CANCELLED! Feb 11: Public Watchdogs to argue Public safety of radioactive Spent Nuclear Fuel before NRC’s Petition Review Board

Today, February 11, at 11:00 am PST, (2:00 PM Eastern), Public Watchdogs will argue before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Petition Review Board that the NRC  honor the non-profit’s request to make “Demands for Information” (DFIs) to the San Ononfre Nuclear Generating Station.

At issue is the safety of “spent” nuclear fuel canisters at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), where 3.6 million pounds of deadly  radioactive nuclear waste is stranded 108 feet from the Pacific Ocean in 73 thin-walled stainless steel containers.  The “used up fuel”  Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF)  is lethal for at least 250,00 years, and is being stored in containers that are only guaranteed to last 25-years.

Who:	Public Watchdogs, Stuart Scott, and Paul Blanch vs Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
What:	NRC Petition Review Board Meeting GET DETAILS
When:	Thursday, Feb 11,  11am, PST
Where:	By phone:  888-677-0839 Passcode 9496534

Holtec, the manufacturer of the 5/8″ thick thin-walled stainless steel cans that hold the waste, claims that the possibility of a breached canister or a radiation release at its SONGS facility is impossible.

The San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dump is located 108 feet from the beach in a tsunami inundation zone, according to the California Geological Survey, the University of Southern California, and the California Emergency Management Agency.

The Public Watchdogs Petition requests that the NRC compel Holtec to provide documentation showing the public why a release of radiation at San Onofre from a breached canister is impossible.  Among other things, Public Watchdogs has asked for Holtec’s analysis of what will happen in the event the facility is flooded.

Holtec is claiming that it must withhold its required flood analysis from the public on the grounds that publication would compromise Holtec’s “proprietary” intellectual property .

According to nuclear safety consultant Paul Blanch,  who has provided expert testimony on behalf of Public Watchdogs, “The NRC has been providing the public with false intentionally misleading safety information for many years.”   According to Mr. Blanch, much of this information will be exposed at tomorrow’s Petition Review Board meeting.

“The highly risky way that nuclear reactor waste is treated in the US is quite shocking. It is the result of a stark and obvious prioritization of the financial interests of the Nuclear Power Industry over Public Safety by the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission),” says Stuart Scott

“We have shown clearly that the NRC is highly responsive to the requests for regulatory relief by the industry they should be regulating. At the same time, they virtually ignore public input. They refuse to consider most public petitions filed, and then reject almost all of the few they even choose to consider. It’s a shame and a crime against the public and future generations, who will bear the growing risk of over 3,200 substandard storage canisters in use around the US. That does not take into account the completely unprotected ‘cooling ponds’ in which so-called ‘spent nuclear fuel’ is left for years until it is cool enough to be welded shut into relatively thin-walled canisters. This flaunting of public safety is a direct result of the increasingly cozy relationship that has developed over the years between the regulators (NRC) and the licensees (nuclear power utilities),” says Scott.

According to Public Watchdogs executive director, Charles Langley, “It appears that this ‘proprietary’ flooding analysis is being kept secret to protect corporate profits.  We are concerned that by allowing this type of secrecy, the NRC is putting  public safety at risk.”

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