SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
The flood wall at Oconee Nuclear Station, in Seneca, SC, "would prove inadequate in the event of a catastrophic failure of the Jocassee Dam, located 11 miles upstream on Lake Keowee." (Photo: Duke Energy)
Nuclear Regulators Favor 'Secrecy Over Safety': Whistleblowers
NRC withholding information from the American public 'concerning a potentially significant public safety vulnerability'
Dec 04, 2012
Two officials from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission have publicly announced that the agency has purposefully withheld crucial information about very serious and potentially "catastrophic" flood risks at nuclear plants, The Huffington Postreports Tuesday.
The concerns of the whistleblowers, Richard H. Perkins and Larry Criscione, that federal regulators have recklessly allowed plant owners to refrain from implementing safety measures and improvements in plants' infrastructures for many years and have withheld such information from the public, have now been supported by several follow up investigations by nuclear safety advocates and a collection of documents obtained by The Huffington Post.
The documents obtained include a "4-year old internal communication plan for NRC officials seeking to head-off criticism of its handling of the dam threat, as well as detailed correspondence between Criscione and NRC leadership on the issue."
The NRC withheld information reported by Perkins and Criscione in public documents, which warned of serious threats at several nuclear plants of flooding from either natural disasters or technical malfunctions at nearby dams.
The NRC has since said they are investigating the issues; however, both Perkins and Criscione, who reported on the NRC censorship separately, are saying the agency is not likely to take their alarming research seriously.
"It is hypocritical for the NRC -- or any government agency -- under the guise of security, to withhold information from the American public concerning a potentially significant public safety vulnerability, yet take no real action to study and correct the supposed security vulnerability," Criscione said. "If we believe there is a security vulnerability, we need to take measures to address it and not merely withhold it from public discussion."
"The key question for all five NRC commissioners is whether they will support making all the safety recommendations of the Near-Term Fukushima Task Force including those that will address nuclear reactor resiliency to severe earthquakes, floods and other extreme weather, mandatory," stated Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a long-time advocate for nuclear safety, in reference to the current industry-wide review of U.S. plants which followed the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Greenpeace's Jim Riccio suggested that the NRC has been lying to Congress about the current risk level at US nuclear reactors:
"Rather than address the threat, NRC commissioners have misled Congress and delayed action to reduce these risks. The American people deserve better from the Obama administration's nuclear regulators."
"It's the two of us against the entire federal government. We're going to try our best -- it's almost an even fight," Perkins added. "We realize what an incredibly uphill battle we have in front of us. These things never really work out for the whistleblower."
Read the rest of the report by Tom Zeller atThe Huffington Post.
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Two officials from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission have publicly announced that the agency has purposefully withheld crucial information about very serious and potentially "catastrophic" flood risks at nuclear plants, The Huffington Postreports Tuesday.
The concerns of the whistleblowers, Richard H. Perkins and Larry Criscione, that federal regulators have recklessly allowed plant owners to refrain from implementing safety measures and improvements in plants' infrastructures for many years and have withheld such information from the public, have now been supported by several follow up investigations by nuclear safety advocates and a collection of documents obtained by The Huffington Post.
The documents obtained include a "4-year old internal communication plan for NRC officials seeking to head-off criticism of its handling of the dam threat, as well as detailed correspondence between Criscione and NRC leadership on the issue."
The NRC withheld information reported by Perkins and Criscione in public documents, which warned of serious threats at several nuclear plants of flooding from either natural disasters or technical malfunctions at nearby dams.
The NRC has since said they are investigating the issues; however, both Perkins and Criscione, who reported on the NRC censorship separately, are saying the agency is not likely to take their alarming research seriously.
"It is hypocritical for the NRC -- or any government agency -- under the guise of security, to withhold information from the American public concerning a potentially significant public safety vulnerability, yet take no real action to study and correct the supposed security vulnerability," Criscione said. "If we believe there is a security vulnerability, we need to take measures to address it and not merely withhold it from public discussion."
"The key question for all five NRC commissioners is whether they will support making all the safety recommendations of the Near-Term Fukushima Task Force including those that will address nuclear reactor resiliency to severe earthquakes, floods and other extreme weather, mandatory," stated Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a long-time advocate for nuclear safety, in reference to the current industry-wide review of U.S. plants which followed the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Greenpeace's Jim Riccio suggested that the NRC has been lying to Congress about the current risk level at US nuclear reactors:
"Rather than address the threat, NRC commissioners have misled Congress and delayed action to reduce these risks. The American people deserve better from the Obama administration's nuclear regulators."
"It's the two of us against the entire federal government. We're going to try our best -- it's almost an even fight," Perkins added. "We realize what an incredibly uphill battle we have in front of us. These things never really work out for the whistleblower."
Read the rest of the report by Tom Zeller atThe Huffington Post.
Two officials from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission have publicly announced that the agency has purposefully withheld crucial information about very serious and potentially "catastrophic" flood risks at nuclear plants, The Huffington Postreports Tuesday.
The concerns of the whistleblowers, Richard H. Perkins and Larry Criscione, that federal regulators have recklessly allowed plant owners to refrain from implementing safety measures and improvements in plants' infrastructures for many years and have withheld such information from the public, have now been supported by several follow up investigations by nuclear safety advocates and a collection of documents obtained by The Huffington Post.
The documents obtained include a "4-year old internal communication plan for NRC officials seeking to head-off criticism of its handling of the dam threat, as well as detailed correspondence between Criscione and NRC leadership on the issue."
The NRC withheld information reported by Perkins and Criscione in public documents, which warned of serious threats at several nuclear plants of flooding from either natural disasters or technical malfunctions at nearby dams.
The NRC has since said they are investigating the issues; however, both Perkins and Criscione, who reported on the NRC censorship separately, are saying the agency is not likely to take their alarming research seriously.
"It is hypocritical for the NRC -- or any government agency -- under the guise of security, to withhold information from the American public concerning a potentially significant public safety vulnerability, yet take no real action to study and correct the supposed security vulnerability," Criscione said. "If we believe there is a security vulnerability, we need to take measures to address it and not merely withhold it from public discussion."
"The key question for all five NRC commissioners is whether they will support making all the safety recommendations of the Near-Term Fukushima Task Force including those that will address nuclear reactor resiliency to severe earthquakes, floods and other extreme weather, mandatory," stated Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a long-time advocate for nuclear safety, in reference to the current industry-wide review of U.S. plants which followed the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Greenpeace's Jim Riccio suggested that the NRC has been lying to Congress about the current risk level at US nuclear reactors:
"Rather than address the threat, NRC commissioners have misled Congress and delayed action to reduce these risks. The American people deserve better from the Obama administration's nuclear regulators."
"It's the two of us against the entire federal government. We're going to try our best -- it's almost an even fight," Perkins added. "We realize what an incredibly uphill battle we have in front of us. These things never really work out for the whistleblower."
Read the rest of the report by Tom Zeller atThe Huffington Post.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.