Trained workers at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Massachusetts are claiming that skilled nuclear technicians are being replaced by unqualified “Homer Simpsons” as a way of cutting labor costs for the plant’s new owner, Holtec International.
Holtec’s legal record includes criminal activities such as bribery and outright lying to elected officials, so it is no surprise that the company has serious management problems that have manifested in the form of poor labor relations.
Holtec International is on record as lying to the State of New Jersey about the fact that Holtec was debarred (banned) from doing any business with the Federal Government’s Tennessee Valley Authority. Holtec lied to elected officials about this criminal activity because it did not want the State of New Jersey to know that is has a history of bribing federal employees.
Specializing in Failure
For Holtec to succeed, a power plant must fail. Holtec has gained its riches exclusively from failed nuclear power plants and their generously endowed Decommissioning Trust Funds (DTFs). With a complex network of “do-nothing” paper holding companies, Holtec can limit its liability for handling and owning nuclear waste. In other words, Holtec not only specializes in wringing money out of failed nuclear power plants, but its corporate strategy relies on incorporating temporary shell companies that are built to fail as a way of limiting corporate liability and accountability.
Three frightening Facts
First: Holtec’s thin-walled waste storage containers are only guaranteed to last 10 to 25 years (get the 25-year Holtec Warranty here).
Second: Nuclear waste is deadly for at least a quarter-million years.
Third: Holtec is the vendor of choice at San Diego’s failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS)
The technicians at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant know that nuclear waste is forever, and they have a right to be concerned. As noted above, Holtec’s policy is to package this forever-deadly waste in delicate temporary containers with a 25-year warranty, and to do it with poorly trained and unqualified workers.
On a final note, the issue of badly trained workers handling Holtec’s fragile stainless steel waste cans, was partially exposed on August 9, 2018, when a brave whistleblower, David Fritch, went public with a story of horrific safety lapses at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). An outraged resident, Jeff Steinmetz, details the Homer-Simpson-like response of Southern California Edison’s management in this important video explainer.