NRC Admits That NUcelar Plants Under It's "Regulation", Regularly "Chill" Dissent and Problem Reporting

Stright from the mouth of the NRC
http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/2016/03/24/a-chilling-effect-is-not-cool/


steamshovel2002    March 24, 2016 at 4:20 pm

It doesn’t go past me Columbia and Watts Bar chilled environment occurred in 2015. Is it just a coincidence both these happened in 2015? No doubt Columbia nuclear plant should get a chilled environment NRC inspection. So the Columbia whistleblowers went to the news media, while the Watts Bar whistleblower senior reactor operators went to the NRC (Allegation)? I wonder, according to the whistleblowers, does the NRC chilled environment inspection or news media get more corrective action within the plant? I’ll tell you what, it grinds through the gears a lot faster with the unproved public disclosure of problems and the resultant corporate lawyer internal investigation?

I remember when I was a whistleblower at Vermont Yankee in 1992. Vermont Yankee was getting straight “A plus” grades from the NRC. The troops at my plant seen a drastic decline in safety and performance at the plant. So I wrote a letter to the governor and then accused her of sitting on my safety concerns. I remember as my issues were getting explained in the papers, the NRC stated that VY got very good grades at the plant for many years. It was one of the best operating plants in the USA. Then months later, as I was under a deepening cloud, the senior resident inspector approached me while I was in the plant. He wanted to thank me for my efforts. He said the agency couldn’t see the beginning of the decline in the performance of the plant, as you disclosed your problem. He said now, the NRC could clearly see the decline.

My blog:

http://steamshovel2002.blogspot.com/2016/03/march-23-2016-mr.html">http://steamshovel2002.blogspot.com/2016/03/march-23-2016-mr.html

“Junk Nuclear Plant Safety Culture: Why did Columbia and Watts Bar Emerge in 2015”

It is noted the first stage Columba whistleblower internal corporate lawyer investigation stated “There has been a decline in performance at Energy Northwest’s nuclear power plant near Richland, the Columbia Generating Station…”.The NRC’s 2015 assessment of Columbia notes no such decline in performance. Why is there so much daylight between the Columbia’s internal whistleblower investigation and the NRC current annual assessment?

Personally I think the term “chilled environment” (impaired safety culture) is misnamed through campaign contributions. Davis Besse hole in the head is a chilled environment that got away from everyone. Safety culture should be another safety limit: “A restriction or range placed upon important process variables that are necessary to reasonably protect the integrity of the physical barriers that guard against the uncontrolled release of radioactivity.” So any detectable so called chilled environment is a violation of a safety limit and requires an immediate plant shutdown. Especially seen and perceived by many people?

You know, another one of these societal deterrence tools.

Mike Mulligan
Hinsdale, NH