A Dozen Years after Fukushima, Nuclear Power is Still a Death Wish - CounterPunch.org

A dozen years after four atomic reactors exploded at Fukushima, the plant STILL daily irradiates 150 tons of water which must be treated and stored forever.

Thousands of tons more of such lethal liquid are still held in rotting tanks. The Japanese government wants to dump them in the Pacific, but local resistance is fierce. The build-up will continue for countless years to come, with gargantuan quantities of deadly liquid ever-readier to destroy our oceans….and perhaps, eventually, human life, whose irrational addiction to atomic power has yet to abate.

As of March 10, 2011, the official industry line was that no US-designed commercial reactor could explode. Chornobyl blew up on April 26, 1986, sending deadly radioactive clouds throughout the Earth.

But the commercial reactor producers hid behind Chornobyl’s Soviet design, saying no such thing could happen to reactors designed by GE or Westinghouse.

The next day a massive offshore quake shook the six GE-designed reactors at Fukushima, severely damaging four of them. Some experts believe Unit One was on its way to melting before the giant tsunami wreaked havoc…followed by four massive explosions.

Cores at Units 1-2-3 melted, creating massive quantities of hydrogen, which ignited. A mushroom-shaped cloud suggested possible fission from the high-intensity fuel in Unit 3.

Hydrogen from Unit 3 seeped into the then-shut Unit 4 and exploded, leading to an extremely dangerous loss of coolant in the spent fuel pool.

In concert, the four blown nukes spewed at least 100 times more radioactive cesium than was released by the Bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan’s prime minister contemplated evacuating Tokyo’s 15 million people. Prevailing winds blew most of the radiation into the ocean—-towards California…

more: A Dozen Years after Fukushima, Nuclear Power is Still a Death Wish - CounterPunch.org

No Uranium Mining On Sacred Land: Big Win For Pine Ridge Reservation

The Oglala Sioux Tribe and activists scored a win, when federal administrative judges ruled that Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has failed to take “a hard look” at cultural resources in recommending renewal of a uranium mining license for Crow Butte Mine, near here. The decision delays permitting.
 
The tribe, intervening in the license renewal application for the mine in Dawes County, Nebraska, adjacent to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, argued that the staff recommended approval in violation of its rights under the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Protection Act, or NEPA. 

Resolving in favor of the tribe’s argument, an oversight panel established by the Atomic Licensing and Safety Board ruled: “The NRC staff has not met its identification obligations” under the two laws, “nor has the NRC staff, in its environmental assessment, undertaken a hard look under NEPA at cultural resources within the license area.”

more: White Wolf : No Uranium Mining On Sacred Land: Big Win For Pine Ridge Reservation

Does Living Near Operating Reactors Cause Childhood Cancers? Nuclear regulators don’t want you to know

More than 60 studies have shown increases of childhood leukemia around nuclear facilities worldwide. Despite this finding, there has never been independent analysis in the US examining connections between childhood cancer and nuclear facilities. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had directed the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct such a study, but then withdrew funding, claiming publicly that it would be too expensive…

Does Living Near Operating Reactors Cause Childhood Cancers? Nuclear regulators don’t want you to know

Tell the NRC--No Nuclear Waste Trafficking with Canada or Any Other Countries!!!

Last week, we told you about the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's (CNSC) plan to amend the licenses for twelve Canadian nuclear power reactors on Lake Ontario to allow them to export their nuclear waste to the United States and other countries.  Now, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is seeking to amend export license XW008/05 that would allow a US company, Diversified Scientific Services, Inc. (DSSI) that burns mixed radioactive and hazardous waste in an industrial boiler, to  transport back to Canada the refuse from Canadian radioactive oils, solvents, grease, paint chips and resins (laden with radioactivity). 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has already given blanket approval via a “General License” to importers of foreign radioactive wastes to secretly bring those wastes into the U.S. without revealing their origin or characteristics,  without public notification or input - and with no opportunity for a public hearing to either investigate or challenge these dangerous radioactive wastes from entering our communities, workplaces, and consumer products. 

Tell the NRC to reject this license amendment that allows international nuclear waste trafficking. Comments due August 10th by 11:59 pm.

SIGN NOW

Experts: US Still 'Needlessly Vulnerable' to Fukushima-Style Disaster | Common Dreams

Fukushima "could have been a hundred times worse had there been a loss of the water covering the spent fuel in pools associated with each reactor," said co-author Frank von Hippel, a senior research physicist at Princeton. (Photo: Getty)

Nuclear industry pressured regulatory commission into low-balling consequences of meltdown, especially in case of reactor fire, new article says

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) did not adequately account for safety hazards when approving certain upgrades to nuclear sites around the U.S., meaning the risk of a Fukushima-like disaster caused by a reactor fire is still high, according to an article published in the journal Science on Friday.

Researchers from Princeton University and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) argued that the NRC "relied on faulty analysis to justify its refusal to adopt a critical measure for protecting Americans from the occurrence of a catastrophic nuclear-waste fire at any one of dozens of reactor sites around the country."

The risk is especially high in the sites' cooling pools—basins that are used to store and reduce the temperatures of used radioactive fuel rods. Spent-fuel pools came into the international spotlight after the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi site in Japan, in which an earthquake-triggered tsunami disabled the electrical systems needed for the cooling process, leading to meltdowns at three of six reactors.

NRC commissioners "did not adequately account for impacts of large-scale land contamination events," the scientists wrote. "Among rejected options was a measure to end dense packing of 90 spent fuel pools, which we consider critical for avoiding a potential catastrophe much greater than Fukushima."

Fukushima "could have been a hundred times worse had there been a loss of the water covering the spent fuel in pools associated with each reactor," said co-author Frank von Hippel, a senior research physicist at Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security (SGS), in a statement…

more: Experts: US Still 'Needlessly Vulnerable' to Fukushima-Style Disaster | Common Dreams

Risk of another Chernobyl or Fukushima type accident plausible, experts say : Broadcast: News items : University of Sussex

“The next nuclear accident may be much sooner or more severe than the public realizes.”

Biggest-ever statistical analysis of historical accidents suggests that nuclear power is an underappreciated extreme risk and that major changes will be needed to prevent future disasters

A team of risk experts who have carried out the biggest-ever analysis of nuclear accidents warn that the next disaster on the scale of Chernobyl or Fukushima may happen much sooner than the public realizes.

Researchers at the University of Sussex, in England, and ETH Zurich, in Switzerland, have analysed more than 200 nuclear accidents, and – estimating and controlling for effects of industry responses to previous disasters – provide a grim assessment of the risk of nuclear power.

Their worrying conclusion is that, while nuclear accidents have substantially decreased in frequency, this has been accomplished by the suppression of moderate-to-large events.  They estimate that Fukushima- and Chernobyl-scale disasters are still more likely than not once or twice per century, and that accidents on the scale of the 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island in the USA (a damage cost of about 10 Billion USD) are more likely than not to occur every 10-20 years.

As Dr Spencer Wheatley, the lead author, explains: “We have found that the risk level for nuclear power is extremely high.

“Although we were able to detect the positive impact of the industry responses to accidents such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, these did not sufficiently remove the possibility of extreme disasters such as Fukushima. To remove such a possibility would likely require enormous changes to the current fleet of reactors, which is predominantly second-generation technology.”

The studies, published in two papers in the journals Energy Research & Social Science and Risk Analysis, put fresh pressure on the nuclear industry to be more transparent with data on incidents.

“Flawed and woefully incomplete” public data from the nuclear industry is leading to an over-confident attitude to risk, the study warns.  The research team points to the fact that their own independent analysis contains three times as much data as that provided publicly by the industry itself. This is probably because the International Atomic Energy Agency, which compiles the reports, has a dual role of regulating the sector and promoting it...

more: Risk of another Chernobyl or Fukushima type accident plausible, experts say : Broadcast: News items : University of Sussex

whats up: #BustTheMyth – nukes are NOT carbon-free, clean, safe, green, or affordable!

You Might be Operating an Unsafe Reactor If… - All Things Nuclear

There are currently two empty positions on the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). If comedian Jeff Foxworthy were nominated and confirmed to become a Commissioner, you wonder how he would finish the nuclear safety equivalent of his “redneck” routine?

You might be operating an unsafe reactor if …

This Ending Intentionally Blank

The NRC, at least during the last decade of the 20^th century and so far in this 21^st century, has never seen an unsafe reactor. Not once.

The NRC often claims they would shut down an unsafe reactor. Perhaps they would. But they’ve not spotted an unsafe reactor in nearly three decades. They suspected they saw an unsafe reactor about 15 years ago, but changed their mind(s).

So, it’s not that the NRC would fail to shut down an unsafe reactor. But it’s been so long since they spotted one, they seem to have forgotten what they look like...

more: You Might be Operating an Unsafe Reactor If… - All Things Nuclear

Nuclear Hotseat #267: INDIAN POINT Film – Former NRC Chair Jaczko, Director Meeropol

This Week’s Featured Interviews:

Filmmaker, subject and activists converged at the Los Angeles run of the documentary, INDIAN POINT, an exploration of nuclear issues seen through the lens of the two aging nuclear reactors located only 25 miles from New York City.

• We talk with director Ivy Meeropol about what led her to devote four years of her life to making the film.
• Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Dr. Gregory Jaczko, who was forced out of the agency, attended the screening and took part in the audience Q&A afterwards.  INDIAN POINT recasts Dr. Jaczko as hero… and he was.
• Interviews with activists who attended the screening from Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and Japan.
• Access INDIAN POINT TRAILER here.

LISTEN: Nuclear Hotseat #267: INDIAN POINT Film – Former NRC Chair Jaczko, Director Meeropol

7 engineers at U.S. agency go public with nuclear safety concern | syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Seven electrical engineers who work for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have taken the unusual step of petitioning the NRC as private citizens in hopes of compelling regulators to fix a "significant safety concern'' that affects all but one of the nation's 100 nuclear plants...

7 engineers at U.S. agency go public with nuclear safety concern | syracuse.com

NRC 3-11 E-mail on Fukushima

NRC 3-11 E-mail on Fukushima

SIGN NOW: Tell NRC to reject efforts by pro-nuke fanatics to weaken radiation standards

Tell NRC to reject efforts by pro-nuke fanatics to weaken radiation standards

August 19, 2015

In February, a group of pro-nuclear fanatics—there is really no other way to describe them—submitted three petitions for rulemaking to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). These three petitions would turn the entire basis for radiation protection standards on its head: they argue that the “Linear No-Threshold” (LNT) radiation model used by the NRC, EPA, and most modern societies should be replaced by a “hormesis” model.

Here’s the basic difference between the two models: the LNT model, endorsed by the National Academies of Sciences and used by all government agencies, acknowledges that there is no such thing as a “safe” level of radiation exposure. All exposure carries some risk of cancer or other disease, and that risk rises with the amount of exposure. The “hormesis” model, on the other hand, asserts—with little to no scientific backing—that exposure to very low levels of radiation can actually be beneficial to people, and that there is no concern about exposures until they reach high levels.

If implemented, the hormesis model would result in needless death and misery. The concept of ALARA (a requirement that nuclear operators reduce exposures “as low as reasonably achievable”) would be tossed out the window. Emergency Planning Zones would be significantly reduced or abolished entirely. Instead of being forced to spend money to limit radiation releases, nuclear utilities could pocket greater profits.

Tell the NRC below to reject the hormesis model and instead to strengthen radiation standards.

Notes: everyone can participate in this action. We encourage you to edit the sample comments to use your own language and reflect your own concerns. Please share this action page with your friends and colleagues by using the icons on the top right, but please do so before sending your comments. The comment deadline is September 8, 2015, has been extended until November 19, 2015--more time to share widely! Thank you.

Subject: Docket Nos. PRM-20-28, PRM-20-29, and PRM-20-30, NRC-2015-0057

SIGN NOW: Tell NRC to reject efforts by pro-nuke fanatics to weaken radiation standards

C.A.N. Mandatory Action Alert | C.A.N. Coalition Against Nukes

ATTENTION ALL NEW C.A.N. Facebook Group Members and Current Members; … we are calling on you to participate in a mandatory action alert:

ACTION ALERT! A CALL TO ACTION FOR EVERYONE WHO LOVES THIS PLANET & HUMANITY: TELL THE NRC TO DO IT’S JOB & STRENGTHEN RADIATION STANDARDS NOT WEAKEN THEM! COMMENT PERIOD ENDS NOVEMBER 19, 2015. We have three different ACTION ITEMS … TAKE THE CHALLENGE AND DO ALL THREE!

more: C.A.N. Mandatory Action Alert | C.A.N. Coalition Against Nukes

#petition :: Stop Nuclear Regulatory Commission From Extending License Period 20 years For California Nuke (Diablo Canyon)

As the Commission members are aware, their mission is to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety of the nation’s nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants, especially old nukes, such as the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, do not belong near densely populated regions, in areas where earthquakes are a dangerous geological reality.

SIGN NOW: MoveOn Petitions - Stop Nuclear Regulatory Commission From Extending License Period 20 years For California Nuke

ALERT! NRC may RULE RADIATION EXPOSURE IS HEALTHFUL! | Linear No-Threshold Model and Standards for Protection Against Radiation

ALERT! NRC may RULE RADIATION EXPOSURE IS HEALTHFUL! ... The Nuclear Regulatory Commission may decide that exposure to ionizing radiation is beneficial – the radiation from nuclear bombs, nuclear power plants, depleted uranium, x-rays, and Fukushima. It has opened a proceeding to consider adopting this “radiation is good for you” model.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received three petitions for rulemaking (PRM) requesting that the NRC amend its “Standards for Protection Against Radiation” regulations and change the basis of those regulations from the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model of radiation protection to the radiation hormesis model. The radiation hormesis model provides that exposure of the human body to low levels of ionizing radiation is beneficial and protects the human body against deleterious effects of high levels of radiation. Whereas, the LNT model provides that radiation is always considered harmful, there is no safety threshold, and biological damage caused by ionizing radiation (essentially the cancer risk) is directly proportional to the amount of radiation exposure to the human body (response linearity).

This would be the most significant and alarming change to U.S. federal policy on nuclear radiation.

Here is the Federal Register notice --
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/06/23/2015-15441/linear-no-threshold-model-and-standards-for-protection-against-radiation

Comments are due by September 8, 2015.
Is this a joke? NO!

P.S. this ALERT was first emailed by MaryBeth Brangan through Heal Fukushima (http://healfukushima.org/…/alert-nrc-may-rule-radiation-ex…/). And as per Jane Swanson, Mother's for Peace: "The easiest way for people to comment is by email:

•Email comments to: Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov. If you do not receive an automatic email reply confirming receipt, then contact us at 301-415-1677.
• Please include Docket ID NRC-2015-0057 in the subject line of your comment submission.

The three petitioners who started this effort to lower protective standards are all in the health fields. They claim that there is no valid evidence that low doses are harmful, and find that compliance with current limits is expensive for their professions. Radiation phobia is their favorite new term. Here is a sample of their reasoning:

"Dr. Doss filed this petition on behalf of Scientist for Accurate Radiation Information, whose mission is to “help prevent unnecessary, radiation-phobia-related deaths, morbidity, and injuries associated with distrust of radio-medical diagnostics/therapies and from nuclear/radiological emergencies through countering phobia-promoting misinformation spread by alarmists via the news and other media including journal publications.”

A Proposed Rule by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on 06/23/2015
This document has a comment period that ends in 26 days (09/08/2015)

Federal Register | Linear No-Threshold Model and Standards for Protection Against Radiation

thanks to Laura Lynch!

Is Radioactivity Really Good for You? – NRC to be The Decider | NoNukesCA.net

YOU may be suffering from…

RADIOLOGICAL PHOBIA!

NRC Leaps into the Breach
Always ready to uphold its well-earned reputation as Jonny-on-the-Spot for identifying and resolving any conceivable danger to public health and safety from nuclear technology, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in its august wisdom has decided to respond to a petition from three people claiming to represent Scientists for Accurate Radiation Information to revisit in an official proceeding the long-discredited theory of ‘hormesis,’ the idea that chronic exposure to low-level nuclear radiation is actually Good for you, because it makes you better able to withstand higher exposures. Wow, what a liberating, needless worry-reducing concept!

Don’t Be Fooled: Even Low Levels of Radiation Are Bad

Information and links to sources debunking the ridiculous, irresponsible and long-discredited claim that chronic exposure to low-level  radioactivity  is good for you are [included below].

A recent Alert from HealFukushima.org blew the warning whistle on this new brand of nuclear madness. Public comment is due by no later than September 8, 2015...

read: Is Radioactivity Really Good for You? – NRC to be The Decider | NoNukesCA.net

No to nuclear nonsense: Groups call on Dominion to abandon plans for North Anna 3 reactor | FOE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Friends of the Earth, with 13 other organizations, submitted a letter to Governor Terry McAuliffe, Members of the Virginia General Assembly, Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners and energy company Dominion Resources urging against building a third nuclear reactor at the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County, Virginia. This proposed reactor would sit on an active earthquake fault and lacks a reliable water supply for cooling three reactors. The letter also emphasized the project’s high cost, a lack of any safe waste disposal solution and other inherent safety concerns related to nuclear reactors.

Friends of the Earth’s former president Brent Blackwelder issued the following statement:

The nuclear tragedy at Fukushima should have made it clear that the risks of nuclear reactors are too great. Yet Dominion Virginia Power and the state of Virginia continue to flirt with disaster. It is unconscionable to spend a single cent on an energy source that carries the inherent risks of nuclear reactors. These risks are exacerbated at North Anna because the reactor sits on a known fault line. This is the same fault that just shook Washington, D.C. in 2011, damaging the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral. Safe, renewable and distributed energy alternatives already exist; and it is time that we stopped investing in false solutions.

###

Expert contact: Brent Blackwelder, (202) 422-7753, brentblackwelder@yahoo.comCommunications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, kcolwell@foe.org

Updates: news releases and updates

Diablo Canyon: Boxer will seek answers on earthquake risks in Senate hearing | F.O.E. News releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, December 3, Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners will face tough questions from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) over the NRC’s suppression and rejection of a report that cited dangers at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The report, by Diablo Canyon’s former chief inspector Michael Peck, warned that the plant may not be safe from earthquakes.

Sen. Boxer, chair of the Environment & Public Works Committee, called the hearing after revelations surfaced in August that Peck had filed a formal dissent over inaction by the NRC on startling new seismic information. The dissent detailed how the discovery of new faults, unknown when the plant was designed and built more than 40 years ago, casts doubt on whether the plant can withstand shaking from newly identified earthquake faults surrounding the 1960s-era nuclear reactors on California’s Central Coast.

The NRC kept Peck’s dissent secret for more than a year before denying it in September. Expert testimony will also address the seismic report released by PG&E on the same day as the NRC decision, which revealed that faults surrounding Diablo are far larger and interconnected and therefore capable of stronger shaking than the plant was designed to withstand.

What: Environment & Public Works Committee hearing
Where: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 406, Washington, D.C.
When: 10 a.m. EST/ 7 a.m. PST, Wednesday, December 3
Webcast: A live webcast can be accessed at that time by clicking the red Live Hearing icon here.

• NRC Chair Allison M. Macfarlane, who is leaving her post at the end of this year
• Four NRC commissioners
• Former California State Senator Sam Blakeslee, a seismologist and former member of the state Seismic Safety Commission, whose district included the plant
• Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear safety expert who is a lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz
• Anthony R. Pietrangelo, Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute

###

Expert Contact:
Damon Moglen, (202) 352-4223, dmoglen@foe.org

Communications Contacts:
Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, kcolwell@foe.org (East Coast)
Bill Walker, (510) 759-9911, bw.deadline@gmail.com (West Coast)

News releases

MoveOn Petitions - NRC: Shut Down Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant

Shut Down Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant

The plant is not safe, built on or near several dangerous earthquake faults. It generates some 500 lbs of nuclear waste every day with nowhere to safely store it and the waste will remain deadly for 200,000 years. Shut down Diablo Canyon, before California becomes another Fukushima!

SIGN THE PETITION –

petitions.moveon.org/sign/nrc-shut-down-diablo

shutdowndiablo.org

SEE ALSO:

•  MORE PETITIONS to SHUT DOWN DIABLO >
whats up: 3 PETITIONS to SHUT DIABLO CANYON & MAPS OF EARTHQUAKE FAULTS

•  Lawsuit: Quake standards altered at California nuclear plant - SFGate 

Federal regulators secretly and illegally revised the license for California’s last nuclear power facility — PG&E’s Diablo Canyon — to mask the aging plant’s vulnerability to earthquakes, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by environmentalists.

Friends of the Earth: PG&E and nuclear regulator said to collude in secret decision to cover up Diablo Canyon’s vulnerability to earthquakes

In federal court filing, PG&E and nuclear regulator said to collude in secret decision to cover up Diablo Canyon’s vulnerability to earthquakes

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Friends of the Earth has petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn a secret decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to illegally alter the operating license for the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant allowing Pacific Gas and Electric to hide the fact that the reactors are vulnerable to earthquakes stronger than it was meant to withstand.

The secret revision of Diablo Canyon’s license was revealed in NRC documents rejecting a dissent by the plant’s former senior resident inspector. The inspector, Dr. Michael Peck, defied his superiors in saying that Diablo Canyon was operating in violation of its license and should be shut down unless and until new seismic information was addressed.

In a July 2013 formal dissent, which the NRC suppressed for more than a year, Dr. Peck argued that newly discovered faults could produce earthquakes far more destructive than the plant was designed, built and licensed to withstand. Last month, in rejecting the dissent, the NRC revealed that in September 2013 it had changed the way the risk of earthquakes at the plant are assessed -- in effect, rewriting history and science to make the threat of more powerful earthquakes go away, without requiring any safety upgrades by PG&E.

The amendment was added in secret, unknown beyond the highest levels of PG&E and the NRC. Today Friends of the Earth petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit to review the amendment, overturn it and order a public license amendment proceeding as required by federal law.

“PG&E’s new seismic study reveals that the earthquake threat at Diablo -- if measured by its original license -- could be far greater than that for which the reactors were designed.  So PG&E and the NRC secretly amended the license to relax the safety requirements,” said David Freeman, former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. “This is not only illegal, it’s an outrage.”

PG&E has enough trouble on its hands from the San Bruno explosion, where they had also claimed they had put safety first,” said Freeman,  senior advisor to Friends of the Earth. “This secret action shows they don’t put safety first.  Thank goodness there are courts in America that can give us an independent decision.”

Under federal law and NRC regulations, changing the way seismic risk or reactor durability is assessed requires a public license amendment review. Instead, in consultation with PG&E, the NRC inserted a secret revision to the plant’s license, which changed both the scientific calculations for assessing earthquake risks and retroactively declaring that the reactors were strong enough to withstand far greater seismic activity.

“At Diablo, it is now clear that these outdated 1960s-era reactors are not built to withstand the earthquake risks that surround the plant,” said Damon Moglen of Friends of the Earth.  “But instead of making them address these safety issues, the NRC worked with  PG&E to change the rules. It’s a scandal of the first order, and frankly very scary.”

A PG&E report released last month revealed that a newly discovered fault, located just 650 yards from the plant, is twice as long as the utility had maintained since 2011. The report also acknowledged one of Michael Peck’s most troubling concerns; that the new fault is connected to two others and together the three are capable of producing much stronger shaking than the plant was designed and licensed to withstand.

In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a 2011 NRC study indicated that Diablo Canyon is the nuclear power plant in the U.S. most likely to fail in response to an earthquake larger than it was designed to withstand.

###

Expert Contacts:
Damon Moglen, (202) 352-4223, dmoglen@foe.org

Communications Contacts:
Bill Walker, (510) 759-9911, bw.deadline@gmail.com (West Coast)
EA Dyson, (202) 222-0730, edyson@foe.org (East Coast)

Friends of the Earth U.S. | News releases

PETITIONS to SHUT DOWN DIABLO > whats up: 3 PETITIONS to SHUT DIABLO CANYON & MAPS OF EARTHQUAKE FAULTS

SEE ALSO:
Lawsuit: Quake standards altered at California nuclear plant - SFGate: Federal regulators secretly and illegally revised the license for California’s last nuclear power facility — PG&E’s Diablo Canyon — to mask the aging plant’s vulnerability to earthquakes, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by environmentalists.

PETITION: We call for 2 more seats on the NRC, to be occupied by citizen activists

Why this is important to me

Citizen activists will provide oversight of the otherwise pro nuclear industry NRC, which has become nothing more that a re-branded Atomic Energy Commission.
Since it's the public's money and their health and safety that the nuclear power industry uses and requires to continue operating, then it's the citizens and communities across the country who are most effected directly by the high health costs and safety hazards of nuclear power plants; thereby, it is that public and the citizenry who should be represented and have a voice on the commission.

SIGN NOW > Sen. Boxer, Sanders, Markey, President Obama: We call for 2 more seats on the NRC, to be occupied by citizen activists