Flood Threat To Nuclear Plants Covered Up By Regulators, NRC Whistleblower Claims

[bananas]

Source: Huffington Post

In a letter submitted Friday afternoon to internal investigators at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a whistleblower engineer within the agency accused regulators of deliberately covering up information relating to the vulnerability of U.S. nuclear power facilities that sit downstream from large dams and reservoirs.

The letter also accuses the agency of failing to act to correct these vulnerabilities despite being aware of the risks for years.

These charges were echoed in separate conversations with another risk engineer inside the agency who suggested that the vulnerability at one plant in particular -- the three-reactor Oconee Nuclear Station near Seneca, S.C. -- put it at risk of a flood and subsequent systems failure, should an upstream dam completely fail, that would be similar to the tsunami that hobbled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in Japan last year. That event caused multiple reactor meltdowns.

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Huffington Post, Richard H. Perkins, a reliability and risk engineer with the agency's division of risk analysis, alleged that NRC officials falsely invoked security concerns in redacting large portions of a report detailing the agency's preliminary investigation into the potential for flooding at U.S. nuclear power plants due to upstream dam failure.

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Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/14/flood-threat-nuclear-plants-nrc_n_1885598.html

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Perkins was the lead author of the report which was improperly redacted.

Lots more information in the news article,
including a link to Perkins letter to the Inspector General.

[freshwest]

1. Been this way a long time with such corporations. They're enmeshed into government. Because the

Public doesn't want to know where or how electricity comes from to them, any more than they care where wood, plastic, paper, oil, gas, water, gadgets, roads, medicine, meat or produce comes from.

They just want it, by golly, and they demand it be there night and day for years on end, like the sun. When or if we reach a tipping point of people being off the grid, folks might pay attention to these nasty details.

Until then, they'll keep on passing the buck. I don't see the evil industrialist bastids as I once did. That's a form of duality and not taking responsibility. Not that most of the human population how to make it without all this stuff these bastids created to sell to us. For the most part, we are not self starers, we look for someone else to make things happen and then we piss and moan later.

So we will continue to deal with this stupidity because we haven't offered a real world solution to the entire damn world that is out there screaming its head off for power delivered to them. The aggregated howl of the public is what gives the energy giants power.

The solution is not going to be easy, but socialism could work with an informed and educated public to keep it accountable. We cannot force corporations to be responsible to the environment or long-term public health concerns, they are built for the quick buck.

But then, perhaps I ask too much. I'm no island, either.

[limpyhobbler]

2. This whistleblower is a hero.

Typical cover up by people putting their own money and careers ahead of public safety.

[appal_jack]

3. +1, k&r, n/t

[bananas]

4. Absolutely correct. nt

[bananas]

5. kick. nt