Nuclear regulators to be furloughed

I reported on this a couple of days back. This is really worrying.

Forcing another Fukushima

90% of America's nuclear regulators to be furloughed

Christina Sarich

Nation of Change,

13 October, 2013

The federal government has failed to find a sufficiently safe place for spent nuclear fuel

As if the world needed another catastrophe of Fukushima proportions, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission just announced that it expects another 3900 employees to be furloughed this week due to budget shortages. This comprises more than 90% of the agency’s workforce who are charged with making sure more than 100 nuclear reactors spread across 63 sites in the US remain safe.

Only approximately 300 personnel will remain on staff, including 150 resident inspectors and a ‘skeletal’ management crew along with some emergency staffers. While we might be able to go without many of the ‘services’ of the government: the FDA, CDC and EPA, it seems preposterous for our politicians to play with nuclear fire in view of the recent upgrade of the Fukushima disaster to catastrophic proportions.

After all, America’s nuclear power plants are aging. The average plant is over 30 years old with the oldest two nuclear sites being in Oyster Creek, New Jersey, and Nine Mile Point 1 in New York, respectively. Some plants were recently closed due to safety concerns and the permanent decline of their systems. Many plants are showing injured steam generators and others have structural damage.

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Also, the populations living near nuclear plant sites have sky-rocketed in the past decades. In some places populations have increased nearly four times since the 1980s. If an emergency occurred residents would be expected to evacuate a ‘nuclear fall-out area’ on old two-lane highways meant to act as sufficient infrastructure more than 4 decades ago.

Furthermore, most nuclear sites shave been allowed to run at maximum capacity for many years now, increasing radiation risks, even if no major incident, such as an earthquake, tsunami, tornado, or other unforeseeable weather event were to happen. Even a small flood, could cause a chain reaction which would lead to the same events we have observed in Japan, particularly at sites were reactors are aging and fragile to begin with.

The National Resources Defense Council has mapped out areas where nuclear fallout are most probable in the event of a catastrophe, but they fail to detail just how likely that occurrence could be.

Moreover, imagine the government response to an actual crisis – and remember the people who went without food, shelter or medical care during Hurricane Katrina for weeks. Can we trust our leaders – especially during a government shut down to usher in needed emergency services should they be required?

The federal government has also failed to find a sufficiently safe place for spent nuclear fuel. Who will be making sure this poison isn’t dumped in our backyards during the government furlough? Halting some government programs during the shut-down has seemed acceptable, possibly even with a smug nod of ‘good-riddance’ from some who see the government as a bloated entity to begin with, but sending home workers who make sure we don’t have another Fukushima right here on American soil is sheer wickedness.