Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2015
The nuclear utility Northern States Power or NSP/Xcel Energy was accused July 27 of deliberately violating safety procedures and then falsifying reports on unfinished tests of heavy casks holding high-level radioactive waste at its Monticello reactor, 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Six large waste storage casks are known to have been inadequately tested, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspectors. Five of the six inadequately welded casks have already been closed up and placed in large, concrete vaults which are just outside the reactor building site on the Mississippi River. Over 450 tons of the high-level waste fuel has accumulated at the 44-year-old General Electric reactor, exactly like the three Fukushima reactors that were wrecked by meltdowns in 2011 in Japan. Contractors had been testing for cracks in welds sealing the steel casks loaded with the extremely deadly radioactive waste. While required to conduct a ten-minute test, some were cut off after only 23 seconds. One of them told NRC investigators he felt rushed because heard “management complain about employees working too slowly.” For the $12 billion company with 12,000 employees, cutting corners also involved falsifying formal reports to the NRC about the incomplete welding tests. The NRC’s findings indicate that the agency could bring criminal charges and is considering “escalating enforcement action.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 27; Counterpunch, Aug. 28, 2015
Leave a Reply