Ex-Entergy worker returns as NRC sleeping watchdog

[bananas]

http://www.evacuationplans.org/



Ex-Entergy worker returns as NRC watchdog
By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer
March 25, 2010, (here http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100325/NEWS02/3250378/0/THISJUSTIN )

VERNON - The new senior resident inspector from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission worked for Entergy Nuclear, the owner of Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor, until 2006, before he left to become a federal inspector.

But a spokesman for the NRC said David Spindler stopped working for Entergy Nuclear in 2006, well beyond the two-year hiatus federal regulations call for.

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC, said there are federal regulations dealing with employees who may face "an appearance of loss of impartiality in the performance of his official duties."


Ray Shadis Comment:

It didn't click at the time that I was interviewed for this article, but David Spindler moved from Entergy to NRC at a time when New England Coalition had two Entergy-related legal interventions going before NRC ( extended power uprate and license renewal). Now that is rude!

At present New England Coalition has an enforcement petition before the NRC raising, among other things, the question of why the NRC Reactor Oversight Process has consistently failed to intercept high profile incidents at Entergy Vermont Yankee BEFORE they happened ( a partial list -2003-2010 - transformer fire, missing fuel, stuck turbine stop valves, torus in-leakage, service water system leakage, repeated Main Steam (line) Isolation Valve test failures, the dust(bunny) fire, turbine stop valve failure to function, cooling tower failure, emergency notification and emergency test failures, operating-under-the-influence incidents, repeated cable separation issues, security failures, condenser leakage, and off-gas treatment system leakage and more...)

Wonder if NRC's oversite will continue to be oversight?

Wonder no more - the fox is in the henhouse.

Raymond Shadis - Consulting Advisor to New England Coalition

[kristopher]

1. We've seen the outcome of this type revolving door btwn industry/regulatory agencies with the banks.

It is purely a coincidence that the result was called a "meltdown".