30 Years After Three Mile Island, NRC Still Playing Russian Roulette With Public Health and The Environment

As we approach the 30th Anniversary of TMI (Three Mile Island), as the nuclear industry, the NRC, and our Federal Government still work to cover up that tragic event, the industry is just as dangerous as it ever was, the NRC is still playing Russian Roulette with human health and the environment. Sure Naval Admiral and Nuclear Propagandist Skip Bowman of former NEI fame (or is that shame) will trot out before the cameras (for a fee) and tout the industry's record...this blog instead would encourage citizens to look at the military/commercial nuclear industry's never ending cover up of the deaths, deformities and lives ruined from this tainted industry.

Think of this...the same coolant leaks, the same shortage of water to the reactor core that almost caused a CORE MELT DOWN at TMI, that did cause a CORE MELT DOWN at Chernobyl occur on a far to frequent basis in 2009...as example, look at last years Cooling Tower Collapse at Vermont Yankee, and Indian Points almost catastrophic underground PIPE BURST that leaked at least 100,000 gallons of tritiated water into the Hudson River before it was discovered...fact...that pipe was leaking TRITIATED WATER before it burst, and in fact the NRC had DECIDED TO DISMISS a Stakeholder 2.206Petition on this VERY ISSUE just two months before said Pipe Burst occurred, and held a phone conference with the filer four days after the event to give said filer a chance to disagree with their decision. How many times can America KEEP DODGING the bullet.

Bush was fond of saying Terrorist only had to get lucky once, while we had to be right 100 percent of the time. NRC and their licensees are WRONG far to much of the time, and ask yourselves on this the 30th Anniversary of TMI, how long is their luck going to continue before a NUCLEAR BULLET FALLS INTO THE NUCLEAR REACTOR CORE CHAMBER and THERMAL SHOCK shatters the embrittled core into a billion pieces as Radioactive death rains down upon a Stakeholder Community? How many of you are willing to let Indian Point continue operating with the same ignored problems that almost brought down Davis Besse.

March 2009

Key Facts

• The horrific nuclear reactor accident that permanently shut down Three Mile Island 2 (TMI 2) in 1979 was caused by a combination of horrific equipment failure and the inadequate training and knowlege, the inability of plant operators to understand the reactor’s condition at certain times during the event, even though the NRC had assure the public that TMI management KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE DOING.
  
• The same loss of cooling water to the reactor’s heat-producing core that has occurred at Entergy's Indian Point and Vermont Yankee reactors in recent history led to significant melting of the fuel rod cladding and the uranium fuel rods, and the release of radioactive material could have been far more horrid than it was if not for a few breaks during the crisis, and perhaps the answered prayers of hundreds of thousands of stakeholders.
  
• The TMI 2 accident has and will continue to cause untold deaths and birth defects from public radiation exposure that both NEI and the NRC will try to deny. From their perspective, from the perspective of both the DOE and the DOD, national security if more important than any number of deaths caused by the use of nuclear power.
  
• If you look at the inadequate training of employees, the inherent problems that cause the coolant leak at TMI, and compare to (as example) the collapse of a cooling tower at Vermont Yankee, or the underground pipe burst at Indian Point, you realize 30 years after Three Mile Island, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is still willing to play Russian Roulette with human health and the environment.