Earthquakes, Hurricanes Highlight Serious Regulation Flaws (re: nuke plants

[ensho]

http://www.truth-out.org/earthquakes-hurricanes-highlights-serious-regulation-flaws/1315152458


On Friday, August 26, as Hurricane Irene began its slow journey up the US central Atlantic coast, power companies operating 20 nuclear rectors in nine states made plans to deal with the storm and its potential aftermath.

North Carolina’s Brunswick reactors, operated by Progress Energy, were powered down to 70 percent of peak capacity. At New Jersey’s Oyster Creek, near Barnegat Bay, plant operator Exelon chose to shutdown its reactor completely. Dominion Resources, owner of New London, Connecticut’s Millstone plant took one reactor down to 70 percent, the other to 50 percent.

Dominion’s Surry plant in Virginia stayed at full power, as did Entergy’s Indian Point, 35 miles north of New York City, and the Pilgrim plant in Massachusetts.

-long snip on what each action taken means for the plant and the surrounding populations-

But step back, and an even larger systemic problem takes shape. Each private energy company made its own decisions on what to do with each of its reactors in the face of an approaching (and somewhat predictable) natural disaster. The call on whether to decrease output or shutdown reactors in advance was not the federal government’s call, not the NRC’s, and not the call of at-risk states or municipalities. There is no federal rule, and, apparently, no federal authority to direct plants on how to operate in cases of multi-region events such as a hurricane.

-snip about North Anna's quake damaged nuke plant and Japan's nuke waste going into sewer and how that could happen here unless the W.H. and Congress get it together-
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don't hold your breath

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. something that Congress has overlooked

one of the many things

[ensho]

2. kicking back to pg. 1 because this is important

nt