There’s a hole in your nuke reactor? Here, take a pill…
From a reader
“Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has been demanding a congressional inquiry in to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant incident. The plant had a football-sized hole in the reactor that was leaking rust-colored corrosive coolant. The company knew of the hole but didn’t tell the NRC. It took the NRC 2 years to figure out the company was lying! The NRC replied, “the NRC doesn’t count every thread on every bolt; we focus on things that are safety significant. We poke, We probe, we ask questions. But for the most part, we rely on the licenssee. Our whole regulatory process is based on trust.” (Plain Dealer 12.01.02).
Recently the NRC internal watchdog wrote a scathing report about the NRC disregarding public safety in the name of profit. Of course the NRC claimed that its own internal watchdog’s report was counter-productive. The main Cleveland Daily, the Plain Dealer, has covered the entire story very well.
I live within ten-miles of the Perry Nuclear Plant on the east side of Cleveland, David-Besse is the nuclear plant on the west side. We recently got a coupon in the mail for free Potassium iodide (KI) pills. You take one of these after a nuclear meltdown and you don’t get thyroid cancer. The FYI that comes with the coupon states, “Radioactive materials may be released from a nuclear power plant during an emergency.” Makes me feel safe knowing the gov’t can’t spend money to properly monitor the plant but they can afford to give tens of thousands a pill
Evidently, this pill distribution is nationwide for those living within 10-miles of a nuclear plant. The NRC website claims, “The population closest ( within the 10 mile EPZ) to the nuclear power plant are at greatest risk of exposure to radiation and radioactive materials.” Surely, the risk of a nuclear terrorist attack is much higher for NYC or LA, than measly Mentor, Ohio. Have you ever heard of Mentor, Ohio? You mean to tell me, that the risk of nuclear radiation is more significant from American energy corporations than from terrorists? WOW! And yet we are spending how much, 396 BILLION DOLLARS, to hunt “terrorists” around the world, yet we cannot properly fund the Nuclear Regulatory Commision!!! God Bless America!
He also notes Kucinich is a genuine progressive and “was mayor of Cleveland back in the 70’s. He is one of the few Dems who actually have the courage to stand up for the common folk. He sued Bush over the ABM treaty, he led the anti-war congressional push, he was shown on CNN the other day at a rally against the GOP putting sweetheart deals in the homeland security bill saying our “government is not for sale”, demanded the US stop intervening in Venezuela (found that on NARCONEWS), he marched with demonstrators back at the Seatle WTO protests, and marched with the workers of LTV steel in Cleveland after corporate greed and “free” trade buried the company. Some from the area have been hoping he runs for President.”
And indeed, the Plain Dealer just ran a story on that very subject, President Dennis? Who Knows?