CNN reports that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's enforcement of safety and environmental protection regulations is inconsistent across the U.S. CNN cited NRC's inconsistency on tritium leaks into groundwater, as at Exelon Braidwood nuclear plant in Illinois and its Oyster Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey, as examples. Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter devoted a section each to those very nuclear plants -- as well as to Entergy's Vermont Yankee, Palisades (MI), and Indian Point (NY) nuclear power plants -- in his report Leak First, Fix Later, about tritium and other radioactivity leaks from underground and buried pipes, as well from high-level radioactive waste storage pools, at U.S. nuclear power plants.
CNN also quoted some witty things Union of Concerned Scientist's David Lochbaum had to say about this issue: " 'NRC's almost acting like they're waiting till somebody dies till they enforce the regulation. Tombstone regulation -- that's too high a price to pay by Americans'...Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer and former instructor for the NRC, claims the commission is playing what he calls 'regulatory roulette,' sanctioning plant owners and demanding a clean-up in some cases, such as the Braidwood spill, but not in other instances, like Oyster Creek. 'The NRC can't have a 'Wheel of Misfortune' that decides when it acts and when it doesn't. The NRC needs to consistently enforce its regulations so that all Americans living in all states are protected,' Lochbaum said."
Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates made that exact same point to the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) on May 26th. Speaking the issue of radioactive containment breaches in the U.S., Arnie testified to the ACRS:
"...In 2010 when I met with you as a candidate for an opening on the ACRS, we discussed NPSH [net positive suction head] and its relation to containment integrity. I noted then that the Browns Ferry units had not been allowed the NPSH credit, yet ACRS granted the NPSH credit to Vermont Yankee five years earlier. It is illogical that that the people of Alabama have more accident protection than the people of Vermont." So much for "Equal Protection Under Law"! Arnie's written testimony is posted online as the final three pages of the ACRS transcript; Arnie's reading of his written testimony, with an introduction by Maggie Gundersen, is posted at the Fairewinds Associates homepage.