U.S. Nuclear Agency Hid Concerns, Hailed Safety Record as Fukushima Melted

[Octafish]

An excellent summation of Fukushima, where we are, and how it was covered up, from NBC News, of all places.



U.S. Nuclear Agency Hid Concerns, Hailed Safety Record as Fukushima Melted

by Bill Dedman
NBC News, March 10, 2014

In the tense days after a powerful earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan on March 11, 2011, staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission made a concerted effort to play down the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis to America’s aging nuclear plants, according to thousands of internal emails reviewed by NBC News.

The emails, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, show that the campaign to reassure the public about America’s nuclear industry came as the agency’s own experts were questioning U.S. safety standards and scrambling to determine whether new rules were needed to ensure that the meltdown occurring at the Japanese plant could not occur here.

At the end of that long first weekend of the crisis three years ago, Scott Burnell, a manager in the agency’s media and public relations wing, thanked his colleagues for sticking to the talking points that his team had been distributing to senior officials and the public.

"While we know more than these say," Burnell wrote, "we're sticking to this story for now."

There are numerous examples in the emails of apparent misdirection or concealment in the initial weeks after the Japanese plant was devastated by a 9.0 earthquake and 50-foot tsunami that knocked out power and cooling systems at the six-reactor plant, eventually causing releases of radioactive material:

Trying to distance the U.S. agency from the Japanese crisis, an NRC manager told staff to hide from reporters the presence of Japanese engineers in the NRC's operations center in Maryland.

If asked whether the Diablo Canyon Power Plant on the California coast could withstand the same size tsunami that had hit Japan, spokespeople were told not to reveal that NRC scientists were still studying that question. As for whether Diablo could survive an earthquake of the same magnitude, "We're not so sure about, but again we are not talking about that," said one email.

When skeptical news articles appeared, the NRC dissuaded news organizations from using the NRC's own data on earthquake risks at U.S. nuclear plants, including the Indian Point Energy Center near New York City.

And when asked to help reporters explain what would happen during the worst-case scenario -- a nuclear meltdown -- the agency declined to address the questions.

CONTINUED...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/u-s-nuclear-agency-hid-concerns-hailed-safety-record-fukushima-n48561

"Say a prayer." Indeed.

[djean111]

1. Protecting profits, no matter how the support is spun.

[Octafish]

6. It's what they're really good at.

If they want to boil water, why not try sunlight and a magnifying glass?

http://www.nukefree.org/

No need for uranium. No plutonium "waste." No storage problems.

[Junkdrawer]

2. asked about a topic that might reflect negatively on the industry, they changed the subject..

...and this says what about our media?

[Octafish]

7. C'mon Junkdrawer! You write like they're captive lapdogs.

Captive lapdogs show independence on occasion, such as wetting the floor when the doorbell rings.

Corporate McPravda USA USA is following Mr. Sam's great precept for Wall Street on the Potomac: "To get along, go along."

However, a new model is being test driven in Japan...

Japan Reacts to Fukushima Crisis By Banning Journalism

[Junkdrawer]

8. Have you been following Gundersen's podcasts? The Japanese MEDICAL profession...

has been enlisted. Docs are being told to hide the causes of *some* diseases from their patients, many if not most are obeying.

[Octafish]

13. It is heartbreaking and disgusting for a health care professional to, eh, dissemble.

Gundersen is great. So is Helen Caldicott and the experts she brought in for a symposium on the health effects:

http://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=hcf

Thank goodness for Gundersen, Caldicott, DU, and people who give a damn. Their efforts help fill in the blanks our national security state, news media and medical communities want to ignore at the public's peril.

[Junkdrawer]

14. Helen's particular skills are needed again...

I think back to a PM where you and I kicked around whether nuclear weapons would or wouldn't stop or at least stagger the next war.

My position was based on people remembering what Helen taught. You, alas, may be right.

[madokie]

3. There is no doubt in my mind that the people

concerning the use of nuclear energy know full well the dangers involved but could care less as it has the potential to create great wealth. I became interested in nuclear energy years ago when PSO was trying to build a nuclear power plant near here. We seen early on in that fight that the industry would say or do anything except come clean about the dangers involved. Ultimately we won and we stopped this one from being built.

"Say a prayer indeed"

[Junkdrawer]

4. Remember when they use to tell you the vanishingly small odds of an accident?

wrote this earlier to the usual Monopoly on Science(tm) posters:

To counter the Public Policy concerns about the extreme damage possible during and after a reactor accident, the industry FOR YEARS went about claiming to be able to, wait for it, compute the probability of a nuclear accident.

AFTER the reactors were built on this lie (and woe to anyone who pointed out the absurdity of "the probability of an accident" ), the industry backtracked from this position. Seems that, by then, there were sufficient accidents and near misses (none of whose root cause could be found on the fault trees used to superciliously produce said probability) to make the previous overconfident statements, well, counterproductive..

And once you have a track record of lying to me in such a big way, I'm probably never going to listen to your Pronouncements On Science again.

[Octafish]

18. The Military Industrial Complex was born out of the Atomic Age

Eisenhower warned us in his "Farewell Address," Jan. 17, 1961:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Seems to me the national security state -- the secret government -- has used its atomic powers to hijack democracy -- enriching the crony class and enslaving the country.

And some wonder why public education is in the toilet and the news is mostly sideshow.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. I think we had adequate protections against tsunami.

With inundation-proof housing for backup generators and measures like that protecting the inlets for the heat sink.

But.

Fundamentally, this design did not perform well against the quake itself, in Japan. There's really not much different about the US counterparts that suggest they would fare any better. So, I'm quite happy that SONGS is offline. Diablo Canyon needs to go too. It's sitting within pissing distance of multiple major faults.

I don't know that you CAN harden a nuclear reactor of any design, against a major quake in the 8.0+ range. It certainly seems cost-prohibitive to contemplate.

[djean111]

9. That's the thing - with the cooperation of our government, nothing is

cost-prohibitive - they can, and do, just charge the customers and taxpayers more and more and more, all the while escaping any liability. A perfect example of privatizing profit and socializing losses.

Hopefully the increased availability of solar panels, and the ever-increasing advances in storage, will enable us to have local grids. The susceptibility of today's nuclear plants to weather and terrorists and earthquakes makes me nervous. And, you know, all the fracking is not helping the stability of the earth.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. Costs passed on, but not addressing the problem.

Diablo Canyon was upgraded to withstand a 7.5 seismic event on paper. Very expensive. But paper only, and the nearby faults are capable of producing a lot more than a 7.5.

[djean111]

12. They do not intend to really address the problem.

They just collect the projected costs. They literally do not have to care, they are exempted of liability. So they don't care.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Privatized profit, socialized risk.

Unpleasant business, that.

[RVN VET]

17. Move all NRC offices near these sites

and make the managers and engineers -- and their Congressional Representatives -- house their families there as well. If these blokes really feel it's safe and secure, why not?

(I just had an image of Amerindians wrapping the pudgy, struggling Charles Laughton in a small-pox blanket. Perfect justice!)

[jsr]

10. Recommend

[Zorra]

16. It's always all about money. People wonder why I never believe anything the

corporations government says or does.

I learned my lessons thoroughly during the conflict in Vietnam. It's all about money and power.

Sanders/Warren 2016.