Records Show 56 Safety Violations at U.S. Nuclear Power Plants in Past 4 Years - ABCNews

[WillyT]

Records Show 56 Safety Violations at U.S. Nuclear Power Plants in Past 4 Years
Mishandled Radioactive Material and Failing Backup Generators Among the Violations
By PIERRE THOMAS, JACK CLOHERTY AND ANDREW DUBBINS
March 29, 2011

<snip>

Among the litany of violations at U.S. nuclear power plants are missing or mishandled nuclear material, inadequate emergency plans, faulty backup power generators, corroded cooling pipes and even marijuana use inside a nuclear plant, according to an ABC News review of four years of Nuclear Regulatory Commission safety records. And perhaps most troubling of all, critics say, the commission has failed to correct the violations in a timely fashion.

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has very good safety regulations but they have very bad enforcement of those regulations," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear scientist with the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists.

There are 104 U.S. nuclear power plants. Lochbaum and the Union of Concerned Scientists found 14 "near misses" at nuclear plants in 2010. And there were 56 serious violations at nuclear power plants from 2007 to 2011, according the ABC News review of NRC records.

At the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant in Illinois, for instance, which is located within 50 miles of the 7 million people who live in and around Chicago, nuclear material went missing in 2007. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission fined the operator -- Exelon Corp. -- after discovering the facility had failed to "keep complete records showing the inventory disposal of all special nuclear material in its possession."

As a result, two fuel pellets and equipment with nuclear material could not be accounted for. Exelon did not contest the violation and paid the fine, a company spokesman said. "We took the learnings from that violation with respect to ways we can improve our spent-fuel practices," Marshall Murphy said.

<snip>

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-nuclear-power-plants-safe/story?id=13246490

:wtf:

:kick:

[defendandprotect]

1. kikko

[crickets]

2. A plant halfway around the world has an explosion

before we hear about these things in the news. The NRC is a sick joke.

edit: poor word choice

[TheMadMonk]

5. As a matter of fact, all these things are a matter of public record.

A number of posters here bring them up regularly.


And whilst not ideal, the incidents are not generally of a nature to threaten the general public, and are highly unlikely to cause more than the most localised harm on site.

Saftey procedures are so thouroughly layered that it is essentially impossible for "normal" levels of mishandling to bring about widespread damage.

And even extraordinary mishandling is unlikely to cause lasting harm, except possibly to the idiot doing whatever it is he shouldn't be doing.

[crickets]

7. Discussion here and mainstream news coverage

are two different things. If you really believe the rest of what you're saying, that's your business.

[glinda]

3. Exactly why we did not buy the Victorian home in Red Wing MN., which the nuclear site has had

some issues.
Reality is we should be working to seal these babies up or making them as safe as possible and then work to shut them down. There will be a problem and it is just a matter of when and if we had closed them down or safe-guarded them by then.

[Sinistrous]

4. "56" violations?

Are you sure that shouldn't be "57"?

[Karenina]

6. . .

[spanone]

8. c'mon, it could NEVER happen here

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: