Leaked Report Suggests Long-Known Flood Threat To Nuclear Plants, Safety Advocates Say

[bananas]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/19/nuclear-plant-flood-threat-leak_n_1983005.html

Leaked Report Suggests Long-Known Flood Threat To Nuclear Plants, Safety Advocates Say

Posted: 10/19/2012 4:00 pm EDT Updated: 10/20/2012 8:07 am EDT

An un-redacted version of a recently released Nuclear Regulatory Commission report highlights the threat that flooding poses to nuclear power plants located near large dams -- and suggests that the NRC has misled the public for years about the severity of the threat, according to engineers and nuclear safety advocates.

"The redacted information shows that the NRC is lying to the American public about the safety of U.S. reactors," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer and safety advocate with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

A redacted version of the report was posted to the NRC website on March 6. An un-redacted version was recently obtained by the environmental group Greenpeace and shared with The Huffington Post.

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“THEY’RE BEING DISHONEST"

Larry Criscione, a risk engineer at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who is one of two NRC employees who have now publicly raised questions about both the flood risk at Oconee and the agency's withholding of related information, said assertions that the plant is "currently able to mitigate flooding events," amounted to double-speak.

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Richard H. Perkins, a risk engineer with the NRC and the lead author of the leaked report, pointed to the analysis by the Association of Dam Safety Officials in an email message to The Huffington Post. "I felt it made a significant point that large, fatal, dam failures occur from time to time," he said. "They are generally unexpected and they can kill lots of people. It's not credible to say 'dam failures are not credible.'"

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You just can't trust the nuclear industry - or the regulatory agency it has corrupted.