Nuclear revolving door gobbles up billions of dollars of ratepayers' money, threatening to move onto taxpayers next!

Commissioner Geoffrey Merrifield's NRC file photoWhile still a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Commissioner, Geoffrey Merrifield did the nuclear power industry a big favor. He spearheaded a seemingly simple, but significant, change in NRC regulations, which paved the way for new reactor construction, unfettered by bothersome environmental safeguards. Merrifield shephered through a change in the definition of the word "construction." Now, nuclear utilities could build any aspect of a nuclear power plant, save for the reactor and its containment building, without having to first complete an environmental impact statement, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Thus, large aspects of a new reactor construction job -- such as foundation excavations for the reactor complex, or construction of the turbine building -- could proceed apace, building "facts on the ground," and momentum that would be hard to stop.

Merrifield capped such corruption by leaving NRC immediately after his dirty work, and going to work for the Shaw Group, which specializes in -- you guessed it -- new reactor construction! This example of the nuclear revolving door between supposed government regulator and industry even made a number of senior managers at NRC uneasy about Merrifield's blatant, self-serving conflict of interest.

Now, as reported by the Atlanta Progressive News, to such corruption must be added incompetence, raising not only financial risks, into the billions of dollars, but radiological risks that could impact millions of lives:

'...Chicago Bridge and Iron (CB&I), formerly known as Shaw Modular Solutions, makes modules being used to assemble four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors being built at Plant Vogtle in Georgia and V.C. Summer in South Carolina.

“CB&I is unable to provide properly constructed modules... and [have demonstrated a] continued inability to reliably meet the quality and schedule requirements of the project," Barbara Antonoplos, a ratepayer, testified, citing a report from the utility's regulatory staff in South Carolina.

"These problems have existed from the beginning and been raised in every other CB&I hearing and still there is no fix... they [Georgia Power] still do not have a competent outfit making parts and once the new parts get delivered to Vogtle, they are repairing them to make them acceptable.  This alarms me because incompetence of this magnitude breeds disaster especially when it comes to construction of a nuclear device. There is no way these reactors can be considered safe... when ‘patch it together’ is the best construction model they are able to come up with," Antonoplos said.

"Ongoing failures of this sort result in escalating cost and I don't believe you should force ratepayers to foot the bill for such gross incompetence," Antonoplos said.

Southern Company’s projections do not include the cost of the lawsuit they’re engaged in with their contractor, The Shaw Group/Chicago Bridge and Iron, nor the full cost of not getting Federal Loan Guarantees, for which the negotiation deadline has been extended three times according to Georgia WAND's website...'

Alex Flint, NEI's Senior Vice President for Governmental AffairsSpeaking of nuclear revolving doors and federal loan guarantees, the top lobbyist for the nuclear power industry, Alex Flint at the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI, photo left), has passed through multiple times. For one, he "served" as the staff director on the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee, under Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), on whose personal staff Flint had previously "served." The ENR Committee hatched the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In addition to the $13 billion of direct taxpayer subsidies in that bill aimed at promoting new atomic reactor development, Flint wrote the federal nuclear loan guarantee language. After the bill was enacted into law, Flint left "public service" and went to work at NEI, where he remains to this day.

In a very real sense, Flint wrote his own (likely high six-figure, if not more) paycheck, while "serving the public" -- up for dinner to the nuclear industry, that is!

In late 2007, $18.5 billion for new reactor loan guarantees, and another $4 billion in new uranium enrichment loan guarantees, were approved by Congress and George W. Bush. However, even though President Obama, in Feb. 2010, awarded $8.3 billion in new reactor loan guarantees for the proposed new Vogtle 3 & 4 reactors -- giving it the highest profile possible, by making the announcement himself -- Southern Co. has never agreed to the terms. Too much of its own "skin in the game" is being asked of it, for such a financially risky scheme. Thus, no nuclear loan guarantees have yet been finalized.

Entergy Nuclear battered by lawsuit, arrest, layoffs

Entergy's troubled fleet of a dirty dozen atomic reactors nationwideEntergy's dirty dozen atomic reactors across the country have been jolted by a wrongful death lawsuit in Arkansas, a safety-significant arrest of a supervisor in New York, and 800 layoffs across its fleet.

Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc., asserts that the 30 layoffs planned at Entergy's problem-plagued Vermont Yankee atomic reactor will inevitably increase safety risks there.

Gundersen questions whether Entergy will invest the $70 million needed at Vermont Yankee for safety significant repairs, or simply decide to permanently shutdown the troubled, controversial reactor.

Reuters has reported that Entergy CEO, Leo Denault, has admitted to investors and reporters that, regarding Entergy's non-utility, "merchant" reactors in deregulated, competitive electricity markets, "all options are on the table." Last February, Denault admitted in a Reuters interview that needed safety repairs were a major financial challenge for Entergy's age-degraded reactor fleet.

All this bad news for Entergy comes on the heels of Mark Cooper's recent report, identifying half of Entergy's reactor fleet as being at risk of near-term "early retirement," due to an array of economic, operational, and safety factors. 

Enformable Nuclear News: Entergy battered by wrongful death lawsuit in Arkansas, safety-signficant arrest in New York

Entergy's dirty dozen atomic reactors across the U.S.Entergy is serious facing legal troubles -- a wrongful death lawsuit at its Arkansas Nuclear One plant, and an arrest of a supervisor at its Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City.

This lawsuit and arrest call into question Entergy's commitment to safety, to put it mildly. But then again, Entergy's unwritten business plan is "buy reactors dirt cheap, and run 'em into the ground -- safety risks be damned!"

But industry profits over public safety is also NRC's top priority, it seems. The Japanese Parliament concluded that the root cause of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe -- the reason the reactors were so vulnerable to the natural disaster to begin with -- was complicity and collusion between the nuclear power industry, its supposed government regulators, and elected officials. Sound familiar? We have that in spades in the U.S., too!

Enformable Nuclear News, run by Lucas W. Hixson, has run a couple recent articles that shed light on the "rogue corporation" that is Entergy Nuclear. (Top elected officials in Vermont -- such as Governor Peter Shumlin, and leaders of the State Legislature -- have long referred to Entergy, in public and explicitly, as a "rogue corporation." This came after multiple top Entergy officials lied to State of Vermont officials, under oath, repeatedly, saying that the Vermont Yankee atomic reactor did not have underground pipes that carry radioactive materials. They made these statements in 2009, some as late as December. In January, 2010, Entergy was forced to admit that indeed there were such pipes -- in fact, they were leaking tritium and other radioactive poisons into the soil, groundwater, and Connecticut River.)

The first Enformable Nuclear News article reports on a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of the worker -- 24-year-old Wade Walters -- who was killed, when a 500-600 ton piece of equipment was dropped on him during transport at Entergy's Arkansas Nuclear One plant last Easter Sunday. 8 additional workers were injured in the fatal accident.

Shamefully, Entergy Palisades' Site Vice President, Tony Vitale, bragged about Entergy's occupational safety during an early April NRC public meeting in South Haven, MI, just days after the fatal accident in Arkansas. Not a word had been mentioned during the meeting, neither by NRC nor Entergy, about the fatal accident, during the public meeting. When Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps had his chance at the microphone during the public comment period, he made sure to mention it, and point out the irony and inappropriateness of Vitale bragging about Entergy's occupational safety record!

The second story Enformable has posted concerns an arrest made in New York, of an Entergy supervisor at Indian Point nuclear power plant (nearby, and upstream from New York City). He is accused of falsifying vital safety records, in order to prevent Indian Point from being shutdown, at the loss of a million dollars per day, or more, in electricity sales (Indian Point has two reactors, of 1,072 Megawatts-electric (MW-e) each). His falsification involved the readiness -- or lack thereof -- of emergency diesel generators (EDGs) -- essential to the cooling of the atomic reactors' cores in the event of a power outage on the primary electric grid. Without the grid or the EDGs, Indian Point could have been quickly plunged into "Station Black Out" (SBO), which is exactly what led to the triple meltdowns and four major explosions at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan, and the catastrophic radioactivity releases there.

WNYC reported on this story.

About a decade ago, Dr. Ed Lyman at Union of Concerned Scientists did a major report about the safety and security risks at Indian Point, entitled "Chernobyl on the Hudson?" Leaving aside radiation deaths and injuries, in the tens and hundreds of thousands that would be possible (21 million people live or work within 50 miles of Indian Point), TRILLIONS of dollars in property damage could result from core meltdown(s) at Indian Point.

States hosting Entergy reactors had better wake up to Entergy's rogue corporation status, as Vermont has. They had better do something about it, before it's too late! Entergy's reactors must be shutdown, before they melt down!

Callaway atomic reactor remains closed following fire in central MO

NRC file photo of Callaway atomic reactorAs reported by KMOV TV-4 St. Louis, Ameren's Callaway atomic reactor, located in Fulton, Missouri, 90 miles west and upwind of St. Louis, remains shutdown, following a fire. Beyond Nuclear board member Kay Drey, a longtime watchdog on Callaway, was interviewed. She pointed out that design, construction, and operational errors have all occurred at Callaway, and that, while fires do happen, you sure don't want them to happen at atomic reactors.

KMOV then questioned Ameren's characterization of the fire as an "ununsual event," pointing out that a number of "unusual events" have occurred at Callaway in the past decade. For example, last April, three workers were burned by an electrical flash in the switchyard.

Kay has penned numerous pamphlets, including one written for nuclear workers' ("Know Your Risks, Know Your Rights"), as well as one ("Routine Radioactive Releases from Nuclear Power Plants") containing a close-up photo of the rooftop vent at Callaway for the unfiltered atmospheric discharge of radioactive gases such as tritium, as well as noble gases krypton and xenon (which radioactively decay into long-lasting, biologically active isotopes of strontium and cesium).

As covered by regional and even national media, Kay has also been actively concerned, as are many others, about a "nuclear fire" of a different kind: an underground landfill fire, inching ever closer to a decades-old radioactive waste dump at West Lake Landfill, just upstream from St. Louis drinking water intakes. The crisis continues to garner headlines on a regular basis, as government officials at all levels, under pressure from area residents, struggle with what to do on this, the 40 year mark of radioactive waste first being buried there. Kay has long led efforts to have the radioactive wastes removed from the Missouri River floodplain.

State of Vermont objects to NRC over faulty radiation monitoring equipment at Entergy's Vermont Yankee atomic reactor

VY's infamous 2007 cooling tower collapse. The photo was distributed by a whistleblower.As reported by the Vermont Digger, State of Vermont Department of Public Service officials have written the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), objecting to and demanding answers about the repeated malfunction of vital radiation monitors at the age-degraded, problem-plagued Entergy Vermont Yankee (VY) atomic reactor. VY is identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4, a General Electric Mark I boiling water reactor.

Despite this, NRC rubberstamped a 20-year license extension at VY, the same month Fukushima's reactors melted down and exploded. It is unclear to the State of Vermont whether or not NRC even inspected the defective radiation monitoring equipment before rubberstamping the license extension. Entergy has announced it will replace the faulty equipment.

The article also mentioned previous age-related degradation accidents at VY, such as the infamous 2007 cooling tower collapse (photo above left); it also reported that VY's fair market value has declined 69% in the past year alone, calling into question its viability.