Published: September 17th, 2012 at 5:31 pm ET
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Title: Nuclear engineer accuses regulators of safety cover-up
Source: The Hill
Author: Zack Colman
Date: 09/17/12 01:15 PM ET
An engineer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) says the agency has withheld documents showing reactor sites downstream of dams are vulnerable to flooding, and an elevated risk to the public’s safety.
Richard Perkins, an NRC reliability and risk engineer, was the lead author on a July 2011 NRC report detailing flood preparedness. He said the NRC blocked information from the public regarding the potential for upstream dam failures to damage nuclear sites.
[...]
The report in question was completed four months after an earthquake and resultant tsunami caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor in Japan to experience a meltdown.
The report concluded that, “Failure of one or more dams upstream from a nuclear power plant may result in flood levels at a site that render essential safety systems inoperable.”
[...]
Title: Flood Threat To Nuclear Plants Covered Up By Regulators, NRC Whistleblower Claims
Source: Huffington Post
Author: Tom Zeller Jr.
Date: Sept 14, 2012
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.
[...]
the engineer is among several nuclear experts who remain particularly concerned about the Oconee plant in South Carolina, 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.”
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Redacted
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 dangerous and damaging flooding at U.S. nuclear power plants due to upstream dam failure.
Perkins, along with at least one other employee inside NRC, also an engineer, suggested that the real motive for redacting certain information was to prevent the public from learning the full extent of these vulnerabilities, and to obscure just how much the NRC has known about the problem, and for how long.
“What I’ve seen,” Perkins said in a phone call, “is that the NRC is really struggling to come up with logic that allows this information to be withheld.”
Published: September 17th, 2012 at 5:31 pm ET
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Go 'Newsers&# 039;!! Folks, keep reading,...
sending...
Well, well … this report suggests that among the "Toothless Toadies of the NRC" there exist a few men who still have some moral backbone …
It would be nice to see America and the world saved by a massive turn around in Mission at the NRC!!
Shut down, decommission and dismantle, and store, off channel, in dry casks all high level waste, starting immediately, at all downstream of dam nukes. What an excellent jobs program. Government take over of corrupt, illegal, unconstitutional nuclear power program, run by mobsters, here and abroad.
This sort of analysis smells true, a wisp of fresh air from a regulatory body which has lost its way, which eagerly performs a kind of "regulatory oral sex" on a willing and easily gratified industry which is made up of corrupt bankers, faux-scientists, and political whores, who gulp down the lies and campaign contributions paid by pimp nucleocrats … or NRC: this agency which won't really regulate and which grants legal immunity to an unnecessary, cold war relic industry, an industry which is only too happy to poison itself and all around.
Thank you Mr. Perkins for speaking out and separating yourself from the putrid morass which is your cesspool agency.
Do I overstate? I think not!
peace to the 'newsers …
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Nicely penned.
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agreed…well done nedli…
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The NRC is like the three monkeys, "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil".
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All hail and support to the WHISTLEBLOWERS !! That should be a LAW above all laws in every democracy with MORALS ffs !
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Typical. My guess is that the NRC used the National Security card to redact the relevant information about the vulnerabilities of the reactors to the upstream dams, which is about nearly every reactor in the US. The NRC may not want to make the myriad vulnerabilities of nuclear power transparent to the public…but, in doing so, they make their real motivations all too visible. Bravo to yet another whistleblower! It is their level of courage that is needed from all of us to stop this madness.
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Im actually thankful for this article. It really raises the bar about "what ifs"?
What other natural disaster or "unusual weather" events can cause a Level 8 Nuclear Disaster? (Multiple cores, requiring international assistance":
*Dam breaking/jeaprodized caused flooding
*Earthquake
*Tsunami
*Terrorism
*Hurricane
*Blizzard
*Torndao
*Sinkhole
*Solar Flare (EMP)
I mean the more you think about it the less sense it makes. A radioactve chemically volatile cancer making machine so close to the verge of failure to produce energy. Yeah and one tip on the stability of control and a massive area goes nuclear wasteland?
OK Buddyy!
-TwIF
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*Wars
*Economic Decline
*Rising Oceans (Global Warmup)
*Time
*Humam Errorz
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*Jellyfish
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"absolute certainty" …I agree!
The FAILURE of Nuclear Power Plants is going to happen.
How many, why, when and where… I don't know. But, with as many Nuclear Power generating facilities as there are worldwide, including military and academic research, it won't be long until the next one is followed by the next one.
Risk Management-?
"There WILL BE Meltdowns"
by Gordon Edwards, Physics Professor
- Nuclear Lecture 4/5 (2010-12-01)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SruTxZJyMkA&list=PL69D1BB4DB0D8F834&index=24&feature=plpp_video
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And after meltdowns?
They will be no unemployment anymore.
Lots of cleaners needed.
Again and again and again…
The war of the future will be fighting against radiation.
And some decades later… the "holy fighters" will fight "invisible demons". Fairies will grow about accursed regions, strange creatures…
Sounds familiar?
By the way – the magic mirror in snow white – maybye an iPad?
History acts in cycles…
h.
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"The use of nuclear power is a crime against humanity."
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i've said it before .. a 'crime against humanity' is simply not enugh, and to some extent, who cares.
the real crime is against the innocent flora and fauna of the world and all the future generations of flora and fauna for eons to come.
i wish it was just a 'crime against humanity', because then I wouldn't give a damn and I'd walk away from the issue.
But the media.mob.corp.guv is set to callously and wantonly pillage all life and sustainment of the planet. That's the crime. Stop ignoring the innocent animals and environments that are being obliterated by huamnity.
As for humanity, the planet would be a lot better of without us, no doubt about that.
There are a certain group of humans that even think they are 'above' the animal kingdown. They think they are not connected to animals in anyway. They think they are some kind of super being that just formed from the ether. These people need to learn that they come from the planet's material, just like every other being. Human are not above or seperate from anmals, we are equals. Learn to treat all beings as equal and with respect.
In fact, humans get less respect, because they should know better, but continue to behave like a-holes.
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Hmm… Can't quite make out the chain of events here…
On March 8th the study was announced here…
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Studying Impact of Dam Failure
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/03/nuclear-regulatory-commission-studying-impact-of-dam-failure
With this being the document to look for in the ADAMS doc library upon its completion…
ML113500495
Looking for this document in the reading room…
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html
Nope, but a web search finds,
Screening Analysis Report for the Proposed Generic Issue on
Flooding of Nuclear Power Plant Sites Following Upstream Dam Failures
Due to the sensitive nature of some information in this analysis, redactions are necessary in this
public version. The NRC has coordinated with other Federal agencies (Department of
Homeland Security, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and U.S Army Corps of Engineers)
on the sensitivity of the redacted information.
http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1135/ML113500495.pdf
So, VIC you are correct…
cont..
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And this was interesting…
Resolution of Generic Safety Issues: Item B-31: Dam Failure Model (Rev. 1) ( NUREG-0933, Main Report with Supplements 1–34 )
This issue, as originally stated in 1978,3 addressed the unavailability (at that time) of a suitable model to predict the erosion rates and, therefore, the flood hydrographs at nuclear power plant sites resulting from the gradual failure of earthen embankment dams. In the absence of such an analytical model, the NRC staff was forced to postulate the instantaneous and complete failure of dams as the basis for flood hydrograph prediction.
Page Last Reviewed/Updated Thursday, March 29, 2012
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr0933/sec2/b31r1.html
So it seems as this was a known issue since at least 1978, but even a third grader could figure out that:
Dam upriver from nuclear power plant on river.
Dam breaks, nuclear power plant floods.
Nuclear power plant fails catastrophically.
Duhhh!
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The flood last year, which affected the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant near Council Bluffs, was a great example.
http://iowaenvironmentalfocus.org/2011/07/25/on-the-radio-nuclear-power-plant-surrounded-by-flood-waters/
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Hi Linduh, that was my first thought, too. The pierced rubber donut and no reporting nowhere on MSM.
Ft. Calhoun was surely a very close call.
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You know, because the experts in the sixties and seventies (when most of these reactors were built) would predict a flood event every fifty years but with global warming and climate change that flood event happens every twenty five years. The hundred year event every fifty and the biggest floods we have on record will not be the biggest floods we will experience. The nuclear power industry is run by a collection of Brilliant Zeroes who dare to argue with God.
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+1
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Well, no, they aren't arguing with a ficticious character.
They are defiling the trust of the world… a very physical and real and tangible issue.
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nedlifromvermont you are a breath of fresh air!
Global Warming?
Does anyone have any numbers on the total amount of energy produced and/or released by all Nuclear Technology since 1945 from all sources and/or from all created and released nuclear radiation contamination worldwide?
I hear there are over 1000 mini nuclear reactor suns operating on the surface of our planet right now.
Did mankind really think that creating new electricity signatures on the surface of his only planet would somehow not equate to generating an equal amount of heat.
Gee, its been really hot since this recent Fukushima event all over our planet.
The solar maximum has not helped matters much either, but how do we know that there is not a connection and/or interaction between the varied nuclear radiation sources bombarding our planet?
After only 60 years, I highly doubt we understand the long term damage now being done to our planet's ecosystem and overall environment.
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Occupy the NRC!
This week part of the Coalition Against Nukes Rally's 3 day series of events in Washington D.C. include a protest and rally at the NRC headquarters in Rockville Maryland.
http://coalitionagainstnukes.org/ai1ec_event/rally-no-nukes-no-war/?instance_id=
The NRC…
Facilitates and Protects the Nuclear Industry
Puts the Industry first before the safety of Americans
Get's rid of people who challenge the status quo (Chairman Jaczko)
Obstructs investigation's
Gives the Nuclear Industry a pass on dangerous violations
Hides information vital to the safety of the American public
Redacts information in reports to coverup their own liability
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