive fines to drive them under the rug.  And detecting minor errors is the way to prevent serious errors.

  4) The security issues at nuclear power facilities are entirely due to a lack of funding from the client (nuclear power companies).  If they were willing to pay for enough guards to provide security, there would be no problem defending against the potential threats.  The money from more fines would probably come directly out of security budgets . . .

  Intelligent government and public oversight and regulation of the nuclear power industry is essential.  Fear-mongering of the type in this article is pointless.
  

  Posted by Andrew on Apr 11, 2004 at 10:01 PM

  It’s amazing that Bush likes to talk about “evil” and “family values” while promoting policies that poison and sicken children.

  Arguably, poisoning children is an “evil” enterprise that should be fought with every available resource. Dumping toxic shit in the ground that has a half-life of 5,000 years [or roughly twice the amount of time since Jesus walked the earth] is definitely not supportive of family values.

  Of all the atrocious things that this administration has done, it’s energy policy is perhaps the worst. However, the fault also lies with 40 years of cronysim and $40 billion of sunsidies for the nuclear industry because of some phantom “national security” imperative, when solar research gets a paltry few millions for year.

  If we had invested even 20 years ago the resources in renewble energy that we do for nuclear, we would not need a drop of oil from the middle east today. That is national security! and family values rolled into one.

  Unfortunately our congress has been just as tacitly corrupt as the executive branch, which enables the current of list of truly egregious assholes to continue posiong our children for profit. It’s madness, with the morally crippled leading the intellectually blind. . .

  Great article, keep up the good work.

  Posted by Ed Mellon on Apr 14, 2004 at 4:52 PM

  Regardless of nuclear power industry regulations, one has to wonder why this country is NOT focused on alternative energy. Solar, Wind, and Biofuel would provide an avenue of new prosperity and should be the main pillar of a national energy policy. We have the technology to rebuild him (energy industry). Better, cleaner, and a gradual weaning from our dependency on fossil fuel, not to mention the jobs that would be created. Ah… There’s nothing quite like our leaders putting the American people first.

  Posted by DKB on Apr 16, 2004 at 6:10 PM

  Andrew, no need for ‘Fear-mongering’ when the truth will suffice.  I submit for your examination:

  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/21/nat tional1844EDT0802.DTL
  Vermont nuclear plant searching for missing fuel rods
  April 21, 2004
  Two pieces of a highly radioactive fuel rod are missing from a Vermont nuclear plant, and engineers planned to search onsite for the nuclear material, officials said Wednesday.
  The fuel rod was removed in 1979 from the Vermont Yankee reactor, which is currently shut down for refueling and maintenance. Remote-control cameras will be used to search a spent fuel pool on the property, officials said.
  “We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the pool,” said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan.
  But Sheehan said it was possible the spent fuel was mixed in with a shipment of low-level nuclear waste and ended up at a repository in South Carolina, or a facility in Washington state. He said it was also possible it was taken to a nuclear testing facility run by General Electric, which designed the plant.
  The material would be fatal to anyone who came in contact with it without being properly shielded, Sheehan said. Spent nuclear fuel also could be used by terrorists to construct so-called dirty bombs that would spread deadly radiation with conventional explosives.
  The NRC is helping plant officials in the search. The rod was part of the fuel assembly used to power the reactor. One of the missing pieces is about the size of a pencil. The other piece is about the thickness of a pencil and 17 inches long.
  “It would be very difficult to remove this material from the site without somebody knowing about it,” Sheehan said. “It would set off radiation monitors.”
  Sheehan cited the heightened awareness of the need to control nuclear material that followed the Sept. 11 terror attacks. “We don’t want this falling into the wrong hands,” he said. “This is something we would never take lightly.”
  Gov. James Douglas, after speaking Wednesday afternoon with the head of the NRC, said he was “very concerned” about the missing fuel at the plant, run by Entergy Nuclear.
  “This situation is intolerable,” he said in a statement.
  In 2002 a Connecticut nuclear plant was fined $288,000 after a similar loss. That fuel was never accounted for.
  

  Posted by J Hoover Bushwah on Apr 22, 2004 at 12:51 AM

  ...and for your further consideration:

  http://timesargus.com/04/Story/82243.html

  Cracks found in Yankee plant - Apr. 17, 2004

  A key component at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has developed cracks - even before it starts generating additional power.

  Workers at Vermont Yankee discovered four small cracks in the steam dryer inside the reactor this week, plant officials announced Friday. The dryer has caused serious problems at other reactors that have increased power production, as the Vernon plant is scheduled to do.

  ...Steam dryers have become areas of concern in the nuclear industry - and with the Vermont Public Service Board - because of problems at four reactors in Illinois.

  ...The other plants’ dryers cracked after they started producing higher levels of power. Those plants have proved to be more unreliable, a fact that was a major economic concern of Vermont regulators during recent hearings on the project and a prime factor behind the Vermont Public Service Board’s request for an “independent engineering assessment” of the aging reactor.

  ...The steam dryer is considered a non-nuclear, or non-safety, problem. But in at least one other plant the steam dryer partially disintegrated, sending a huge piece of steel toward the reactor itself. That plant, Quad Cities Unit 2, in Illinois, had to shut down twice because of the problem.

  ...Arnold Gundersen, a nuclear engineer and expert witness working with the coalition on the “uprate” case, said that the fact that cracks weren’t discovered during other inspections was further proof that NRC surveys are inadequate. “Either they missed it for five years, or it’s a fast-growing problem that wasn’t detected,” Gundersen said. “How good is the inspection program?”

  ...David Lochbaum, a nuclear scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C., said, “They didn’t expect to find the cracks. That’s why the plant needs ‘a sanity check.’”

  Lochbaum said the cracks are relatively small and in a low-stress area. But he made another pitch for an independent review of the plant.

  “They are always fixing yesterday’s problems,” he said. “They need to find tomorrow’s problem before it becomes a serious problem,” Lochbaum said.

  Posted by J Hoover Bushwah on Apr 22, 2004 at 1:34 AM

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