I was amazed to find the entire 2006 evaluation of Entergy's Indian Point Energy Center publicly available at the following NRC website urls:
http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/IP2/ip2_chart.html
http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/IP3/ip3_chart.html
Linking on to the public site, I was able to see that both units had all "Green" ratings for 2006, where green is performance within acceptable safety parameters, and a further list of all the coaching points NRC had brought to advise the units how to do better.
These are known as "findings" A finding is an area that NRC wants to see improvement on. A green finding has no safety impact, and is NOT a violation, simply a coaching point, on how to improve.
By reading through the green findings for IP2 & IP3, I was able to gain a feel for how the plants were coping. As in the GAO-2006-1029 report quoted earlier on this blog, it seems to the interested reader, to be fairly clear that things are going well at Indian Point.
So two separate agencies of the United States Federal Government agree on this. The NRC, a quasi-judicial agency of the executive branch, and the General Accountability Office, a pure investigative agency of the Democrat-dominated Legislative branch. The GAO report covers the years from 2001 through 2005, and the NRC report covers 2006.
How deflating it must be, for agendist local politicians to read that these two prestigious expert agencies both agree that Indian Point is completely safe, and running well, in dovetailing reports done at separate times by separate agencies, agencies with widely differing missions to serve.
It ought to be a clarifying experience, allowing politicians and the public to determine just who is bullshitting whom, vis-a-vis Indian Point. What part of "Safe" do they not understand? What part of "Well Run" do they not understand?
And as far as "Fine-'em" Feiner, who declared he wants NRC to take money from Entergy, it also answers his big attention grabbing media stunt-question of last week. When Feiner ingenuously asks "Why is Indian Point not being fined?" the NRC answer is: "Indian Point has no findings greater than Green".--- in plain words---There's nothing to fine. Read the two reports, and it will be explained to you, and to Feiner, and John Hall, Hillary, and Chuck-the-cluck Schumer, too.
NRC does not fine plants that are running safely. NRC does not interrupt its valuable & deeply revealing Reactor Oversight Inspections, to do uncalled-for, attention-grabbing Independent Safety Assessments.
So where does that leave the Gang-of-Six? It leaves them waving their little red books as they march around their little Tien Anmen Square mockup in the local press in Mao-like lockstep,
shouting their antinuke red guard slogans, to display their proper political orientation to all their papparazzi in media, who have always liked a communal demonstration, with slogans, even better than reality.
