Plain Dealer: Davis-Besse rust report' irks watchdog (UCS)

[Kolesar]

Oh, the stories that turn up in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Akron Beacon Journal (my fav & where FE is headquartered). I don't go looking for these, they just turn up on http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/business/17177720.htm">the business page of www.ohio.com Maybe I should invest in FE stock: http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/business/17177720.htm">earnings are up 31%.

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Davis-Besse rust report' irks watchdog

Tuesday, May 01, 2007 John Funk and John Mangels Plain Dealer Reporters

If the rust hole that took the Davis-Besse nuclear reactor to the brink of disaster five years ago grew as fast as the utility's consultants now believe, the nation's nuclear fleet could be just as vulnerable, a watchdog group said Monday.

But if the new 700-page engineering consultants' corrosion report commissioned by plant owner FirstEnergy Corp. is just a bid to collect on insurance from the rust damage, then the Akron utility should lose its nuclear operating license, the Union of Concerned Scientists said. The report contends that FirstEnergy is not to blame for the rapid-acting corrosion.

In a petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the watchdog group demands the agency determine which scenario is correct. Until the NRC makes up its mind, it should order the Toledo-area power plant to shut down, the petition argues.

:web: If the NRC agrees with the controversial new analysis, the agency should suspend operations at the nation's 68 similar reactors because current inspection methods and intervals aren't enough to stop fast-growing corrosion from leading to a reactor rupture. Davis-Besse was two to 13 months from such a catastrophic accident, experts have determined.

:web: If the NRC decides the new analysis is not credible, it should punish the utility for again misleading the agency - something FirstEnergy already has admitted to doing about Davis-Besse's deteriorating condition.

...snip... the adventure continues ...snip...

National Electric Insurance Ltd., the company that insures the nation's commercial nuclear reactors and would have to pay FirstEnergy's damages, sent a none-too-subtle message to the utility in February. If FirstEnergy believed the new findings, the utility was obligated to disclose them to the NRC, not just to its insurer as part of their arbitration. The utility also needed to revise its original analysis that the Davis-Besse rust hole took four years to grow. "We are concerned about the possible consequences to the industry" of fast-acting corrosion, the insurer said in a letter to FirstEnergy's chief nuclear officer.

"The insurance company called their bluff," said David Lochbaum, director of UCS' Nuclear Safety Project and the author of the petition.

Soon after that, FirstEnergy did notify the NRC, but the company says it has no worries that others might be at risk for similar corrosion, and no plans to amend its original "root cause" report.

... More, more, more! How do you like it? How do you like it? ...

http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business-2/1178019200170270.xml&coll=2

[NNadir]

1. And the number of people killed by Beese Davis is what?

A few weeks ago 100 Russian coal miners died. The Union of Concerned "Scientists" doesn't give a shit and will never issue a report about it.

This year over 4 million people will die from air pollution. Does the Union of Concerned "Scientists" have a workable plan to address this issue. No? They don't.

Shutting 68 nuclear plants in this country would be murder. There would be millions of deaths resulting from the coal.

If the Beese Davis reactor head had leaked and it didn't, there is no evidence that anyone would have been injured.

There is infinite evidence that fossil fuels will kill - just as they always have - in massive number indiscriminately.

Nuclear energy doesn't have to be perfect to be superior to every other option there is. It is superior to every other option there is.

As for the Union of Concerned "Scientists," they are simply very, very, very, very weak thinkers, as is the entire set of organizations comprising the vast, ignorant, anti-nuclear circle jerk.

[bananas]

2. So FirstEnergy is "making stuff up" - my my my ...

"The report's conclusion puts FirstEnergy at odds with its own previous determination about how and why the nuclear near-miss happened."

[NNadir]

3. According to the reflexive anti-nuclear organization Union of Concerned Nuclear "Scientists."

The Union of Concerned "Scientists" knows very little about nuclear power of course, and even less about science.

Mostly it is a money raising organization where they market things like minivans:

http://www.ucsusa.org/

Picture from todays corporate commercial:




Some members of the board:

Nancy Stephens is an actress and political activist. A California gubernatorial appointee to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Advisory Board, Ms. Stephens also serves on the executive board of the Earth Communications Office, the advisory board of Liberty Hill, and the board of Americans for a Safe Future. She is a longtime member of the Environmental Leadership Forum of the California League of Conservation Voters.

Thomas H. Stone is chairman and chief executive officer of Stone Capital Group, Inc., a family-owned investment company. He devotes significant time to not-for-profit organizations that work with high-risk youth, as well as those working on global environmental problems. Mr. Stone serves on the boards of the Ravinia Festival Association, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, the MERIT Music Program, Concertante di Chicago, and the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Ellyn R. Weiss is an artist and a retired partner in the law firm of Foley, Hoag & Eliot. General counsel to UCS from 1977 to 1988, Ms. Weiss served as assistant attorney general for environmental protection for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was a partner in Harmon & Weiss, a public-interest law firm. From 1994 to 1995, she served as special counsel and director of the Secretary of Energy's Human Radiation Experiments Initiative and as deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Environment, Safety, and Health within the US Department of Energy.

Oh good. An actress appointed by Governor Hydrogen Hummer...a trust fund brat...and an artist/lawyer.

There are a few people who served in nuclear capacities on the board though:

Here is one:

Peter A. Bradford (Vice-Chair) advises and teaches on utility regulation and energy policy in the United States and overseas. A former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and former chair of the New York and Maine utility commissions, he has advised many states on utility restructuring issues. He has taught energy law and policy at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Vermont Law School. He served on a panel advising the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on how best to replace the remaining Chernobyl nuclear plants. He was also part of an expert panel advising the Austrian Institute for Risk Reduction on issues associated with the opening of the Mochovche nuclear power plant in Slovakia. He is the author of Fragile Structures: A Story of Oil Refineries, National Security and the Coast of Maine.

The bold is mine.


Maine is a state where they once produced less than 40% of their electricity fossil fuels, whereas today they produce 66% of their electricity from fossil fuels. This is certainly a victory for humanity, since global climate change (which is happening) is less important than corrosion at Beese Davis which was identified and repaired without a single loss of life.

Here are the resumes of their climate change "experts":

Kevin holds a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, with a focus on natural resource economics and environmental management, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he concentrated in English and journalism.

Journalist and administrator.

http://www.ucsusa.org/news/experts/experts-at-ucs-kevin-knobloch.html

Dr. Rest earned her Doctorate in health policy from Boston University and her Masters degree in public administration, with a focus on health services, from the University of Arizona.

Health policy expert, public administration, not a fucking world about meteorology.

Dr. Frumhoff has taught at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Harvard University and the University of Maryland. He also served as an AAAS Science and Diplomacy Fellow at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he designed and led conservation and rural development programs in Latin America and East Africa. He holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and an M.A. in Zoology from the University of California, Davis and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego.

Ecologist (remotely connected with climate), zoologist, and psychology undergrad.

Mr. Meyer received his undergraduate degree from Yale in 1975, concentrating in political science and economics. He received a master's degree in human resource and organization development from American University in 1990.

Mr. Meyer lives in Takoma Park, Maryland with his wife Connie, daughter Johanna, and two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Charlie and Chester. When he's away from the office, he enjoys hiking, sailing, singing and Scrabble.

Political "Scientist" and economists and HR.

One imagines that their panel of nuclear "experts" is equally well qualified.

What a bunch of pathetic assholes. I mean, couldn't they find one climatologist to be a "climate expert?"

One can join the Union of Concerned "Scientists" without having any scientific education whatsoever. You don't have to understand the first thing about physics, chemistry, engineering, atmospheric science, or mathematics. All the math you need is the math that will allow you to send them a check. You sign the check and you are instantly transformed from pathetic reflexive anti-nuclear asshole into a "concerned scientist." It's magic.

As it happens, their nuclear power "expert" is a nuclear engineer, apparently a disgruntled employee named Dave Lochbaum. They do not have two nuclear engineers as "nuclear experts." Of course, there is a world wide shortage of nuclear engineers, and most nuclear engineers have no time to play. There are many thousands of nuclear engineers who probably think Dave Lochbaum is an idiot.

[Kolesar]

4. No, according to the NRC and National Electric Insurance Ltd

The UCS just has them caught in a pickle. Caught trying to steal between second and third. And the UCS is just using this foible as means to get publicity. I gotta write to Funk and thank him for following this story. Thanks for the reminder.