Last week in a major critical report David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, accused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of allowing nuclear power companies that run the nation's aging nuclear fleet of overlooking faulty equipment, of delaying repairs to leaky pipes and of not dealing seriously with electrical malfunctions and assorted ills. Whether this accusation of the NRC and the nuclaer power industry it regulates --- and others from congressional critics like Senator Joe Lieberman and Representative Ed Markey --- stands muster or not an informed citizenry should probably begin to research and assess troubling information on nuclear power plants for themselves
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Here in the South Jersey and Philadelphia metropolitan area we are literally entombed with the surrounding of three close by (within 50 miles) nuclear power plants, plus the glaringly infamous Three Mile Island plant a mere one hundred or so miles away and the Indian Point, NY plant some 140 miles north.
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How close is your own nuke plant? Have you read any research that would suggest that the plant nearest you has problems that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)Â has downplayed or plain neglected to deal with or report on? You may want to do your own quick research by looking at the NRC web site and the sites of watchdog groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists and other environmental activist groups. Â
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As we have witnessed this week, one awful problem in Japan is that the Japanese people tended to trust their government pronouncements about the still unfolding nuke disaster way too much. Now the Japanese government is haltingly admitting that it lacked candor (truth) in its reporting and tended to over rely on the often nuanced, rather befuddled reports of Tokyo power company executives who run the ailing plant and its six out of control reactors.
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While many of us in America may support our president in many policy cases, in this case it's important to understand that President Obama may not have all the pertinent facts about our own nuclear reactor situation. Or he may himself be under the erroneous opinion that nuclear power is somehow inherently safe or that American technological know how can handle any problems that may arise. But we all remember the vivid images of last year's BP oil disaster and how technological experts dilly dallied for weeks without a solution to the problem. In that case the government also let BP executives play with our health and lives way too long before decisively stepping in. Can we ever forget how the BP CEO so callously regarded the disaster with his aloof behavior; a dismal public relation performance which ended in his lateral career movement to Russia rather than being straightout fired by his bosses?
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We also remember with great sadness how our government dealt with the suffering people of New Orleans --- especially the predominately black Ninth Ward --- and the greater Gulf area in the Katrina disaster.
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Like Japanese political leaders Obama relies on his so-called experts and advisors to give the best advice. These advisors and experts may have their own expert but contradictory opinions and ideologically driven motives about nuclear power safety issues. Some of them may actually have tenuous connections with the nuclear industry they are supposed to be governing and regulating which justly casts suspicion on the sincerity of their advice.
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More often than not nuclear industry executives pressure leading politicians and government regulatory agencies (such as the Environmental Protection Agency and Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to tone down any seriously adverse criticism of their industry's safety record.
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The multi-billion $$$ nuclear industry and its executives here in America, much like their counterparts in Japan, have bottom line economic issues of profit making to consider which are often prioritized higher than the overall health interests of American citizens. To them nuclear safety is obviously important, but of equal or greater import is the generating of profits. For example, the nuke power industry has pressured the NRC to calculate a value of life index of three million dollars per person in case of a nuclear accident. The NRC calculation of the value of a life is six million dollars less than the calculations of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Notice that just now the EPA is being threatened with severe budget cuts by a super-conservative, right-wing leaning Congress, while the NRC regulated nuclear industry, up to last week's problems in Japan, has enjoyed broad bipartisan "consensus" support from the Obama administration and Republican leaders.
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We have 104 reactors many of which are of the same design as in Japan and many that are old and faulty. The research says that there are problems which President Obama did not deal with in his hasty press conference about our own American nuke power situation yesterday.
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One more consideration to take into account both in this immediate area and nationally. For low income and racial minority communities what are the plans for evacuation, sheltering and/or the care of already distressed populations in case of a nuclear plant accident? During the 9/11 crisis and Katrina I searched high and low for emergency or FEMA type plans for predominately black, Latino and poor urban communities. Not much specifically related to black survival was my constant notice. Now I am beginning to ask (in a very unscientific way) individual fire department and emergency services personnel about what's up for deep ghetto black folks in the event of a nuke plant incident. Besides being told that many black first responders are now victims of conservative initiated state/local budget cuts, I found out that the few personnel I have spoken with are not trained to deal with any thing having to do with nuclear accidents.
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At minimum all Americans, but particularly black Americans, need to stay tuned and do our own research and information gathering while staying critically informed. Our and our people's survival may depend on it.
