PSST: REP HALL: LOOK LIKE YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING !!
NRC just finished a CDBI vertical slice inspection of Indian Point on Thursday of this week. What that means, is NRC arrived, and demanded to see several systems, from the topmost FSAR description, all the way down through the most lowly switch, screw, nut and bolt, in excruciating detail, examining whether the safety functionality promised to the public in the FSAR, was indeed implemented by every single component in the system, 100% top to bottom, no substitutions, no "forgotten details" , no excuses, or "we were going to fix that up later" put-offs.
(The FSAR, or Final Safety Analysis Report, is part of a nuke plant's license. In it the operator explains just what he intends to do, in every single particular way, to keep the public safe. It is a ten volume set of very extensive and detailed promises. It took me about three months to read, and understand it...... any promise made, but not kept, means NRC can shut you down, no questions asked, no appeals, no supreme court to bail you out).
This vertical slice method was one third of the Independent Safety Assessment conducted by NRC on Maine Yankee plant in 1996 (which they just barely passed with a D-minus grade).
So.... one-third of the vaunted "Indian Point Independent Safety Assessment" was just completed on Thursday, and can either be believed, and used by John Hall, Maurice Hinchey, et al. to decide what they think about Indian Point, OR-- they can ignore it, get a lot more press time, and pass a law to ask NRC to do it again in 6 months.
The other parts of the Maine Yankee ISA, general operational compliance, and computer code compliance, have also been routinely tested at Indian Point, and if John Hall's research arm is a bit weak, or one-sided, all the Honorable Rep. needs to do , is post online that he would like me to point him to the existing test results, and I'll be happy to.
But he won't.
Why?
He is preaching to his old choir.
The skeptical-towards-government, but gullible-towards-urban-myths Jeff Rense anti-nuke crowd, all full of themselves with exaggerated factoid on exaggerated mythoid, proton-rays-from-your-lightbulb Helen Caldicott generation.
He needs to impress them with his strength, sternness, independence, and lack of co-optation by what they tell themselves is a corrupt electrical industry watched by a corrupt NRC. I have personally never ever seen a single hint of corruption in the NRC, who scare the living bejabers out of me with their stern professional demeanor, accurate penetrating questions, and willingness to follow the evidence where ever it goes, far beyond my usual comfort level. Entergy, the operator, is falling all over itself lately to be pro-people, pro-safety, pro-environment, and pro just about everything the enviro-anarchists used to claim as their own territory, even to the point where blogs have been seen, accusing Entergy of "stealing the green movement". These claims are 100% true. Entergy, with its expertise, its billion dollar financial clout, and its proactive longterm vision, has positioned itself to carry on the torch, just as Dr Caldicott & her "Anti" generation fall into paranoid babbling, and senile repetition, AND WHO BETTER TO DO IT?
Can Robert F. Kennedy jr light your houses for you? Short answer = NO.
Can 100,000 non-expert bloggers save the Hudson? Maybe--- given time (and Entergy finances).
Can Entergy act to save the Hudson? YOU BETCHA!
Has Entergy acted to save the Hudson? YEP, IN SPADES.
Question: If Entergy is not fooling, and really means it...WHY REJECT THE MOST POWERFUL AVATAR THE MOVEMENT HAS EVER HAD?
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( This quiet time is intentionally injected, to allow contemplation of the preceding sentence.)
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Which prompts my next proposition.
Go ahead. Chase Entergy away. Take your Hudson, with a closed, useless Indian Point STILL THERE, and ask Hall, Hinchey , Spano, and Cuomo-the-lesser to craft your 21st century lifescape for you.
Sound scary?
I'm getting "lousy future coming" goose bumps , even as I write!
And just in case I'm "spinning you up".... contemplate this: Name for me, a single instance of Hall, Hinchey, Spano, Lowey or Cuomo junior proposing a bond issue FOR A NEW POWER PLANT?
But what the hell, Honda makes a great gasoline powered generator for about $3000. Of course, your house power panel will have to be rewired (about $6000), and YOU provide the gasoline, the testing, the maintenance, etc., etc.
SO WHAT IS REALITY HERE ??
Well, my lights, and my oil burner are on right now!
and I haven't done a thing! ....(It's 17 degrees outside)
