JAMES MADISON QUOTE - 1822

"A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives."

SCOTTSBORO WEATHER - SUN & MOON RISE

Friday, April 2, 2010

NRC calls into question safety issues at Bellefonte, denies hearing in favor of TVA and Nuclear Construction Industry.


Today the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board of the NRC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ruled, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, BREDL, and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, SACE, had failed to prove any charge that would require a hearing, however the NRC admits several concerns but decided in behalf of the nuclear construction industry and the TVA while ignoring the facts of a stripped and decaying 4 decade old nuclear plant. The NRC agrees there are several safety concerns, admitted in their conclusion, but ruled in favor of the nuclear industry and the TVA in typical NRC RUBBER STAMP action. (Knoxville News Sentinel link: http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=Nzc4Mzc4Mg )

The NRC states in their conclusion: "...the apparent absence of any AEA, Atomic Energy Act, adjudicatory process applicable to the already-approved TVA request to place the [Bellefonte] units in deferred status, as well as any forthcoming TVA request to resume plant construction...and the application of the largely-superseded reactor licensing process have the overall effect of “backloading” a number of issues of potential significance to the safe and environmentally-responsible operation of Units 1 and 2."

"[Petitioners state] areas of concern, one of the most prominent undoubtedly being whether the facilities, which were not subject to the NRC’s deferred plant maintenance and preservation requirements for several years and from which various safety-related items such as steam generator tubing and reactor coolant piping have been removed, ultimately can be restored and completed in a manner that is fully consistent with the agency’s QA/QC and safety requirements."

Bureaucratic "double talk." The NRC admits there are issues of high risk and safety related to the stripped reactor units but refuses to identify or list specific action to insure safety. They readily and boldly admit the quality assurance, control and safety requirements are lacking.

The NRC further recommends: 1) "Bellefonte units cannot be treated as “business as usual” facilities;" 2) "complete transparency on the part of TVA regarding the details of both its planning for, and implementation of, the restoration and completion of Bellefonte Units 1 and 2;" 3) "significantly enhanced vigilance on the part of the staff in reviewing and inspecting TVA’s QA/QC and restoration/construction efforts associated with those units." 4) "TVA’s “off again/on again” approach to their construction, in combination with what is likely to be the span of some four decades between the Units 1 and 2 CP and OL proceedings, has generated a unique set of circumstances such that, to ensure all safety and environmental matters of substance regarding these two units are thoroughly vetted in a public forum."


SAY NO TO RADIOACTIVE NUCLEAR POWER AT BELLEFONTE


garrymorgan.icopyright.com

No comments: