"...a serious accident is not just likely but inevitable."

Galatis on the cover of TIME on March 4, 1996.This stark warning came from George Galatis to TIME Magazine in March, 1996. In an article entitled "NUCLEAR WARRIORS" by Eric Pooley, the cautionary tale of whisteblowers George Galatis and George Betancourt was recounted. Galatis, backed by Betancourt, suffered several years of harrassment and intimidation from nuclear utility NU (Northeast Utilities), as he struggled to force regulatory compliance at Millstone Unit 1 in Connecticut. For two decades, NU had routinely flouted U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) safety regulations regarding thermal heat loads in high-level radioactive waste storage pools. Not only were full cores of exceedingly hot irradiated nuclear fuel rods routinely offloaded into storage pools -- an action that's supposed to only be taken in emergency situations -- but plant workers actually raced the offloading, in clear violation of NRC safety rules. Such "hot rod races" actually caused a worker's rubber booties to melt, as he was ordered to quickly unbolt the just-operating reactor lid to allow for irradiated nuclear fuel unloading. Such flippant disregard for the risks at the "ass end of the nuclear fuel cycle" risked high-level radioactive waste storage pool boiling -- or even sudden drain down. Either way, irradiated nuclear fuel could catch fire, with catastrophic radioactivity releases outside containment, and nightmarish consequences downwind. The Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear catastrophe has shown that such risks are not abstract, hypothetical, or theoretical -- but all too real. Despite all this, NRC was entirely complicit with NU's disregard for high-level radioactive waste storage pool safety. Despite supposed reforms in the aftermath of Galatis's revelations, NRC still allows high-level radioactive waste storage pools to be packed to the gills, without emergency back up power supplies, nor even water level or temperature gauges. As Galatis warned TIME in 1996,  "...a serious accident is not just likely but inevitable."

Commenting on the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear catastrophe, including large-scale releases of hazardous radioactivity from burning high-level radioactive waste storage pools, Galatis said to Intel Hub on April 11, 2011: 

 “Since the start of the Japanese nuclear crisis, I have been very concerned about its consequences to the Japanese people, to the general public, and about the lack of attention to what I perceive as being the real issue...The real issue is that of nuclear safety. Right now the true risk to public health and safety associated with the generation of nuclear power is intentionally kept from the public. Because of misplaced trust, these enormous risks are in effect being enforced on the public without their knowledge or consent. People need to know about and agree to accept the real risks involved so that when a scenario like Fukushima—or worse—arises here, there is already a degree of acceptance. Without this formal public acceptance, nuclear power will never be cost effective nor will it survive.”

Galatis calls high-level radioactive waste storage pools in the U.S. "potential timebombs," with risks greater than Chernobyl.

Despite Galatis's courageous whistleblowing nearly 20 years ago (he effectively sacrificed his career and livelihood, and was run out of the nuclear power industry, with no protection from NRC), NRC has allowed nuclear utilities to continue adding 20 to 30 tons of additional high-level radioactive waste to their storage pools each year. By 2015, almost every pool in the U.S. will be overfilled to the maximum extent possible. Utilities keep them full, rather than transferring the high-level radioactive wastes to safer (although still not safe) dry cask storage. Why? To save money in the near term -- in order to defer the relatively minor costs of installing dry cask storage.

Most ironically, Millstone Unit 1 -- despite having been permamently shut down, in large part thanks to Galatis's self-sacrificing whistleblowing -- retains a packed-to-the-gills high-level radioactive waste storage pools, despite having an identical design -- the General Electric Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor -- as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's Units 1 to 4. Beyond Nuclear, supported by a growing number of grassroots groups who live in the shadows of 24 U.S. Mark 1s,  has fired an emergency enforcement petition off to NRC demanding back up power on the pools, and immediate suspension of operating licenses until the lessons of Fukushima can be learned, and applied in the U.S.

Robert Alvarez warns about catastrophic risks at U.S. high-level radioactive waste storage pools

Robert Alvarez (pictured at left), senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and former senior advisor to the Energy Secretary during the Clinton administration, has published "Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools in the U.S.: Reducing the Deadly Risks of Storage." The report comes in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, in which one or more high-level radioactive waste storage pools may have already discharged catastrophic amounts of radioactivity into the environment, and several more remain at risk of doing so for lack of cooling water. Alvarez warns that densely-packed high-level radioactive waste storage pools at U.S. nuclear power plants should be off-loaded into outdoor dry casks as a vital national security measure. But while such irradiated nuclear fuel transfer from pools to dry casks is necessary, it is far from sufficient. Although he mentions the need to upgrade safety and security on current dry cask storage in the U.S., and even cites the National Academies of Science saying it is needed, this report falls short of fully calling for hardened on-site storage (HOSS). HOSS, endorsed by nearly 200 environmental groups across the U.S., also calls for pools to be emptied, but into hardened, well designed and constructed dry casks. Hardening envisions fortifications against attack, safeguards against accident, radiation and heat monitoring, and quality assurance to prevent failure of the containers in the decades and even centuries to come. None of this is currently required by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In fact, the very dry cask systems Alvarez points to in his report have exhibited safety, security, and environmental vulnerabilities. The German Castor cask failed to withstand a TOW anti-tank missile simulated attack at the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in 1998. And the Holtec casks -- already deployed at 33 operating U.S. atomic reactors -- suffer from major QA violations in their design, manufacture, and operational usage. Of course, we must stop making high-level radioactive waste -- once it exists, it is inherently risky forevermore.

New attempts to cool high-level radioactive waste storage pools at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan

According to NHK public broadcaster in Japan, Tokyo Electric Power Company has announced the installation of heat exchangers in the Unit 2 atomic reactor building intended to help cool the unit's distressed high-level radioactive waste storage pool. The Unit 1 and Unit 3 reactor buildings are to similarly get heat exchangers in June, and the Unit 4 reactor building in July, in a bid to prevent any further high-level radioactive waste fires, as occurred in the Unit 4 pool in the initial days of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.

Entergy Nuclear high-level radioactive waste storage facility violates NRC earthquake safety regulations

Beyond Nuclear, in alliance with Don't Waste Michigan, has issued a media release warning that the Palisades atomic reactor's high-level radioactive waste dry cask storage -- just 100 yards from the water of Lake Michigan -- remains vulnerable to earthquakes. In addition, Palisades' indoor pool, storing many hundreds of tons of high-level radioactive waste, remains vulnerable to disruptions of the primary electric grid, as it lacks any backup power. Also, Entergy Nuclear has indefinitely postponed multiple, vital safety repairs. NRC has let them get away with all these reactor and radioactive waste risks. The 44 year old atomic reactor, which just began its NRC-approved 20 year license extension on March 24th, needs its reactor lid replaced, its steam generators replaced, its emergency sumps upgraded, and its fire protection regulations upgraded. Any one of these risks could lead to Chernobyl- or Fukushima-scale radioactivity releases in the heart of the Great Lakes, source of drinking water for 40 million people in the U.S., Canada, and many Native American First Nations.  (In the photo above, Mike Keegan, Alice Hirt, and Kevin Kamps of Don't Waste Michigan's board of director speak out against the reactor and radioactive waste risks at Palisades during the Aug. 2000 Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camp; Palisades' cooling tower steam is visible in the background; the crosses bear the names of surrounding downwind communities that could be ruined in the event of a catastrophic radioactivity release).

After $31 billion and counting, utilities cry "hold, enough!"

The nation's electric utitlies have collectively paid the U.S. Department of Energy $31 billion to "take away" their radioactive waste. But of course, there is still nowhere for it to go - a problem that is likely to persist indefinitely. Given the lack of a waste dump or other "solution," the utilities are suing the DOE to try to suspend fees they pay the government for nuclear waste storage. But the DOE wants to keep collecting its annual fees because, as the agency telllingly admits to Automated Trader, "they'll eventually develop a long-term storage solution. And when they do, it's likely to be expensive."