After ignoring 35 years of NRC inspections, not even claiming they were deficient in some way, but simply cherry picking opposing urban-myth misinterpretations from the antinuke concert street, and taking THEM as having more gravitas, and more probative value somehow, than the efforts of America's best experts in the field,.... how is it that now John Hall expects the public to take it on faith that he will accept and abide by a positive outcome if NRC even does his vaunted "Independent Safety Analysis" at Indian Point?
If he runs true to form, he will ignore and/or misinterpret THIS inspection, like he did to all the widely available data from every inspection at Indian Point previous, and will turn to "movement" myth-spinners, to skew, twist, and lead astray the very investigation he claims to honestly want. What would happen to his power base, should the inspection give Indian Point all "Green" findings? Surely Entergy, 7 years in, and hundreds of millions in, to its improvement plans at the plant, can certainly "Bone Up & Shape Up" to the max for the exercise, and it is almost certain the investigation will not go Hall's way--if, (and this is a very large "IF"), ---if it were to be done honestly, not derailed, and not misinterpreted afterwards.
The extra-legal wider considerations that Hall's cadre wish to have included in the ISA, are not currently legal mandates for Entergy to consider, or NRC to inspect for. You cannot in all fairness, change the Spanish Test to an Ancient Greek test, the morning of the final exam, and expect anyone to pass. You also cannot overcome the "Ex-Post-Facto" clause of the constitution, and the "due process" clause, which states things to be tried for, must be clearly either legal or illegal, before the test is given, and a due process must be developed, written into the law, and followed over time in the case of any ISA, to give the inspected party time to understand the requirements, comply in good faith using best due diligence, and then and ONLY then, be fairly tested. If ex-post facto, and due process are short circuited, we are left with a bill-of-attainder, specifically forbidden by the constitution (A "vendetta" law to legally encumber a single person or entity, with no wider application).
NRC's current best practice (it's ROP) has been developed since 1997, and so Hall's new mandates, should they actually become administrative law under NRC's ALJ guise, could take a similar decade to mature, be proposed in NRC's ALJ forums, be commented upon, and then be disseminated to all 103 nuclear plants, as binding ALJ rulings. At that point, the ISA encompassing the new criteria may be held. Until then it cannot legally be held. Therefore, Hall's legislated proposal that an ISA be held in 6 months, encompassing new criteria, is baldly and transparently unconstitutional on its face, and NRC has a duty to reject it out of hand, even should a miracle occur, and the bill get passed. ( and overcome the inevitable veto).....Moreover the legislative branch cannot usurp the judicial, by writing an attainder law dictating Administrative Law Court behavior. That in itself is wildly, and grotesquely unconstitutional, (not to say ethically un-American). It is an attempted takeover of the judicial branch, by the legislative branch. It must be resisted utterly, if we are to continue to live in a nation of law.
Hall, as a songwriter, may actually be personally unaware of all this. His staff certainly ought not be ignorant of it. Being an Administrative Court, NRC's rulings are not subject to further judicial tampering. In the case of ex-post-facto, due process, and the maturation of the new criteria, NRC stands in as exalted a position as America's Supreme Court. As Hall's bill stands, with all its crippling constitutional illegalities, this rogue bill can be considered nothing more than one more hollow publicity stunt, to mislead Hall's following. NRC ought not allow itself to be intimidated by these congresspersons-as-brownshirts. Our constitutional government depends on their resistance to this press-mediated legislative insurrectionism.
Question: Does Hall's antinuclear cadre stand ready to end America's constitutional rule of law under 3 separated powers, simply to kill off Indian Point by attainder? Bad enough we're headed to a nanny-state, but one stripped free of modernity, amenties, and electricity would be disastrous for us, and our posterity. The vast majority, who are not rich, who have no second or third homes, record royalties, or congressional salary, have rights in this matter also. I aim to keep teaching them.
We have more than just the legislature in this republic.
