NRC: Pa. nuclear plant workers fear retaliation

[bananas]

They were notified about this in 2006, and it's been getting worse?
I hope Obama does something about this!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28899798/

NRC: Pa. nuclear plant workers fear retaliation
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
updated 5:29 p.m. ET Jan. 28, 2009

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Some workers at a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant are afraid to raise safety issues because they fear retaliation, federal regulators said Wednesday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a warning letter to Allentown-based PPL Corp. about its Susquehanna plant in northeastern Pennsylvania, citing indications that workers are unwilling to come forward with their concerns.

<snip>

The NRC first raised its concerns with PPL in December 2006, and the company took steps to address "work environment issues" at the plant, according to a letter from NRC Regional Administrator Samuel J. Collins.

Then, in early 2008, employees made fresh allegations about the plant's "safety conscious work environment," the NRC said. In June, after hiring an outside firm to survey the plant's workers, PPL itself "concluded that the work environment at Susquehanna had declined," the letter said.

<snip>

[Tikki]

1. The more you learn about this industry...the more..

that gigantic red flags should be waving in your face.

Pay attention, people.


Tikki

[pleah]

2. K&R

[Lugnut]

3. The Susquehanna plant is 20 miles from me.

:mad:

[NNadir]

4. Oh bullshit. Do you have a case of a fatal nuclear accident in the US? No?

Don't give a flying fuck about the safety of oil refinery workers as say, Texas City?

You never raised a word before those deaths and burnings about worker complaints in that facility?

Couldn't fucking care less about refinery workers?

Coal miners?

How about workers in electronics recycling facilities, solar boy?

No comment?

Don't give a shit about those kids in China, 'cause they ain't white.

No relatiation for them?

Don't fucking know what was NPR three days ago?

I thought so.

Here shithead: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es071873x">Have some science?

You don't care about science?

Don't know any?

Hold any that you've been exposed to in contempt?

Oh, I see.

You have never set foot in a nuclear facility in your useless paranoid life, but you come here in a time of growing impoverishment to destroy infrastructure, jobs and <em>clean</em> wealth because you have been too lazy to crack a science book <em>ever</em>.

Nuclear energy need not be perfect in the minds of every little freak to be better than everything else. It merely needs to be better than everything else, which it is?

Got it?

No?

Well too fucking bad. Ignorance has had its day. It's over.

[Sirveri]

5. SL-1 was a fatal US nuclear accident.

But I don't think it counts since it was a test reactor, and we learned a large ammount from what happened there that has been incorporated into future designs to prevent it from ever happening again.

I think I might be more concerned with staffing requirements and working conditions than about plant safety. Especially for my brothers and sisters in the US Navy. Nobody should be forced to work 100 hours a week, especially on a nuclear system.

[NNadir]

6. Oh MY GOD!!!!!!!!!! IN THE 1950's!!!!!!!! Navajo's!!!!!

The point is that the person writing the OP doesn't give a fuck about making comparisons.

He, she, or it posts here solely to destroy the world's largest, and safest form of climate change gas free energy.

Note that the a-hole couldn't give a rat's ass about saftey on windmills, although people are actually killed on them, even though they produce trivial levels.

But every single person who doesn't agree that THE WORLD'S NUCLEAR PLANTS ARE ABOUT TO DESTROY THE LIVES OF USELESS CONSUMER YUPPIES WITH NO SCIENE EDUCATION!!!!!!!!!! is the object of a putative conspiracy.

In fact the only conspiracy surrounding nuclear energy - besides the conspiracy to pay off Gehard Schroeder and Amory Lovins by the dangerous fossil fuel industry - is the conspiracy of stupidity among nuclear's detractors.

Nuclear doesn't need to be perfect to be vastly superior to the stuff dumb-anti-nukes ignore, including their rubber band and mirror schemes.

It merely needs to be better than everything else, which it is.

[bananas]

7. You're defending a hostile work environment - you're acting like a corporate shill

The OP was about a hostile work environment for American workers in the nuclear energy industry.
You are not only defending this anti-labor practice, you are trying to distract attention from it by bringing up something completely irrelevant to the OP.
It's a sleazy tactic, typical of corporate shills.

[jpak]

12. "USELESS CONSUMER YUPPIES WITH NO SCIENE EDUCATION!!!!!!!!!!"

:rofl:

[Sirveri]

14. It is one thing to point out a POV of the OP.

It is another to basically scream in your subject line about lack of fatal US nuclear accidents when you and I both know they've happened. And we'll just go ahead and ignore the near fatal accidents that happen inside nuclear plants that aren't reported because they don't deal with nuclear safety. My ex boss has two of them specifically called out in a naval tech manual because he was personally involved with both.

I have a book which is nothing but a technical overview of nuclear accidents, most of them would be compounded by a fatigued crew or a crew that feels disenfranchised, marginalised, or otherwise unappreciated. I'm as pro-nuke as they come, but it's hard to balance that with my pro-worker point as well. That doesn't stop me from arguing my points from a position of intellectual superiority, where I acknowledge and address other points of view. Ranting and raving tends to disenfranchise people who are potentially receptive of your message and give additional credence to your opposition.

[bananas]

8. NNadir is attacking worker rights and defending bad management practices

I hope everyone is clear on this.
He has not addressed the situation described in the original post.
He won't come out and defend the rights of American workers in the nuclear industry.
Instead, he defends the lax regulatory standards of the Bush administration,
and the bad management practices it enourages.
It's a "screw the worker" attitude.

There are two recent cases of whistle-blower activity that were in the news.
One was videos of overworked security guards sleeping on the job.
The other was photos of the cooling system breakdown at Vermont Yankee.
The companies managing the reactors have been cutting corners,
and hiding the results of their bad management practices.
The NRC has been letting this situation slide.
Workers have to be allowed to report these safety violations.
NNadir doesn't give a shit about workers.

[jpak]

11. "Ignorance has had its day." Yup - Obama won and McCain lost

No nukes for you...

:rofl:

[Sirveri]

15. nukes will get their day.

It just might take a bit longer first we need to kick our 'clean coal' habit. Once they realise the go nowhere proposition that is clean coal I'm pretty sure Obama will have no issue with nuclear. After all, Illinois has more commercial nuclear sites than any other state.

[bananas]

9. NNadir is in favor of intimidating workers.

He likes to intimidate people.
It makes him feel powerful.

[Dead_Parrot]

10. Hey, bananas...

...what's your take take on http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/yourcourtstheirsecrets/2002920147_garibay09m.html">dead solar power workers whose widows get shafted by the industry?

[kristopher]

13. Amazing you'd find equivalency in that...