Did you know the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
doesn’t publish nuclear licensee documents?
Hear them say it on this video of Tuesday’s NRC “public meeting” in Maryland
about restarting the San Onofre reactor in California.
This is the same NRC
that gave Plant Vogtle a clean bill of health
at a public meeting two days before Unit 1 shut down,
and the same NRC that could stop the new nukes there
even if the GA PSC won’t.
This same NRC recertified Plant Hatch on the Altamaha in Georgia,
extending the original 40 year design lifespan
of Unit 1 from 2014 to 2034
and
of Unit 2 from 2018 to 2038.
But don’t worry; if you’re farther than 10 miles from
Hatch,
you’re outside the evacuation zone, so you must be safe, right?
Just study the licensing documents to see; oh, wait!
Kendra Ulrich of Friends of the Earth asked the NRC some simple questions
that stumped the Commissioners and staff.
She wondered when the public could expect to see a
a 50-59 analysis California Edison had done about
restarting San Onofre.
Dave Beaulieu, NRC Generic Communications Branch,
said it was a “licensee document, licensee documents are not made public.”
He did say NRC would release its own inspection results.
She asked again, and Rick Daniel, NRC meeting facilitator
suggested she submit written questions.
Beauleiu summarized:
“At the end of the day, licensee documents are not made public;
that’s the answer.”
So what would be the point of her submitting questions when
she was just told they won’t make the answers public?
Ulrich continued by asking why NRC was considering going ahead
on the basis of experimental data that has never been used before
and that has not been made public.
Remember this is about a nuclear reactor that was shut down because
it was leaking.
That question sure caused some passing of the buck and pretending
not to understand the question by everybody in the room
who should have been able to answer the question.
Here’s
the video:
Video by Myla Reson, 18 December 2012, Maryland.
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