Congressman Kucinich successfully demands NRC public meeting on Davis-Besse shield building cracks
December 29, 2011
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Congressman Kucinich is closely monitoring the cracked shield building at Davis-Besse atomic reactorU.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (Democrat-Ohio) has successfully demanded from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission a public meeting regarding the recently revealed, widespread cracking in FirstEnergy Nuclear's Davis-Besse atomic reactor shield building.

Kucinich stated in a press release on December 23rd: “The NRC is right to give the public the chance to ask questions of FirstEnergy about the questionable structural integrity of Davis-Besse.  I have already uncovered significant new information which has raised new questions about the cracks in the shield building through my own investigation.  I look forward to a frank discussion with FirstEnergy on January 5.”

As described in an NRC announcement, the meeting will take place on Thursday, January 5, from 6:30 to 9:30 pm Eastern, at Camp Perry, a military base near Davis-Besse in Port Clinton, Ohio. Beyond Nuclear, which is helping lead an environmental coalition intervention against the problem-plagued Davis-Besse's 20 year license extension, encourages all who can attend the meeting in person to do so. For others around the country, NRC is providing a toll-free phone line for calling in: "Members of the public interested in participating in the meeting can attend in person or by calling the toll-free teleconference number 800-369-1122 and entering passcode 7687149."

Congressman Kucinich has taken a lead role in questioning the safety significance of Davis-Besse's shield building cracks, and NRC's rash decision to allow the reactor to re-start before the cause and extent of the problem is even understood.

As revealed by an NRC-commissioned, Sandia National Lab-conducted study from 1982, a major radioactivity release at Davis-Besse could cause 1,400 "peak early fatalities," 73,000 "peak early injuries," 10,000 "peak cancer deaths," $84 billion in property damages. Those property damages would top $185 billion when adjusted for inflation; population increases in the past 40 years have not been accounted for in NRC's 1982 casualty figures, as they were based on 1970 U.S. Census data.

Article originally appeared on Beyond Nuclear (https://archive.beyondnuclear.org/).
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