Lochbaum lauds NRC for standing strong against Ft. Calhoun flooding risks

Union of Concerned Scientists nuclear safety director, Dave Lochbaum, has pointed out that a "yellow finding" (the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's second highest category of safety violation) at Ft. Calhoun in 2010 has resulted in the plant being more prepared against flood risks than it otherwise would have been. The NRC described the Ft. Calhoun "yellow finding" as of "substantial importance to safety that may result in additional NRC inspection and potentially other NRC action. This Yellow finding involved the failure to maintain procedures for combating a significant flood...". NRC warned at the time that "At or before a water level of 1010-feet MSL [mean sea level], flood waters would enter the auxiliary building basement, shorting power and submerging pumps. The plant could  then experience a station blackout with core damage estimated within 15 to 18 hours without makeup to the steam generators." Omaha Public Power District tried to get NRC to lower the safety significance of the "yellow finding," but NRC refused -- for which Lochbaum expressed "kudos" to NRC for standing strong. In its report on the safety violation, NRC stated "This hesitance to consider other methods for hardening the facility against external floods during this period did not support crediting the organization with understanding the need for and developing a different strategy during a postulated flooding scenario. If your procedures were to be followed, it is not clear that attempts to further harden the facility would be made until water levels reached the point that the defenses were breached." NRC also concluded that OPPD's plans to obtain pumping equipment locally in the event of an emergency were likely to fail, given the pumps being in high demand and the short amount of time they would have. Also, NRC determined that OPPD's plans to use an on-site fire truck and crane to remove flood water from vital areas would likely fail. In the face of OPPD claims that it would figure out what to do as the need arose, NRC responded "we do not consider short-term planning in advance of an external initiator to be a valid input to a risk evaluation...". Incredibly, NRC documented that such lack of preparedness for floods have existed at Ft. Calhoun from 1978 to 2010 -- for 32 years! 

NRC self-defensive against local resolution calling for Oyster Creek's shut down

NRC file photo of Oyster Creek atomic reactorIn a letter dated June 8th, NRC has rebuffed an April 26th (passed on the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe's 25th commemoration, ironically) resolution passed by Berkeley Township calling for the closure of the 41 year old Oyster Creek atomic reactor. The oldest operating commercial reactor in U.S. history, Oyster Creek is a General Electric Boiling Water Reactor of the Mark 1 design, an identical twin to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4. The NRC Commissioners, by a split decision, voted to approve the 20 year license extension at Oyster Creek on April Fool's Day, 2009, a decision then finalized by NRC staff a week later. Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter helped lead the intervention against the license extension. The Asbury Park Press has reported on this story.

Concerned citizens blast NRC: "No Fukushima on the Hudson!"

Residents of the area surrounding Indian Point nuclear plant call for the plant to be shut down (NYC Indymedia)Chris Williams at Socialistworker.org has written an inspiring account of 600 concerned citizens taking over an NRC "annual performance review" of the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Williams describes an angry -- yet calm -- determination from growing numbers of concerned citizens to block Indian Point's 20 year license extension, despite NRC's rubber stamp tendencies to the contrary. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps sensed a similar angry, yet calm, determination in Vermont in mid March -- just one to two weeks following the beginning of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, despite NRC's rubberstamp of Vermont Yankee's 20 year license extension. Growing numbers realize we need to shut 'em down before they melt down, as Gil Scott-Heron's anti-nuke anthem put it. A follow up rally is being organized for June 11th in New York City, in solidarity with similar actions in Japan to mark the third month of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.

"NRC Officials Face Hostile Anti-Indian Point Crowd"

NRC file photo of Indian Point on the banks of the Hudson RiverThe Daily Dobbs Ferry reports that anti-nuclear protestors took over an NRC meeting about Indian Point nuclear power plant with chants of "Close Indian Point," leaving NRC officials "rattled." The Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, Hudson Riverkeeper, Citizens Awareness Network, Greenpeace, Hudson Sloop Clearwater, and others all urged concerned citizens to take part in the meeting, including issuing a media release calling for a big public turnout.

" Some fear U.S. nuclear agency is playing 'regulatory roulette' "

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.