CNY Citizens Awareness Network
Environmental Advocates
For Immediate
Release:
Contact: Tim
Judson - Citizens Awareness Network: 315-422-4924
Kyle
Rabin - Environmental Advocates: 518-462-5526 ext. 238
Workers
at nuclear plants are commonly referred to as the “eyes and ears” for the
NRC. The NRC openly admits that it can
only oversee a small portion of the safety issues and relies heavily on nuclear
plant employees to identify potential safety concerns to management and, if
necessary, to the NRC. “Protection of
safety conscious workers is of paramount concern, especially in light of
electric utility deregulation, the infusion of market competition into the
energy market, and cutbacks that have been proposed for NRC’s resident safety
inspector program,” said Kyle Rabin, air & energy program associate for
Environmental Advocates.
With
the proposed reduction in NRC resident safety inspectors stationed at
individual nuclear power plants and the pressures on nuclear plant operators
and owners – both new, i.e. AmerGen Energy Company, LLC and Entergy Nuclear,
Inc. and old, i.e. the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation and the New York Power
Authority (NYPA) – to cut costs so to remain competitive with non-nuclear power
generators, nuclear safety will surely be impacted. AmerGen’s parent companies (Philadelphia Electric Co. and British
Energy) along with Entergy Corporation – both seeking to buy reactors in New
York – have already been criticized by regulatory agencies (the Texas Public
Utility Commission, the NRC, and the British equivalent of the NRC) for
cutbacks they have made to maintenance of transmission, distribution, safety
systems and personnel. Subsequently,
safety and distribution reliability has been negatively effected. “Employees working at nuclear power plants
that are either owned or operated by these new companies striving to compete,
should not feel pressured or intimidated by their supervisors in airing
concerns that may be expensive to remedy,” said Tim Judson of Central New York
Citizens Awareness Network (CNY-CAN).
“Sadly,
we have witnessed the harassment of employees at New York nuclear power plants
much to often,” said Judson. A most
recent example of such harassment involved an employee at NYPA’s Indian Point 3
reactor (IP3) who had concerns about the corrective action process at IP3 and
its effectiveness in identifying problems and ensuring their timely
resolution. According to the Union of
Concern Scientist letter, the employee, after raising safety concerns, was
treated with such sustained abuse that she ultimately had to transfer out of
the Operations Review Group.
However, Entergy's apparent lack of concern for these
issues at IP3 is not unique: Entergy has been cited in other states for cutting
costs on maintenance and for devaluing its skilled work force. In the past year, both Nine Mile Point and
FitzPatrick reactors have been cited by the NRC for shoddy management,
resulting in safety system failures (some during emergencies) and unplanned
maintenance outages. In Entergy's case,
cost cutting practices have resulted in unscheduled outages, including a period
of rolling blackouts affecting 565,000 customers in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas,
and Mississippi. In 1997, the Texas
Department of Public Utility Control fined Entergy $9 million for its
maintenance practices. Most recently,
Entergy has admitted cutting costs on maintenance at its Arkansas Nuclear 1
reactor, resulting in the failure of a main coolant pump.
The sales of New York's nuclear plants have long-term
consequences for public health and safety, the economic well-being of several
local communities, and the quality of sensitive environmental resources.
Specifically, the sale of these reactors raises concerns regarding stranded
cost recovery from ratepayers, commitment to proper decommissioning of the
reactor site after shutdown, the fate of leftover funds in the ratepayer
financed decommissioning account, and cost-cutting in staffing and maintenance. “These companies are taking advantage of a
public policy vacuum in New York,” said Kyle Rabin of EA. "We are
convinced that these issues require immediate policy guidance at the highest
levels of state government and should not be dealt with in a piecemeal fashion
by the various state bureaucracies responsible for energy, land use, economic
development and environmental quality."
Other concerns relate to the impact that cost cutting
under competitive market conditions will have on the safe operation of New York's
nuclear power plants. Both AmerGen and
Entergy's business plans include cutting the work force at their new facilities
by nearly one-third – a strategy which has already compromised safety margins
at reactors operated by British Energy (one of AmerGen’s parent companies) and
at Entergy’s nuclear and fossil-fueled electric generating facilities. Rabin said, "We are deeply troubled by
AmerGen and Entergy's plans for acquiring pods of reactors while cutting back
on engineering and support services."
Rabin noted that British Energy has been sharply criticized by the
United Kingdom's nuclear power regulator for job reductions at nuclear
facilities they own in England and Scotland.
"We’re already seeing the effects of cost-cutting
on New York’s nukes," said Tim Judson of CNY-CAN. NYPA has repeatedly violated NRC regulations
in the last year, involving inadequate maintenance and testing, failure to
follow necessary procedures to ensure safe reactor operation, and poor
treatment of safety-conscious employees.
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