Arnie and Maggie Gundersen discuss the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board's (ASLB) decision to hold public hearings about restarting the San Onofre Nuclear Plant. "This whole issue is about the public's right to know. The nuclear industry and the NRC have developed a process to keep the public out," Arnie says.
Read MoreThe most striking thing about seeing any nuclear power plant up close is their sheer size. They are such impressive feats of construction and design, and it's hard to imagine that something so robust could fail. In this week's podcast, find out why nuclear power plants fail, and why failure is a fact of life that the industry refuses to acknowledge.
Read MoreCritical safety documents are continuously withheld from the public with a total lack of openness and transparency. Fairewinds founder Maggie Gundersen and Enformable.com editor Lucas Hixson discuss the difficulties the public has in obtaining information from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and from reactor owners. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has been a failure in allowing the public to have access to information that affects the safety of their communities
Read MoreIn this special edition, Fairewinds analyzes a letter from Senator Boxer and Representative Markey that indicates that the problems at San Onofre were known to its owner, Southern California Edison, years before the steam generators were installed and rapidly failed. This statement by Boxer and Markey supports Fairewinds analysis of one year ago that indicates Edison took shortcuts to avoid public participation in a license amendment for San Onofre.
Read MoreIn 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 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 nuclear industry plays to prevent public participation.
Read MoreIn this week's Fairewinds podcast Arnie Gundersen discusses recent problems at two nuclear reactors and how the NRC is failing to enforce its own laws governing those reactors. Gundersen discusses nuclear containment problems at the Ft. Calhoun reactor near Omaha and accident release rates at the San Onofre nuclear plant south of Los Angeles. In both cases, the NRC seems willing to ignore its own regulations and allow these two damaged reactors to restart.
Read MoreArnie explains that Oyster Creek is the only nuclear plant in the US that lacks a modern High Pressure Safety Injection System. This means that the recently discovered pipe crack in a 3 inch pipe at Oyster Creek would create a serious safety threat if it were to completely break. Arnie also discusses the cost of operating nuclear plants, and how many nuclear plants around the country are no longer a low cost electric producer. Finally, Arnie looks at the three nuclear plants with extended shutdowns (Ft. Calhoun, San Onofre and Crystal River) and concludes that the cost of maintaining large staffs when no electricity is being produced is not in the best interests of the ratepayers.
Read MoreYet more problems for San Onofre: According to Southern California Edison, a possible case of sabotage at the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant is being investigated. Gundersen and KH discuss how coolant liquid at the plant may have found its way into an unrelated system and threatened the backup power supply. - San Onofre has a long history of employee concerns, and recent layoffs may have exacerbated their employee problems. - The nation's oldest running Nuclear Plant, Oyster Creek, may remain shut down for longer than expected following the discovery of a crack in the reactor head. - The NRC to back a new study which will re-evaluate earthquake risks and probabilities at U.S. nuclear plants.
Read MoreFairewinds Energy Education is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to furthering public understanding of nuclear power and nuclear safety related issues.
