What's really behind the "witch hunt" targeted at NRC Chairman Jaczko?

U.S. NRC Chairman Gregory JaczkoRyan Grim of Huffington Post, in an in-depth investigative report, documents that U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner (NRC) William Magwood IV and top Nuclear Energy Institute lobbyist Alex Flint have worked together before to "take down" Democratic political appointees in the nuclear energy field. Andrew Cockburn had also previously reported on this story at Counterpunch, quoting Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps:

“[NRC Chairman Jaczko's] not ‘our guy’ by any means, he has voted to re-license plants that should probably be shut down” says Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear.  “But he does care about safety, in ways that the [other NRC Commissioners] do not.”

One of Jaczko's (pictured, left) greatest "transgressions" against the nuclear power industry and its right wing political supporters -- earning their eternal wrath -- seems to be his carrying out of President Obama's policy decision to phase out the Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump. Before becoming an NRC Commissioner, Magwood had advocated for opening the Yucca dump.

Media coverage of this "mutiny" at the highest levels of the NRC began on Friday, December 9th with U.S. Representative Darrell Issa's (Republican-California) public release of a letter from NRC Commissioners Magwood, Svinicki, Ostendorff, and Apostolakis to President Obama that was clearly marked "Not for Public Disclosure," and has continued up to the present, as documented, with links to the articles, at the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Project's What's News page.

The webcast of the 3 hour, 30 minute long hearing on these matters, conducted on Dec. 15, 2011 by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), featuring the five NRC Commissioners as the sole witnesses, is archived online.

U.S. Congressman Kucinich successfully demands NRC public meeting on cracked Davis-Besse shield building

U.S. Rep. Kucinich is closely monitoring the cracked Davis-Besse shield buildingU.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.

Is Palisades the Upper Big Branch Coal Mine of the nuclear power industry?!

Michael Keegan, Alice Hirt, and Kevin Kamps of Don't Waste Michigan call for Palisades' shut down at the 2000 Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camp, with the reactor's cooling tower steam and Lake Michigan visible in the background.Blogger Mike Mulligan of Hinsdale, NH recently made this comparison in his "The Entergy-Palisades Upper Branch Coal Mine" post at the Brattleboro Reformer. Mulligan, who lives all too near Entergy's Vermont Yankee atomic reactor in the Vermont/New Hampshire/Massachusetts tri-state area, argues that the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) -- on whose watch 25 miners perished in an explosion at Massey Energy's West Virginia coal mine owned by Don Blankenship in April 2010 -- so obviously weak and woefully inadequate, is, frighteningly, actually a stronger regulator than the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission: at least MSHA exacts monetary fines against industry offenders to reflect the seriousness of the safety violations, while NRC usually just "throws colors" at them (green, white, yellow, or red "findings") but all too rarely punishes with fines.

As shown by an NRC-commissioned report, however, a large-scale radioactivity release at Palisades could kill a lot more than 25 workers: the 1982 Sandia National Lab-conducted CRAC-2 study predicted 1,000 "peak early fatalities," 7,000 "peak early injuries," 10,000 "peak cancer deaths," and $116 billion in property damages (when adjusted for inflation) downwind and downstream from a major accident at Palisades.

Watchdogs on Entergy's Palisades in southwest Michigan do fear that the more than four decade old atomic reactor is an accident waiting to happen. In 2011, Palisades suffered five "unplanned shutdowns," most recently on December 14, 2011 due to "MANUAL REACTOR TRIP DUE TO LOSS OF BOTH MAIN FEEDPUMPS." Watchdogs are concerned that the resultant "atmospheric steam dump" may have included radioactivity. However, NRC allowed Palisades to immediately re-start its problem-plagued reactor and return to 100% uprated power levels, even though the cause of the problem had not yet been determined.

On Jan. 11, 2012, NRC Region III in Lisle, IL will meet with Entergy about not one, but two, significant safety violations: a "yellow finding" (NRC's second most severe, below only "red") regarding "the loss of the left train of direct current power on September 25, 2011"; and a "white finding" of "moderate safety significance" regarding "the failure of a safety-related service water pump (P-7C) on August 9, 2011."

The environmental movement of Michigan was united in its opposition to the 20 year license extension at Palisades, but NRC rubberstamped it anyway in 2007.

Markey accuses 4 NRC Commissioners of "regulatory meltdown" post-Fukushima

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resource Committee and Senior Member of the Energy and Commerce CommitteeAs reported by Reuters in an article entitled "Private Spat within U.S. Nuclear Agency Laid Bare," U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA, pictured left) has published a report entitled “Regulatory Meltdown: How Four Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners Conspired to Delay and Weaken Nuclear Reactor Safety in the Wake of Fukushima.” The report documents efforts by 2 Democratic appointees, William Magwood IV and George Apostalakis, and 2 Republican appointees, Kristine Svinicki and William Ostendorff, to block the creation of NRC's Near-Term Fukushima Task Force, as well as implementation at the 104 operating U.S. atomic reactors of its "lessons learned" from the triple reactor melt down -- and likely high-level radioactive waste storage pool fire -- at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

In a press release, Markey said “The actions of these four Commissioners since the Fukushima nuclear disaster has caused a regulatory meltdown that has left America’s nuclear fleet and the general public at risk. Instead of doing what they have been sworn to do, these four Commissioners have attempted a coup on the Chairman and have abdicated their responsibility to the American public to assure the safety of America’s nuclear industry. I call on these four Commissioners to stop the obstruction, do their jobs and quickly move to fully implement the lessons learned from the Fukushima disaster.”

Update on December 10, 2011 by admin

Politico has also reported on this story in an article entitled "Ugly Divide at NRC Pits Jaczko against Fellow Commissioners." Politico reports that Markey's report was published one business day earlier than originally planned, in response to U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-CA) Friday night release of an October letter, written by four of the NRC Commissioners to President Obama's Chief of Staff William Daley, complaining about Jaczko's leadership at the NRC. Issa, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released the letter despite it clearly being marked "NOT FOR PUBLIC DISCLOSURE."

All five NRC Commissioners are scheduled to testify before committees on both sides of Capitol Hill next week. On Wednesday, Dec. 14th beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern, the NRC Commissioners will appear before Issa's committee; the hearing will be webcast. On Thursday, Dec. 15th, also beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern, they will testify before U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer's Environment and Public Works Committee, which should also be webcast. 

Beyond Nuclear to testify at NRC on reactor earthquake and fire risks

NRC HQ, Rockville, MarylandOn Monday, December 12, 2011 from 2:30 to 4:30 PM EST, a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission petition review board will hear Beyond Nuclear staff and joint petitioners -- including Saprodani Associates, Not On Our Fault Line, Alliance for Progressive Values, and the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter -- who have called for emergency enforcement action, and full public hearing rights, on license changes to Virginia’s North Anna nuclear power plant following the August 23, 2011 earthquake of 5.8 magnitude, epicentered just 11 miles away. The meeting will be webcast and a telephone bridge line is being provided for up to 100 toll free lines for the public to listen in. Details for linking to the webcast and toll free telephone bridge line can be viewed by clicking on December 12 in NRC homepage calendar for public meetings.

On Tuesday, December 13, 2011, beginning at 9 AM EST, Beyond Nuclear Director of Reactor Oversight, Paul Gunter, will be testifying before the Chairman and Commissioners of the US NRC on what we believe to significant decades old fire protection risks at US reactors. These same risks potentially threaten control room operations for safe shutdown and cooling of reactors similar to the failure that led to the explosions and meltdowns at Fukushima. Go to this NRC link to view the webcast and Beyond Nuclear at the meeting.