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"After a yearlong investigation, AP concluded that many of the nation's facilities are still (operating) because the safety standards that they are held to have been repeatedly weakened as regulations (for the world's most hazardous industry became) more and more lax."
After reviewing tens of thousands of government and industry studies and documents since the 1970s, it concluded that the industry-run Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) falsified arguments, saying "safety margins could be eased without peril." As a result, not only are Americans endangered, so is one-fifth of the nation's electricity supply.
Many problems AP found could trigger a nuclear disaster, including broken seals and nozzles, rusted pipes, aging facilities past their useful life, and numerous examples of shoddy maintenance and management laxity. Nonetheless, NRC officials rubber stamp license extensions, including 66 facilities over 25 years old re-licensed for another two decades, instead of responsibly shutting them down.
Vermont Yankee is perhaps the most notorious. Licensed to begin operating in 1972, Vermont's Senate voted 26 - 4 against re-licensing in February 2010, citing radioactive tritium leaks, falsified management statements, a 2007 cooling tower collapse, among other problems, proving the facility is a disaster waiting to happen.
Nonetheless, on March 21, 2011, the NRC extended its life for another 20 years until 2032. Moreover, Entergy, Vermont Yankee's owner and America's second largest nuclear generator after Exelon, sued to revoke a state law, giving it legislative authority to suspend operations when its current license expires next March.
The plant, in fact, has the same GE Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor design as Fukushima's Units 1 and 2. According to Citizens's Action Network's Bob Stannard:
"It's unimaginable to think that the NRC would declare this plant safe when (it) houses 640 tons of spent fuel in an unprotected fuel pool with no containment vessel. In Japan, the plant that's in the worst shape has only 80 tons."
If Vermont Yankee blows, perhaps all Vermont and New England go with it, and given its deplorable state, it may if it's 20 year extension isn't stopped.
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