Over the last year-and-a-half our government has spent several billion dollars on homeland defense. All to minimize chances of another terrorist attack. Airports are at high alert and even a nail file is considered a lethal weapon.
While the primary focus of our administration remains on airports and terrorism from outside the U.S., it was very disturbing and enlightening to view Bill Moyers’ NOW report on PBS, Jan. 24 titled “Close Call: Monitoring Nuclear Reactors.” More than 100 nuclear power reactors, many from the 1960s and 1970s, are operating in plants across the United States. Eleven of these plants were closed down for inspection when it was discovered they were “highly susceptible to cracking.” One of these plants, Davis-Besse, turned out to be in the worst shape of them all and it had the most extensive corrosion of a nuclear reactor that the U.S. has ever seen. This plant supplies electricity to 150,000 people and was allowed to remain open. Workers found a six-by-five inch cavity in its reactor head, in spite of having two on-site NCR inspectors. Three-eighths of an inch of stainless steel was what remained between citizens and total disaster.
Davis-Besse nuclear reactor is located in Oak Harbor, Ohio, near the Great Lakes, which is the primary water source for millions. Had there been a nuclear accident residents within a three-state area could have been directly affected for generations by radiation release.
How could such negligence happen? Not only did it happen; it appears it is with the blessing of our lawmakers. At the end of the NOW program it was announced there is an attachment to a bill currently before congress that would hold nuclear energy companies not liable for damages or clean up.
When corporate greed joins hands with corrupt politicians, there can be disastrous consequences all around.
Snohomish
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