Security guards sue Entergy for overtime pay at Palisades

NRC file photo of Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline in southwest Michigan.As reported by Jim Hayden at the Holland Sentinel, nearly two dozen security guards and security department supervisors at the Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, MI (photo, left) have launched a legal action against Entergy Nuclear. They are demanding back overtime pay due them, but Entergy refuses to pay. Vermont Yankee atomic reactor security guards previously prevailed in a similar lawsuit against Entergy.

Although the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) claims the "chilled work environment" in Palisades' security guard department has been resolved, security guards themselves seem to think otherwise -- including their feeling that as soon as NRC enhanced oversight ends, Entergy will return to harassing guards who "make waves" (that is, do their jobs, and call attention to problems).

"Nuclear power plant’s security changes mixed one year after ‘unusual’ death"

Cooper atomic reactor is shown here during a historic flood in the 1990s.As reported by Joe Jordan at Nebraska Watchdog, security protocols have changed little, if at all, at the Cooper nuclear power plant (photo, left) in Nebraska, a full year after a worker was found dead on the "critical refueling floor," 17 hours after he was last seen. 66-year old Ronald Nurney died of a heart attack, although it is unclear how long he suffered. None of the many cameras in the area detected his distress, and no one thought to look for him, despite his long absence.

As reported, 'Nurney’s widow, Donna, told Nebraska Watchdog she didn’t understand “how anybody in a nuclear power plant can go missing for that long and nobody look for him.”'

For their part, Cooper's owner, Nebraska Public Power District, its operator, Entergy Nuclear, and its supposed regulator, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have not seen fit to change security procedures, a full year later.

The Cooper atomic reactor is identical in design, and vintage, to the Fukushima Daiichi Units that melted down and exploded in Japan beginning on March 11, 2011.

NRC OI whitewashes Entergy harassment against security whisteblowers at Palisades

As reported by the Holland Sentinel, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Office of Investigations' has dropped any further action stemming from allegations raises by fired Palisades security department supervisors and guards. The whistleblowers allege that they were harassed, and eventually terminated, by Entergy for raising security concerns and raising alarms about regulatory violations.

Michigan Radio has also reported on this story.

"Drones are an Increasing Security Issue for the Nuclear Industry"

As reported by Caroline Baylon at Chatham House in the U.K.:

"As the use of drone technology proliferates, the full range of implications for nuclear security is just beginning to be understood...the prospect of increasing numbers of drones filling the skies poses abundant security concerns for critical infrastructure -- including for the nuclear industry."

As the use of drone technology proliferates, the full range of implications for nuclear security is just beginning to be understood. - See more at: https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/16539#sthash.TKkZkOzN.dpuf

"Security and safety risks at French nuclear reactors exposed by drones"

Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear campaigner with Greenpeace Germany, has posted a blog regarding the serious risks to safety and security made manifest by the large number of mysterious drone flights over French nuclear facilities and atomic reactors in recent weeks.

Burnie writes:

Of course the implications go way beyond France. Nuclear power technology, conceived, designed and developed from the mid-20th century onwards has run slap bang into a 21st century technology that is capable of inflicting serious damage and potentially causing a major nuclear accident.

Burnie also reports:

Greenpeace has also issued a series of demands and recommendations, including:

• Closing the gaps in regulation, where the nuclear safety regulator has no responsibility for security despite the fact that it relates directly to safety.
• That EdF [Electricité de France] should be required to construct hardened bunkers over its spent fuel pools as a matter of urgency, and in the meantime should move as much fuel as possible from the pools into dry cask storage reducing the risks of loss of cooling function at the site.