 |
| The Games People Play |
In this week's podcast, Fairewinds looks at how difficult it is for the public to meaningfully participate in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing process. Arnie Gundersen was retained by Friends of the Earth to assess major problems at the San Onofre nuclear plant in California that have caused a year long shutdown. Arnie met with the NRC this week concerning his analysis of what went wrong and how the problems were foreseeable. In this podcast, Arnie discusses how the NRC and Southern California Edison deliberately withheld information to make his technical analysis more difficult to accomplish. Fairewinds taped the meeting, so our podcast listeners can hear for themselves the difficulties Arnie encountered and the games the NRC and Southern California Edison played to prevent his participation.
The NRC website states, "As an independent regulatory agency that prides itself on openness, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is pleased to take an active role in President Barack Obama’s Open Government Initiative, with its focus on open, accountable, and accessible government. The NRC has a long history of, and commitment to, transparency, participation, and collaboration in our regulatory activities."
ReplyDeleteArnie Gundersen: Top NRC official fell asleep during my presentation — “His eyes were rolling back and his head was bobbling like a little bobble doll” — Process designed to freeze public out. This type of behavior during public presentations on matters of life and death for Southern Californians conflicts with NRC’s commitment to participation in regulatory activities and President Barack Obama’s Open Government Initiative, with its focus on open, accountable, and accessible government..
This is one example, but the NRC is consistently sleeping at the wheel, especially when it comes to SCE and San Onofre.
Yet another reason for a full public investigation at SanO.