Not-so-Happy Anniversary

Twenty years ago today, Don Prevatte and I submitted a report under 10 CFR Part 21 to the NRC regarding a substantial safety hazard at nearly three dozen nuclear power plants.

Twenty years later, that substantial safety hazard still afflicts nearly three dozen nuclear power plants (slightly less now, because the Unit 1 reactor at the Millstone nuclear power plant permanently shut down in the interim).

How?

Why?

Who didn't do what?

The following blog post highlights, or lowlights, the case along with links to key documents along this safety cul-de-sac:

http://allthingsnuclear.org/20-years-of-nrc-inaction-and-counting/

Some of the stuff (like the NRC not realizing every other page was missing or falling asleep during our presentation on the subject) sounds made up. It wasn't. It was NRC inaction. (Nice if that someday became three words instead of two and it became easier to distinguish NRC's managers from store mannequins).

Will this substantial safety hazard remain unresolved twenty years from now?

Time will tell.

One would hope that a federal agency professing to give a hoot about nuclear safety might just be able to resolve a substantial safety hazard within forty years.
 
Thanks,
Dave Lochbaum
UCS