NRC whistleblowers warn about upstream dam break flood risks at atomic reactors, condemn agency cover up

NRC file photo of triple reactor complex at Oconee, South CarolinaAs reported by the Huffington Post, two U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff engineers have blown the whistle on a long lasting agency cover up of the catastrophic risk to atomic reactors posed by the failure of upstream dams:

"...[T]he [NRC] engineer is among several nuclear experts who remain particularly concerned about the Oconee plant in South Carolina [photo, left], which sits on Lake Keowee, 11 miles downstream from the Jocassee Reservoir. Among the redacted findings in the July 2011 report -- and what has been known at the NRC for years, the engineer said -- is that the Oconee facility, which is operated by Duke Energy, would suffer almost certain core damage if the Jocassee dam were to fail. And the odds of it failing sometime over the next 20 years, the engineer said, are far greater than the odds of a freak tsunami taking out the defenses of a nuclear plant in Japan.

"The probability of Jocassee Dam catastrophically failing is hundreds of times greater than a 51 foot wall of water hitting Fukushima Daiichi," the engineer said. "And, like the tsunami in Japan, the man‐made 'tsunami' resulting from the failure of the Jocassee Dam will –- with absolute certainty –- result in the failure of three reactor plants along with their containment structures.

"Although it is not a given that Jocassee Dam will fail in the next 20 years," the engineer added, "it is a given that if it does fail, the three reactor plants will melt down and release their radionuclides into the environment."

In addition to Oconee, other nuclear power plants in the U.S., including Fort Calhoun, NE, which was inundated by historic floods on the Missouri River in summer 2011, are at risk of upstream dam breaks causing "inland tsunamis" (a phrase coined by Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates over a year ago) and reactor meltdowns.

Congressman Kucinich objects to whitewash of Davis-Besse containment cracking

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)On Thursday, September 20th, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinch (D-OH, pictured left) sponsored a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill during the Coalition Against Nukes events in Washington, D.C. Rep. Kucinich thanked those gathered for working on an issue "that is bigger than all of us." During his talk, he focused on the whitewash, by FirstEnergy and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, of containment cracking at the Davis-Besse atomic reactor, just upwind of his congressional district on northern Ohio's Lake Erie shoreline, as representative of the dangerous state of decay of the nuclear power industry in the U.S. And he had some kind words for Beyond Nuclear: "...I want to thank my friends at Beyond Nuclear like Kevin Kamps who have been doing a fantastic job at citizen oversight over Davis-Besse."

Later that same night, Rep. Kucinich helped lead the successful effort to block H.R. 5987, which proposed creating a new national park to glorify the Manhattan Project, which culminated with the August 1945 dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians.

At an NRC review meeting in Painesville, OH on Sept. 26 regarding FirstEnergy's entire nuclear fleet, Rep. Kucinich lambasted safety lapses at not only Davis-Besse, but also Perry nuclear power plant northeast of Cleveland. He asked: "Why does the NRC think FirstEnergy’s past record justifies an extension of their current operating licenses at their nuclear power plants?” As he had done at a U.S. House hearing in December 2011, Rep. Kucinich submitted for the record a Beyond Nuclear report documenting Davis-Besse's numerous near-disasters.

Entergy & NRC Watchers needed at NRC meeting on Palisades' CRDM through-wall leakage

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced a public meeting, to be held on Monday, October 1st from 1-2 PM Central time (2-3 PM Eastern time) at its Lisle, IL Region 3 office near Chicago, regarding the through-wall leakage of radioactive and acidic primary coolant water from the Palisades atomic reactor's Control Rod Drive Mechanism (CRDM).

If you can attend the meeting in person, please do. However, NRC is making Webinar and even call-in participation possible, for those unable to attend in person. Contact NRC Region 3 Staffer Swetha Shah by Saturday, September 29th for more information on how to participate at (630) 829-9608 or Swetha.Shah@nrc.gov.

You can also "reserve a seat" at the Webinar by signing up at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/977718426. Again, do so by Sat., Sept. 29th.

NRC will then send a confirmation email, giving additional information about the option to "Use Telephone" if you prefer, rather than Webinar. Call-in numbers and access codes will be provided.

See NRC's Meeting Notice as well as Public Meeting Scheduled for more information. Do so by going to the NRC's Public Meeting Schedule and scrolling down chronologically to the October 1st Palisades CRDM meeting for the links. On Sept. 26th, NRC Region 3 issued a press release about next Monday's meeting.

Palisades (pictured, above left), located in Covert, Michigan, near South Haven, on the southeastern shoreline of Lake Michigan in southwestern Michigan, is considered by NRC one of the four worst-run atomic reactors in the U.S., after experiencing an accident of "substantial significance to safety" a year ago, on Sept. 25, 2011. As documented by David Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists in 2010, Palisades -- unique in the U.S. nuclear industry -- has suffered 40 years of chronic CRDM seal leaks.

Beyond Nuclear has helped organize and rally concerned local residents and environmental groups after Palisades experienced five euphemistically dubbed "unplanned shutdowns" (accidents) in 2011 alone, followed by numerous leaks in 2012, as well as a complete collapse of "safety culture" that was covered up by Entergy and NRC, until it was outed by alarmed, courageous Palisades whistleblowers.

For more information, see Beyond Nuclear's recent posts about Palisades, including U.S. Rep. Ed Markey's revelations about "the crisis in the control room" at Palisades, as well as about the CRDM through-wall leak revealed a month ago.

Beyond Nuclear has prepared a full listing of posts about Palisades, just this year alone.

Update on September 26, 2012 by admin

Palisades has sprung yet another in a long line of leaks, this time in a service water pump, according to a Preliminary Notification of Occurrence just posted at NRC's website. The Holland Sentinel has reported on this leak, while focusing on emergency preparedness exercises being carried out in Allegan and other area counties.

Entergy Watch building bridges between communities in the shadows

From left, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, and VYDA/VCAN's Chris Williams and Jeanette Baer, being "frog marched" in handcuffs into the waiting Wyndham County, VT sheriff's "paddy wagon" for the ride to Brattleboro City Jail. They were arrested on 3/22/12, along with 165 others, during a non-violent civil disobedience action at Entergy's Vernon, VT HQ, to protest the first day of the disputed Vermont Yankee 20 year license extension. Solidarity actions were held at Entergy national HQ in New Orleans, and Entergy Northeast regional HQ in White Plains, NY.Not only do Entergy Nuclear watchdogs continue their resistance to individual of the "dirty dozen" atomic reactors owned/operated by Entergy Nuclear of New Orleans -- from flotillas on the Connecticut River and non-violent civil disobedience actions at Vermont Yankee, to speaking truth to power at Palisades in Michigan -- but bridges are being built between states. For example, Chris Williams of Vermont Citizen Action Network (VCAN) and Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance (VYDA) is traveling to Kalamazoo, Michigan on Thursday, October 11th for a presentation at Western Michigan University, as well as meetings with the media and concerned citizens. Chris will be speaking about the rogue corporation Entergy Nuclear, helping to educate Michiganders -- who live in the shadow of the problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor -- about Entergy's bad behavior in Vermont. The goal of the visit, co-sponsored by Beyond Nuclear, is to help take steps to build an anti-nuclear movement in Michigan, as powerful as the one in Vermont. Stay tuned to Beyond Nuclear and Entergy Watch allies across the country for more to come!

Flotilla protests Vermont Yankee's discharges into Connecticut River

Marlboro residents Rose Watson and Laura Berkowitz share their boat with an unnamed protester during Saturday's Safe and Green flotilla. More than 100 anti-nuclear activists gathered along the Connecticut River to tell the owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to stop dumping the reactor's thermal discharge into the river. (Josh Stilts/Reformer)The resistance against Vermont Yankee's extended operations continues with a passion. As reported by the Brattleboro Reformer, last Saturday, over 100 demonstrators took to the Connecticut River, by canoe, kayak, sail and fishing boat, and other watercraft, to protest thermal, toxic chemical, and radioactive discharges from Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee atomic reactor into the biologically productive, and fragile, ecosystem (see photo, left).

Not only is Vermont Yankee leaking radioactive water from degraded underground pipes into the area groundwater, which then flows into the Connecticut, but it also "routinely" discharges heat, radioactivity, and toxic chemicals into the river with an expired "zombie permit" from the U.S. federal government.