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| Nuclear Reactor Fines
& Cover Ups April 29, 2005 A Troxler Model portable moisture density gauge, which contains radioactive material, was reported missing by Craig Testing Laboratories of Mays Landing, N.J. on Monday, April 25. The gauge reportedly fell off a vehicle near State Route 52 and U.S. Route 1 in Pocopson, Chester County. Click Here For Source Info April 28, 2005 A NRC enforcement action stemmed from SCI’s termination in August 2003 of a dispatcher it believed had reported safety concerns to the NRC. The NRC staff proposed an escalated fine of $9,600 because the violation was identified by the NRC rather than self-reported by the licensee, and because the company’s corrective action was focused too narrowly and did not address management’s understanding of NRC regulations on employee protection. Click Here For Source Info April 27, 2005 "Indeed, by citing whistleblower Andrew Siemaszko, a former Davis-Besse engineer, for blame along with FirstEnergy, it appears that federal regulators are attempting to deflect responsibility for their own shortcomings. Fortunately, a federal grand jury in Cleveland is investigating possible criminal violations, and all the facts may yet emerge. . . Now the NRC contends that FirstEnergy withheld information on the safety of the reactor head from regulators. Mr. Siemaszko, however, presents a persuasive case that he is being made a scapegoat to protect top utility and NRC officials," editorial, Toledo Blade. Click Here For Source Info April 27, 2005 THE record $5.45 million fine levied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission against FirstEnergy Corp. for its near-catastrophic safety lapse in 2002 at the Davis-Besse nuclear power station is well deserved, but the action should not obscure or excuse the NRC's slipshod handling of the incident. Click Here For Source Info April 11, 2005 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that an inspection finding at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station regarding air trapped in portions of its emergency core cooling system is of "yellow" or of substantial safety significance that will result in additional NRC inspections and potentially other NRC action. The facility is operated by Arizona Public Service Co., near Wintersburg, Ariz. The NRC staff has also proposed a $50,000 civil penalty against the company for a related failure to perform a written safety evaluation and receive prior NRC approval before making a change to procedures for maintaining the emergency core cooling system. Click Here For Source Info March 1, 2005 "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined FirstEnergy Corp.'s nuclear operations unit $55,000 for a safety culture-related incident five years ago. The agency also named Georgia-based contractor Williams Power Corp. for violating federal regulations. The company employed three painters at Perry who immediately lost their jobs in March 2000 after pointing out a potential safety violation. Williams Power has not been fined -- though its site superintendent involved in the incident has already pleaded guilty to a federal felony for lying to the NRC about his actions. The contractor's site superintendent at Perry forced two of the painters to take a voluntary layoff and fired the third after he learned that they had complained to Perry's maintenance supervisor and then to the plant's ombudsman that they had been instructed to ignore proper procedures when painting the interior of Perry's nuclear fuel handling building. By NRC regulation, workers may not be harassed or fired for bringing up safety-related problems," John Funk, Cleveland Plain Dealer February 28, 2005 A fine stemming from a 2000 incident involving three painters employed by Williams Power Corporation, a contractor at the plant, and their management was levied by the NCR. The workers contacted a Perry maintenance supervisor and ombudsman with concerns about the directions they received from their supervisor that would violate a plant procedure for painting in the Fuel Handling Building. Immediately afterwards, the site superintendent for Williams Power threatened the painters with termination if they did not volunteer for a layoff. As a result, two painters were laid off and the third was forced to resign. Click Here For Source Info February 1, 2005 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a Confirmatory Order to the United States Enrichment Corporation to confirm commitments from the company to ensure that training related to employee protection at its Paducah, Ky, gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment plant will be adequately addressed. Click Here For Source Info October 11, 2004 Carl Patrickson was fired by Entergy Nuclear on November 20, 2003 after raising a number of problems affecting both occupational and nuclear safety at FitzPatrick. Carl was an Engineer at the FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant, in Oswego, NY, from 1989-2003. His case is pending before the US Dept. of Labor. The most serious of the problems he has raised is inadequate fire
protection for the reactor’s backup cooling water pumps. This problem
poses a significant safety problem in terms of an accident or attack on
the plant. Some
of the reasons for our lack of confidence are that the Commission has
held more closed meetings per the Sunshine Act regulation in the past
two years than in the prior 15 years combined. Further, the safety culture
within the NRC is deplorable, as evidenced by recent surveys reporting
half the work force being reluctant to raise safety concerns and a third
of those who do voice those concerns feeling they have been retaliated
against for doing so. |
May 2003 In December of 2002, the NRC initiated an investigation to determine whether a manager at USEC’s Paducah facility was discriminated against by being suspended and later terminated for raising safety concerns. The investigation was expanded in May of 2003 to determine whether the same manager was discriminated against, in retaliation for the previously raised safety concerns, by not being considered for a position with a contractor performing work for USEC at Paducah. The NRC did not substantiate that the manager was suspended or terminated because of raising safety concerns but expressed concern that discrimination may have occurred due to the manager’s not being later considered for a contract position. Click Here For Source Info November 3, 2002 Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) strongly criticized the move by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Board to restart the Browns Ferry Unit 1 nuclear power station, idled since 1985 for noncompliance with federal safety standards and poor economic performance, as a desperate political effort that threatens the public health, safety and security. The containment system for the Browns Ferry Unit 1 is of notoriously
weak design which makes it vulnerable to accidental overpressurization
and over-temperature accidents as well as deliberate acts of sabotage
from the crash of general and commercial aircraft. The report notes that much of the data which the NRC chooses to make
public represents only the "tip of the iceberg". The NRC, for
instance, refuses to release key safety data such as "single-component
failure" records and a comprehensive listing of all emergency plant
shutdowns. In addition, the agency's safety regulations by nuclear utilities
are incomplete and contradictory. The NRC also apparently lacks current
information on such basic safety matters as plant-by-plant evacuation
time estimates and the agency claims that it has been unable to access
its own data base on individual plant mishaps for several months and has
failed to obtain detailed records on the number of accidents at each reactor. |
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