The NRC is providing inaccurate and false information to public

November 3, 2020, San Diego — In a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and to the NRC’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Public Watchdogs argues that the NRC is once again deceiving the public by misrepresenting nuclear safety issues at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).

In February of 2020, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Inspector General report blasted the NRC for deceiving the public when it “misrepresented” and provided “inaccurate information” to Paul Blanch, the “concerned individual” discussed in the report. In its latest report to Mr. Blanch, and the non-profit group Public Watchdogs, the NRC is providing similar inaccurate and false information.

“They lied to us, ”says Paul Blanch, a subject matter expert for Public Watchdogs.

At issue is the fact that the NRC is claiming that a flooding event at the SONGS Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation or “ISFSI” is “non-credible.”

“ISFSI” is an Orwellian word used by the NRC to describe a toxic beachfront nuclear waste dump containing spent nuclear fuel depot that is deadly radioactive for 250,000 years. The SONGS “ISFSI” is located 108 feet from the beach, in a tsunami inundation zone next to an earthquake fault line. It contains 73 thin-walled stainless steel cans weighing upwards of 100,000 pounds each. Each 20-foot high canister contains the same amount of Cesium-137 that was released into the atmosphere during the entire Chernobyl event. The cans themselves are only guaranteed to last 25 years.

According to Public Watchdogs’ subject matter expert, Paul Blanch, “Southern California Edison, the owner of the nuclear waste dump, and Holtec, the manufacturer of the canisters, and the NRC have acknowledged that simultaneous flooding of all buried fuel canisters at SONGS is a possibility. Should a mass flooding event occur, there will be a loss of cooling to the containers, which could result in serious consequences to public safety.”

Public Watchdogs is demanding that a realistic flood analysis and consequences be provided to the public. “Loss of cooling to all of the spent nuclear fuel at SONGS has never been analyzed and the impact to the public has been intentionally concealed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission” says Blanch.

To get a copy of the letter, or to arrange an interview, contact Charles Langley at
(858) 384-2139 or email, Langley @ publicwatchdogs.org.