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Toledo Blade Editorial Lauds Lochbaum's Work on the Besse-Mess -Knocks NRC
Though I wouldn't call Dave a "professional gadfly".
Norm
> Paul Blanch wrote:
>
Toledo Blade Editorial - 10/11/02
>
> The NRC’s failures
>
> Public interest groups sometimes are self-interest groups. While
> claiming non-partisan, watchdog status, they actually advance their own
> narrow political and social agendas.
> Some embellish or ignore the facts when it serves their purposes. And
> knee-jerk reactions can replace sober, reasoned scientific analysis of
> important issues.
>
> How refreshing to see a different kind of watchdog in action the last
> several months. It’s been a rousing real-life David-and-Goliath encounter
> in Washington involving a local mess familiar to Blade readers.
>
> The mess: That infamous hole-in-the-reactor vessel-head incident at
> FirstEnergy’s Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. Years of lapses by
> FirstEnergy and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) allowed the
> near-disastrous situation to occur.
>
> NRC fits the Goliath image, being the vast government bureaucracy whose
> duties include ensuring safe operation of America’s 103 commercial power
> plants.
>
> There actually is a real-life David. He’sDavid Lochbaum, who has been
> nuclear safety engineer in the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
> Washington, D.C., office since the 1990s. UCS is a nonprofit organization
> of scientists and citizens that does technical studies and lobbies on
> energy, environment, and other issues.
>
> Mr. Lochbaum has used his 17 years of experience in the nuclear power
> industry, and the NRC’s own records, to document intolerable lapses in
> the agency’s regulation of Davis-Besse. His work has supplemented
> excellent news reporting on Davis-Besse by The Blade and other media.
>
> The documents show, for instance, that NRC managers overruled a staff
> recommendation to close Davis-Besse last December.
>
> NRC staff concluded that Davis-Besse was a safety hazard that should be
> shut down immediately. But NRC management vetoed it. Management let
> Davis-Besse stay in operation for almost two months, with safety systems
> degraded.
>
> Why? Because an NRC manager felt an earlier shutdown would put a dent in
> FirstEnergy’s profits, according to Mr.Lochbaum’s documents. The NRC’s
> sole concern should have been public safety, not the profit
> margin of a utility it was supposed to be regulating.
>
> That’s just one example of what may be a dangerous institutional culture
> at the NRC, in which managers have lost sight of the agency’s statutory
> role. Others have come to light thanks to Mr.Lochbaum’s effectiveness as
> a professional gadfly.
>
> Mr.Lochbaum contends that NRC managers don’t have the backbone to stand
> up to the utilities. He calls the NRC a federal agency "with a brain, but
> no spine," and urges a congressional investigation of the NRC’s
> performance.
>
> Even the NRC acknowledged Wednesday its own failures to monitor
> Davis-Besse’s problems.
>
> We may take exception to UCS positions on some other topics. But
> Congress should investigate the NRC. UCS’ impressive evidence on the
> NRC’s failings can be perused at http://www.ucsusa.org.
>
> The Davis-Besse incident has damaged prospects for a national expansion
> of nuclear power. It could be a clean, secure, abundant source of energy
> for the 21st century. But does NRC management have the ability - and the
> guts - to assure its safe use?
>
> Until Congress addresses those questions, the NRC itself may be a cloud
> on nuclear power’s horizon.
>
> PaulM. Blanch
>
> 135 Hyde Rd.
>
> West Hartford, CT06117
>
> Pager 800-539-1786
>
> Coalition for
> Peace and Justice and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign; 321 Barr Ave., Linwood,
> NJ 08221; 609-601-8583 or 609-601-8537; ncohen12@comcast.net UNPLUG
> SALEM WEBSITE: http://www.unplugsalem.org/ COALITION FOR PEACE AND
> JUSTICE WEBSITE: http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org The
> Coalition for Peace and Justice is a chapter of Peace Action.
"First they ignore you; Then they laugh at you; Then they fight you; Then
you win. (Gandhi) "Why walk when you can fly?" (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
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