Markey challenges NRC on nuclear safety culture violations within the agency itself

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA)U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), Ranking Democrat on U.S. House committees of jurisdiction over the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), has been leading an investigation into alleged problems with the safety culture at some NRC regional offices -- including Region IV based in Texas, and Region III based in Illinois -- that have resulted in retaliation against NRC staff who disclose safety concerns. Markey also highlighted allegations that the nuclear power industry has inappropriately pressured NRC's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS).

Rep. Markey was tipped off on April 24, 2012 by anonymous NRC Region IV whistleblowers about harassment, intimidation, and retaliation which, they alleged, had been perpetrated by NRC Region IV senior manager Troy Pruett, against NRC staff who raised safety concerns regarding the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska. Fort Calhoun suffered a serious fire during historic floods on the Missouri River in summer 2011, which inundated the entire nuclear power plant, and came within just a few feet of overtopping critical flood protection barriers at the facility. Pruett allegedly pressured NRC safety inspectors under his supervison to lower their proposed "Red finding" (NRC's worst safety violation designation) to a "Green finding" (indicating "low safety significance"), in order to make his own job easier as head of the the Ft. Calhoun restart regulatory oversight team. Evidence also has surfaced that Pruett resisted needed safety upgrades that proved critical in barely averting disaster during the flooding.

NRC Region IV also oversees the problem-plagued San Onofre nuclear power plant in southern California, as well as the South Texas Project nuclear power plant, which just suffered a serious transformer fire.

Rep. Markey's office has charged the NRC with dragging its feet on -- or outright undermining -- an adequateinvestigation into the allegations of safety culture violations. He cites an internal NRC survey, responded to by 3,000 of NRC's 4,000 employees, which found a majority of the staff felt the agency's differing professional opinion program, for dissent within the system, was ineffective. Markey also chided the NRC Commission itself for slow walking, or even actively blocking, post-Fukushima safety upgrades recommend by the agency's safety staff. He warned that such behavior by the NRC Commission could well embolden recalcitrant NRC senior managers to double down on retaliating against NRC safety staff for aggressively striving to protect pubic health, safety, and the environment against radiological risks. Rep. Markey's office has created a timeline, providing links to his correspondence with NRC's Chairman on these matters.

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OUR SUPPORTERS!

A big and heartfelt thank you to all our supporters who have given to Beyond Nuclear in 2012! Donations are still coming in but we have been overwhelmed by your generosity and are truly grateful to all of you! We appreciate those of you who have given in honor of a loved one, a colleague or a friend or to help us purchase a new media database service. We’ve also appreciated the many kind notes to us included with both the postal mailing returns and the on-line gifts. If you are reading this and do not receive our weekly email bulletin and would like to, please Join Us here. If you would like to be added to our postal mailings, please let Linda Gunter, our development director, know, and include your full mailing address. And thank you again!

Vermont Yankee: 2012 year in review, preview of what's to come in 2013

Members of the Shut It Down! affinity group, which has conducted a large number of nonviolent civil disobedience actions against Vermont YankeeIn an article by entitled "The Battle over the Fate of Vermont Yankee," the Brattleboro Reformer recapped a momentous 2012, and previewed a fateful 2013. The past year saw a federal judge rule in favor of Entergy Nuclear, that the state had overstepped into U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) jurisdiction on safety matters. However, in the same ruling, the judge upheld the State of Vermont Public Service Board's (PSB) authority to grant -- or deny -- a Certificate of Public Good (CPG). The PSB is currently taking public comment on whether, or not, it should allow Entergy to continue to do business in the Green Mountain State.

2012 also saw a large-scale non-violent civil disobedience (NVCD) action at Entergy's Vermont headquarters in Vernon, with over 1,000 marchers, and 130 arrests, in protest of the Vermont Yankee (VY) atomic reactor's first day of its NRC rubberstamped 20-year license extension on March 22nd. Also, the Shut It Down! affinity group (pictured, left) continued their waves of NVCD arrests at Vermont Yankee, and received their first convictions for trespassing; they refuse to pay the fines, however, and vow to continue their actions.

As 2013 dawns, lawsuits are being launched, back and forth. The Vermont Attorney General will present oral arguments at the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City on Jan. 14th, seeking to overturn the Entergy v. State of Vermont ruling from a year ago. Later this month, the New England Coalition is arguing before the Vermont Supreme Court that, without a renewed CPG, Entergy should not be allowed to operate VY one more day.

NRC pleads insufficient funds to resume Yucca dump licensing proceeding

Yucca Mountain, as viewed through the frame of a Western Shoshone Indian sweat lodge. Photo by Gabriela Bulisova.As reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal, despite a ruling by a three-judge panel from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that the Yucca Mountain dump licensing proceeding should be resumed, a lawyer for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has admitted that there are not enough funds in the coffers to do so, with no relief in sight. The Obama administration, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), have zeroed out funding for the Yucca Mountain Project for several years.

The Review Journal reported that the State of Nevada has vowed to fight on if the licensing proceeding is resumed:

"...Halstead [Director of the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects] offered assurance that Nevada's legal team is prepared for a fight if the appeals panel signals resumption of the hearings. 'If they restart the licensing proceedings, we're ready to bloody them up on 200-plus contentions, and 100 of those are really, really strong,' he said. 'This is not going to be a cakewalk through the license application.'"

As reported by the Aiken Standard, however, Aiken County, South Carolina -- home to large amounts of high-level radioactive waste at the Savannah River Site nuclear weapons complex -- is arguing the licensing proceeding should resume post haste, with whatever funding is available. Aiken County, the State of South Carolina, and the State of Washington sued the federal government, to force the resumption of the Yucca licensing proceeding.

Ironically enough, while Aiken County and the State of South Carolina seek to export their high-level radioactive wastes to Yucca Mountain, Nevada, pro-nuclear boosters are simultaneously volunteering -- and lobbying the federal government -- to import large quantitites of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel for "centralized interim storage," and even reprocessing, at the Savannah River Site.

States have no confidence in NRC's Nuke Waste Con Game

VT AG William SorrellAs reported by the Rutland Herald, Vermont and New York have filed joint comments with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the agency's Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule. The Attorneys General of VT and NY, who filed the joint comments, along with the Attorneys General of CT and NJ, were plaintiffs in the original lawsuit, which resulted in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals nullifying NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence on June 8, 2012. The court then ordered the agency to carry out an environmental impact statement on the risks of long-term storage of high-level radioactive waste at reactor sites, such as Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee and Indian Point near New York City.

The State of Vermont Department of Public Service joined in the VT and NY AG's joint comments. VT's Public Service Board is currently considering whether or not Entergy Nuclear, which has actually sued its three commissioners by name, whether the out-of-state utility deserves a Certificate of Public Good to continue doing business in the Green Mountain State.

State of Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell (pictured, left) stated that "Until the D.C. Circuit’s ruling, the NRC licensed and relicensed nuclear reactors on the assumption that the federal government would take away all of the spent fuel from each reactor site at some defined time, so the NRC never looked at the possibility that the fuel might stay there for years, decades, or even centuries.” He added that NRC has to consider whether licensing new -- and extending the licenses at old -- reactors makes sense in light of the long-term environmental impacts of onsite irradiated nuclear fuel storage, and the uncertainty surrounding the availability of a permanent dumpsite at any point in the future. In the 1980s, the U.S. Department of Energy was eyeing 7 potential sites in Vermont's granite for a national repository, as well as additional sites in neighboring New Hampshire (Hillsboro) and Maine (Sebago Lake).

Sorrell's office will present oral arguments at the Second Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in New York City on January 14th, seeking to overturn a federal district judge's ruling in favor of NRC's rubberstamping Entergy Vermont Yankee's 20-year license extension, despite the laws of the State of Vermont to the contrary.