Today, the nonprofit public safety advocacy group, Public Watchdogs, reacted to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission email touting an “enforcement decision,” at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s beachfront nuclear waste dump, by calling the agency a “miserable failure.”
Breaking news: April 26, 2019, 3:50PM
NRC “Enforcement Action” against Holtec shows a complete failure to regulate USA’s nuclear waste stockpile.
Today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced that it was not fining Holtec International, the manufacturer of the thin-walled nuclear waste storage canisters used at the beachfront San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dump, for violations of Federal law.
The case revolves around an incident where Holtec engineers changed the design of the internal cooling components of its popular “Multi-Purpose Canister,” or MPCs. The MPC canister is warranted to last 25 years, but the waste inside it is deadly for at least 250,000 years. The unauthorized design change replaced solid aluminum supports with four-inch long bolts, which were breaking off inside the canisters.
A miserable failure to regulate.
According to Charles Langley, Executive Director of Public Watchdogs, “Holtec’s cans store the deadliest stuff on earth. That’s why they are required to report design changes to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC has just given Holtec a free pass to continue violating the law, which requires that design changes be registered with the NRC. Today’s failure by the NRC to fine Holtec for breaking the law shows that the NRC isn’t serious about protecting the public’s safety.”
According to Nina Babiarz, a Public Watchdogs Board Member, “Given the failures at San Onofre, it is disturbing that the NRC is also failing to enforce Federal Law. The Public has a right to know that those laws were passed to protect their safety. The Public pays the folks at the NRC very well, good benefits, vacation, retirement, health insurance. They need to do their job and start enforcing the law.”
The San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dump is located 108 feet from the same beach that made California surf culture famous. Once completed, it will contain 3.6 million pounds of deadly nuclear waste. The site is located on an earthquake fault, in a tsunami zone and next to the USA’s sixth largest passenger and rail transportation corridor. Each one of the 72 nuclear waste trash cans at the facility contains more deadly cesium 137 than was released during the Chernobyl disaster.Bottom of Form
Get the NRC email notice here.
Get the NRC Notice of Violation and Enforcement Action here.
For more information contact Charles Langley (858) 752-4600 or email Langley at publicwatchdogs.org