Gregory Jaczko Has a Cold (nuclear)
http://capitoilette.com/2011/12/09/gregory-jaczko-has-a-cold/
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Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, made some comments to the press earlier this week. Jaczko, it seems, is worried. He believes, as noted in an Associated Press story, that “U.S. nuclear plant operators have become complacent, just nine months after the nuclear disaster in Japan.” The NRC head thinks that a slew of events at over a dozen domestic nuclear facilities reveal the safety of America’s reactors to be something less than optimal.
To be clear, safety concerns at any kind of plant, be it a soda bottler or a microchip manufacturer, are probably not trivial, but when the safe and secure operation of a nuclear facility comes into question–as the aftermath of Chernobyl or the ongoing crisis in Japan will tell you–it ratchets up concern to a whole different level. So, when the man who more or less serves as the chief safety officer for the entirety of the nation’s nuclear infrastructure says he’s worried, many, many other people should be worried, too.
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But that’s not the scariest part.
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Jaczko said he was not ready to declare a decline in safety performance at U.S. plants, but said problems were serious enough to indicate a “precursor” to a performance decline.
Pardon my acronym, but WTF does “‘precursor’ to a performance decline” mean?
-snip re: Crystal River, Ft. Calhoun, Seabrook, Vermont Yankee, North Anna, Calvert Cliffs, Palisades, Davis-Besse,-
-snip "it's pins and needles time" -
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yep, in the blink of an eye
