Hard Workers Doing a Heck of a Job

Dear God,

For people wondering whether the NRC can be trusted to protect the people and property it is supposed to protect, I have some thoughts.

They start with a story about the Navajo people of New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona.

On October 24, 2007 the Los Angeles Times reported that "Navajo tribal officials asked Congress on Tuesday [October 23] for at least $500 million to finish cleaning up lingering contamination on the Navajo reservation in the American Southwest from Cold War-era uranium mining, an industry nurtured by its only customer until 1971: the United States government." From 1971 through 1986, the US government was joined by another major customer of Navajo reservation mining: the nuclear power industry. Then the mines were closed.

According to the LA Times, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Ca.), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called the negligence of the NRC and other Federal agencies that resulted in the poisoning of the Navajo reservation "a bipartisan failure for over 40 years" and "a modern American tragedy." He also instructed the NRC as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Indian Health Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to get back to him with a cleanup plan by December. (Cute moment, Lord: According to the LA Times, the EPA Regional Administrator protested that, "he needed 'time' to protect a Navajo community from a radioactive waste pile." Apparently, the 46 years that had already elapsed hadn't been enough time in which to get a plan moving. At which point, "Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) snapped: 'Time passes, Mr. Nastri. People get sick. They get bone cancer, they get leukemia while we wait.'"

People do get sick. The Navajos did. According to the LA Times, under the NRC's careful watch, "the mine operators often left behind open tunnels, shafts and piles of radioactive waste. Federal inspectors knew of the hazards but seldom intervened. Meanwhile, Navajo cancer rates doubled and certain birth defects increased."

What does this have to do with the question of whether the NRC can be trusted to protect the people and property it is supposed to protect? I think the answer is obvious. But what does it have to do with Entergy and, specifically, Vermont Yankee? By the end of January, the NRC will have received from Entergy a petition for a 20-year extension to the operating license of Vermont Yankee. The Windham Regional Commission gets to give input to the NRC about the potential impact of a license extension on regional development. And so, on January 7 at 6:30 pm, the WRC will meet at the Red Roof Inn on Putney Road in Brattleboro to listen to the concerns of everyday people. Which is a long way of saying that January 7 will be an opportunity for the people radiated by Vermont Yankee to help the NRC (via the WRC) do a better job for them than it is doing for the people on the Navajo reservation.

I'm not planning on attending because, if I do, health activists will just make snarky remarks that are ostensibly directed to the WRC but are really aimed at me about the increased job opportunities for oncologists in the area if cancer rates continue to be elevated in the area surrounding Vermont Yankee. Environmentalists will carp (pun intended) about death rates for fish in the Connecticut River and the impact of that on tourism and quality of life. I might get hammered by business people worried about the fact that losses from a catastrophic incident at the plant would not be covered by business insurance. Heck, I might even get yelled at by a homeowner or two because the lack of insurance coverage is a problem for homeowners, as well. Insurance usually doesn't cover such losses--and, by law, neither Entergy nor Vermont Yankee can be sued by homeowners or businesses to make good on any losses, either.

Another cute thing, Lord. You know all of those flaky websites that pop up and appear to give disinterested advice? Well, here's one called Own Home Style.com, and it's giving free advice, probably just so home owners will see the ads. (Click the one called "The Love Button: Push Me Hard" and use the Love Compatibility Calculator for a good time. Adorable, huh?) Anyway, Own Home Style.com does actually give some good advice. For example, it warns potential home buyers to check whether a nuclear power plant is in the area of the home they intend to buy—-and suggests that people considering buying a home in an area near a nuclear plant express their liability concerns to the owners of the plant. As if we'd listen. The web site also says, "Before purchasing a property, you may want to visit the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission website at http://www.nrc.gov to discover if an active plant is located in the area."

Anyway, Lord, a quick update on the Navajo situation. Remember that, in October, Henry Waxman was fed up and not going to take it any more? Well, now he is going to take it some more. On December 7 the LA Times reported that, unfortunately, not much progress had been made since October when Rep. Waxman specified a December deadline. The Environmental Protection Agency says it plans to resume testing for toxics on the Navajo reservation, but it and the other federal agencies involved have yet to come up with overall plans.

Lord, I'm just a lowly PR guy for one lousy nuclear power plant. I had one meagre moment in the spotlight in 2008. It was when I responded to the cooling tower collapse at Vermont Yankee. Actually, yes, there were two automatic shutdowns this year that set my phone to ringing. Oh, yes. There was the week when the White House announced it wanted to kill the potassium iodide program because the potassium iodide program was killing the nuclear industry's good PR. But mostly every day here in Vernon, Vermont is as boring as every other. I envy the Washington suits who do spin control on big issues like this for the NRC. I wonder....

...What will the suits representing the NRC, EPA, BIA, and other agencies possibly say when the incompetence of their clients appears so certain? That the agencies are staffed by hard workers who are doing a heck of a job? I think that's all one could possibly say. I'd say it. Then I'd go to lunch. Then I'd either run for president (I think you automatically get body guards when you do) or high tail it to the Cayman Islands for a much-needed visit to one of Entergy's beach-side offices.

Amen,

Fake-Rob