The Seven Deadly Sins Meet the NRC's Environmental Impact Assessment

Wow, God,

This is from the Asbury Park Press of 10/28/07. The full article is here.

"In a recent audit, the inspector general's office in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission studied 458 samples of the narrative in NRC reports on nuclear plant relicensing applications. More than 70 percent of the narrative passages on the Oyster Creek license renewal application lacked substance, the inspector general's office found.

"The [NRC's Inspector General's] audit found a similar pattern, on average, in an analysis of NRC comments on some other plant relicensing applications.

Ok, God. That's a little weird. So the NRC has not been doing due diligence. That probably explains a bit of what happened at the "Public Meeting to Discuss the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the License Renewal of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station" last January at the Latchis. Some of the slides presented by the NRC, ostensibly about Vermont Yankee, were labelled "Pilgrim Nuclear Plant." The NRC guy explained the mistake to the outraged crowed: He had presented about Pilgrim just the day before and had used many of the same slides for the Vermont Yankee presentation. The crowd had only quieted down when he made another disquieting mistake. He referred to Vermont Yankee as "Vermont Yankitee." That's pretty much the same caliber mistake as calling your wife, whose name is Linda, "Leslie"--except that if you are less than imprecise in your relationship to your wife, when she blows up she's not going to kill millions. Anyway, clearly the guy in charge of the assessment of the environmental impact of Vermont Yankee wasn't all that familiar with Vermont Yankee. And, clearly, I should have prepped him better.

God, I was embarrassed, and when I say "God" in this sentence I mean it in the expletive, expressive sense, not in the religious one. But I do know now, in my humility, that I need to be very careful about what I say next, because I'm going to mean it in the religious sense and you may not be in the mood for any more laxity on my part. Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, … (and before I continue with my iteration of the other two of the Seven Deadly Sins, may I confess that I have never understood, really, the difference between "Gluttony" and "Greed"?) … Envy, and Pride. Those are the big seven, are they not, Lord?. (By the way, I must also confess that I do not understand the prominence of "Lust" on that list. For ideas about the roots of my confusion, see my "Why I Love Vermont Yankee" prayer; specifically see Item Number 6 in that prayer.)

Anyway, Lord, forgive me if I ramble. Here's the "I have to be careful about what I say next" stuff: The judgment about sloppiness publicized in the Asbury Park Press is about Oyster Creek's relicensing application, not Vermont Yankee's. I'm off the hook! Vermont Yankee is entirely clean in this news report! So is that Pride that I'm articulating? Because that would be kind of bad, spiritually speaking. Or is it just fear--which you, in your all knowingness, surely know doesn't even have a capital letter, much less a sin number and would therefore be a much more seemly negative emotion for me to go on about?

I'm going to second-guess you and go with "fear" as the answer. More specifically, I'm talking about "fear for my job." For the NRC report says that "The [NRC's Inspector General's] audit found a similar [tons of bluster, not much substance] pattern, on average, in an analysis of NRC comments on some other plant relicensing applications." Did it find that pattern on Vermont Yankee's application???? If so, I've got a problem. The folks in Windham County are going to be ripped at me if they find out (so I'll try not to let them).

Again, just as I was when I prayed my "Why I Love Vermont Yankee" prayer, I am afraid. Dear God, please tell me that fear for my job would not be a Deadly Sin, not even if it was compounded by Wrath for the engineers who didn't do a more careful or meaningful job of inspecting our poor, aged plant! Is the NRC's Inspector General's office about to expose me? And if, pray, fear for one's job is not a sin, is allowing or supporting carelessness in an NRC relicensing application?

And is purposeful carelessness even the same thing, necessarily, as lying? I do know that lying is a sin. But is it a Deadly Sin? And if lying isn't Deadly, does that mean it's never lethal? And if it's never lethal, could I comfortably assume that it is relatively benign? What I mean to ask, Lord, if only I could get past my fear and bluster, is this: If I lie only when I'm paid to and only to people I don't care about, is it a sin?

Gotta go, Lord. Thanks for the meeting.

Fake-Rob