Whistleblower: “Spent Fuel Pools In US Are A Potential Timebomb...Can Get Worse Than Chernobyl"

[bananas]

The Nuclear Whistleblower Renaissance continues to grow,
an important interview with yet another nuclear engineer who blew the whistle:

George Galatis became world famous in 1996, when Time Magazine featured him in its cover article “Nuclear Warriors”. ...

Though treated as a hero by the public, colleagues continued intimidation and threats, ...

"the true risk to public health and safety associated with the generation of nuclear power is intentionally kept from the public"

Unfortunately, even here on Democratic Underground, we have seen naive and gullible people fall for sleazy attacks on nuclear whistleblowers. It's disgusting.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/nuclear-whistleblower-%E2%80%9Cspent-fuel-pools-us-are-potential-timebomb-situation-can-get-worse-ch

Nuclear Whistleblower: “Spent Fuel Pools In US Are A Potential Timebomb, Situation Can Get Worse Than Chernobyl”

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/11/2011 19:53 -0400
Interview by Tuur Demeester

George Galatis became world famous in 1996, when Time Magazine featured him in its cover article “Nuclear Warriors”. Today, he warns that that the situation in the USA may soon become much graver than that in Japan.

Working as a Senior Engineer at Northeast Utilities company (NU) in Connecticut, Galatis noticed that across the country, high-level radioactive waste was being stored in overfull spent-fuel pools, creating the kinds of risk that could lead to a nuclear disaster with radiological consequences greater than those in Japan today, graver than even the Chernobyl disaster. Indeed, along with a host of other safety related issues, his 1992 memo specifically mentioned that some of the pool’s cooling pipes weren’t designed to withstand an earthquake as they were required to.

After a lengthy legal battle, and dealing with an uncooperative Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Northeast Utilities Company was eventually convicted of 25 federal felonies, was forced to sell all of its nuclear plants, and lost over $3 billion in what company CEO Bruce Kenyon called “the largest management turnaround in the history of the nuclear industry”. Eventually, NU grudgingly made the fuel pool cooling system changes that Galatis had suggested. Though treated as a hero by the public, collegues continued intimidation and threats, according to Galatis, which eventually killed his career in the nuclear industry.

<snip>

George Galatis: <snip> "Right now the true risk to public health and safety associated with the generation of nuclear power is intentionally kept from the public. Because of misplaced trust, these enormous risks are in effect being enforced on the public without their knowledge or consent. People need to know about and agree to accept the real risks involved so that when a scenario like Fukushima—or worse—arises here, there is already a degree of acceptance. Without this formal public acceptance, nuclear power will never be cost effective nor will it survive.”

<snip>

[Hannah Bell]

1. unrec for anything from zero hedge.

[bananas]

2. Silence the whistleblowers!

[Hannah Bell]

3. zero hedge isn't a whistle-blower. it's a bad economic blog; written anonymously,

so you can't tell the interests & connections of the writers.

but one of them has been outed. banned for insider trading.

zero hedge's position = deficit hawk, in favor of austerity policies such as cuts to medicare, medicaid & social security, i.e. theft from the majority in the interest of the financial class.

plays loose with the facts to support its own position. hypes fear to support its position.

sensationalises news out of japan; imo, not out of the question that the writers are betting against the japanese economy.

i unrec anything that sources zero hedge. a bad actor, imo.

[kristopher]

4. I don't. K&R

[bananas]

5. George Galatis is a whistleblower, and he has an important message.

You've been trying to suppress information on Fukushima since it started.
Don't know why, but you're still doing it.

George Galatis became world famous in 1996, when Time Magazine featured him in its cover article “Nuclear Warriors”. ...

Though treated as a hero by the public, colleagues continued intimidation and threats, ...

"the true risk to public health and safety associated with the generation of nuclear power is intentionally kept from the public"

[Hannah Bell]

6. you don't have to post zero hedge to post galatis.

i haven't been "trying to suppress" anything.

i've pointed out information that was erroneous or sensationalized.

zero hedge has done both.

it misrepresents & sensationalizes economic matters as well.

[bananas]

7. That's where I found it; they correctly predicted Fukushima would rate 7 on the INES scale

On March 24, they thought it would happen within two weeks, but it took two and a half.
They weren't being sensationalistic, but they did slightly underestimate the extent to which TEPCO would treat people like mushrooms:
"Only Chernobyl is a Level 7 event. We believe Fukushima should get there within 2 weeks as ever more of the current devastation becomes public."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x735316

In that thread, you try to suppress the information. Don't know why. They were right, you were wrong.

[Hannah Bell]

8. did you even read my posts on that thread? i made no predictions whatsoever

& didn't even address the question of what level fukushima was or should be.

i made two posts:

1) about the mistaken impression some people had that fukushima had *already* been rated level 6 (fomented by posters who took the french nuclear authority's *opinion* as a formal rating)

2) about zero hedge's sensationalism and carelessness about fact:

Hannah Bell (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-24-11 09:58 PM
Response to Reply #15
19. zero hedge blows. as in this case, when he reports something that *may* happen as though it already *had* happened.

Without a link.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x735316#736456


That you misrepresent my posts as "wrong" & "trying to suppress the information" says something as well.

[kristopher]

9. Just for clarity - do you trust the nuclear fission industry to provide accurate information?

The nuclear fission industry, by design, includes the academic entities like MIT's Nuclear Engineering Dept and the government agencies that regulate and promote the direct sales and operations sector.

Do you trust them to provide accurate information?

For support about academic and government agencies bias read:
http://www.nd.edu/~kshrader/pubs/ksf-2011-climate-change-econ-conflicts-interest-see.pdf

[bananas]

10. Something you don't understand

You wrote "1) about the mistaken impression some people had that fukushima had *already* been rated level 6 (fomented by posters who took the french nuclear authority's *opinion* as a formal rating)"

Different agencies give different ratings at different times - this happens all the time with other events such as earthquakes. Usually, over time, they converge on similar ratings. But not always.

The French authorities rated the nuclear disaster at level 6, and they were overly optimistic. The Japanese authorities initially gave it an absurdly low rating. Gradually, they are converging to level 7 (and possibly higher - the scale is meant to be logarithmic, so events can go to level 8 and above even though anti-science pro-nukes will try to dissemble and obfuscate the issue).

I've seen your posts on other threads - you've continually tried to downplay this disaster, and you're still doing it. Can you explain why?

[Hannah Bell]

11. no, you don't understand that the french nuclear authority has no authority whatsoever to "rate"

japan's nuclear accidents.

can you explain why you have no concern for accuracy?

[bananas]

12. Of course they do - that's why they are called an "authority"

If they were just a bunch of guys guessing, they would call it "the French bunch of guys guessing".

[Hannah Bell]

18. their authority is limited to rating their own nuclear incidents, that's why

they're called the french authority.

[jpak]

15. They were wrong

yup

[jpak]

14. Here's some sensational news from Japan - Fukushima = Level 7 = major accident

= Chernobyl

yup

[Hannah Bell]

19. which has fuck-all to do with my post or with zero hedge's reliability as reporter.

[enough]

13. k&r (nt)

[Javaman]

16. The LA Times back in the early 90's did a great multi day story on

Rocky flats and the grand jury investigation into its cleanup.

They have been lying to us for years.

[Throckmorton]

17. Northeast Utilities no longer owns Millstone Station

it was sold in 2001 to Dominion (AKA Virginia Electric Company). Millstone Unit 1, almost identical to Fukushima 1, 2 and 3, was closed down permanently in 1997, after shutting down for refueling in 1995. It was closed down when it was discovered that NU had not maintained its design basis (10 CFR 50.54f), and reconstructing it would cost more than the unit was worth. This is the nuclear unit that George was tasked with demonstrating that it was safe to overfill its spent fuel pool. It was after many months of trying to make the numbers work that he concluded that the company didn't give a damn and wanted to stuff the pool.

It sits there a mute testament to all that is wrong with profit over protection. Its current owner, Dominion, has been reluctant to move the spent fuel to dry casks. One recent estimate I have seen says that based on the volume of spent fuel, and the availability of spent fuel storage casks, it will take until 2016 to unload the entire pool, if the requests were made today. I suspect that the demand for these casks will add to the delay quite a bit, and the facilities that build them are few and far between.

[AndyTiedye]

20. Kicked and Recommended