Friday, March 25, 2011

Coakley Behind the Curve

As usual.  

"Coakley warns on spent fuel rods; AG says storage at Vt. Yankee, Pilgrim a risk" by Beth Daley, Globe Staff / March 21, 2011

Federal officials have underestimated the potential danger posed by radioactive spent fuel storage pools at the Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants, the Massachusetts attorney general charged yesterday, underscoring five years of legal challenges the state has waged to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to examine the risks more thoroughly.

The unfolding Japanese nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant — including a spent fuel pool that US officials have said appears to have gone dry and released radioactive material — has riveted attention on possible vulnerabilities at US plants....  

They still are.

Massachusetts has long argued that the lack of a federal repository where plants can send spent fuel rods, coupled with plans by plants such as Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee to operate 20 years beyond the 40 years they were originally licensed for, will ramp up the number of radioactive rods in pools on site — and the risk from an accident, natural disaster, or terrorist attack.

Coakley has failed through past legal efforts to get the NRC to budge, and she has limited legal options now, but she is hoping to bring pressure to bear on the NRC....  

Related: NRC OK’s 20-year extension for Vt. nuclear plant

Yeah, who cares about the cancer-causing chemicals that leaked into the ground and water, and that the company lied about.  

Disaster training funds may be cut

Un-flipping-real. 

I guess that is what happens when all your tax loot goes to wars, corporate welfare, and Israel.

Spokesmen for Pilgrim, in Plymouth, and Vermont Yankee, in Vernon near the Massachusetts border, said yesterday the spent fuel pools were sturdy and safe....  

The same liars that lied about the leaks, right?

A vigil and protest outside the plant yesterday drew a crowd that local police estimated at 200 to 250 people, but organizers said the number was more than double that....  

And here they only got one sentence deep in the middle of the pro-nuclear power paper.

 Yesterday, Coakley seemed to express frustration at the lack of information released by NRC officials, who often cite terrorism or national security concerns as a reason they cannot disclose studies on spent fuel pools or risks....

And if the state AG can't get the information.... sig heil, America.

--more--" 

"Nuclear crisis might affect location of US plants; US reviewing storage of spent fuel at reactors" by Matthew Daly, Associated Press / March 21, 2011

NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko said set off alarms last week after saying that all the water was gone from one of the spent fuel pools at Japan’s most troubled nuclear plant, raising the possibility of widespread nuclear fallout. Japanese officials denied the pool was dry....  

Related: Japan Makes AmeriKan Media Melt Down

Unless you want to believe in lying governments. Then you are fine. 

Energy Secretary Steven Chu voiced optimism about the Japanese crisis in interviews on “Fox News Sunday’’ and CNN’s “State of the Union.’’ “I think with each passing hour, each passing day, things are more under control. And so, step by step, they are making very good progress,’’ he said.

I want to cry, readers, I really do.

Still, Chu and other officials said serious problems remain at the stricken nuclear complex. Pressure unexpectedly rose in a reactor, meaning plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive steam. That has only added to public anxiety over radiation that began leaking from the plant after the monstrous earthquake and tsunami left the plant unstable....

--more--"

Related:

"Meanwhile, the industry’s collective pile of waste is growing by about 2,200 tons a year; analysts say some of the pools in the United States contain four times the amount of spent fuel that they were designed to handle....  

That is called an ACCIDENT(?) WAITING to HAPPEN!!!!

--more--"   

Thank the stars I have a government that will lie to me so I can feel safe.