"U.S. Regulator Lets Industry Help with the Fine Print"

The infamous Davis-Besse "red photo," showing boric acid crystal and rust "lava" flowing off the severely corroded reactor lid, in NRC's possession long before the public learned of the hole-in-the-head fiascoAs part of its ongoing "Nuclear Crisis" series in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, investigative journalist John Sullivan with ProPublica has cited the NRC's complicity with FirstEnergy at Davis-Besse as the poster child for industry influence over the supposed safety regulator. Beyond Nuclear, in coalition with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, has challenged Davis-Besse's proposal for a 20 year license extension. In his article, Sullivan also describes the Nuclear Energy Institute's influence over NRC on the critical safety issue of license extensions. Since the year 2000, NRC has rubberstamped 66 of 66 nuclear utility applications for 20 year license extensions; 16 additional reactors, including Davis-Besse (as well as Seabrook in New Hampshire, which Beyond Nuclear is also challenging), stand poised for NRC rubberstamped license extensions. This, despite the fact that NRC's Office of Inspector General has busted the agency staff for "cutting and pasting" entire sections of nuclear utility assessments on license extension risks directly into NRC safety evaluation reports and environmental impact statements, then calling the analyses "independent." In addition, NRC OIG busted NRC staff for destroying working documents which led to decisions to approve license extensions once the rubberstamp had been completed.