"Process Flaws" in NRC's 20 year license extension rubber-stamp process

Riverkeeper has published an account at its website about "Process Flaws" with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) license extension process:

"Riverkeeper has previously joined regional and national nuclear watchdog groups in petitioning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to suspend current license renewal proceedings for the Indian Point, Oyster Creek, Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants until an objective and independent investigation is conducted into the current license renewal process.

This petition was in direct response to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit in September 2007 which found:

1) The NRC staff failed to verify the authenticity of technical safety information in over 97% of the renewal applications audited by OIG; and

2) NRC staff reviewers routinely ‘cut and pasted’ whole sections of the renewal application text into their own safety reviews, rather than write their own evaluations.

At the Ginna nuclear power plant in upstate New York, the Inspector General found that NRC staff had copied 100% of the safety review data provided by the nuclear operator into its own safety evaluation, without providing any evidence that the information in the application had been properly verified."