If you want an idea of just how demented some members of the human race are you only have to look at all things nuclear. Last week the five senior members of the American Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) testified on the recommendations of their task force, which was created after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster began. The Senate Oversight Committee asking the questions was chaired by Barbara Boxer (D-Calif). The event made political news in the US, because of a heated exchange between Boxer and David Vitter (R-La.). However, there were a number of other quite remarkable exchanges during this Oversight Committee hearing that didn’t get reported on. I’ll get on to that in a bit, but first here’s the Boxer-Vitter clash that did make the news…
(The above clip is approx. 51 minutes into the original C-Span video.)
Bear in mind that the five NRC officials were testifying under oath, but perjury seems to be the fashion thesedays (RE: James Clapper, director of the National Security Agency, who last year told a blatant lie to Congress with regard to mass surveillance, but has never been prosecuted for it). During last week’s Oversight Committee, NRC official William Ostendorff openly lied about the condition of spent fuel pools at Fukishima, saying: “to date we’re not aware of any damage to the spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi power plant, as far as structural integrity goes”. The following photo has been supplied by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant operator. It was taken in September 2011 and shows unit 3, which suffered a massive explosion in the early days of the disaster:
The above photo can be found here along with many other pics of the damaged reactor buildings.
The units at Fukushima Daiichi are Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactors, supplied by General Electric. In this design the spent fuel pool is suspended high in the reactor building (don’t ask!), which is ten storeys tall. Take another look at the above photo and ponder on the condition of the spent fuel pool, if indeed it still exists (there are many credible reports of broken fuel rods being found all over the site, like this one from the New York Times). The photo was taken almost 3 years ago now, but you have to bear in mind that due to incredibly high radiation levels no one can get near these reactor buildings, let alone work in them and make repairs; ie, these reactor buildings are more or less in the same condition now as they were at the start of the disaster.
The American NRC are well aware of all this. The following quote is from an NRC internal e-mail, dated March 24th 2011, which talks about the condition of the reactors and fuel pools (you can find the original e-mail here):
SFP 4: 1331 bundles. Full core offload about 120 days ago. No checker boarding of hotter fuel. Structural damage to pool area is known to exist, and structure may not support a full pool weight load. Pool leakage likely, requiring addition of water periodically. Pool was likely dry enough to have cladding/water reaction which produced enough hydrogen to lead to catastrophic explosion that destroyed secondary containment.
One of the recipients of this e-mail was William Ostendorff, who last week was telling porkies to the NRC Oversight Committee whilst under oath. Ostendorff’s perjury comes approx. 3 mins 30 into this clip. I’ve included the prior questioning from Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) because he keeps going on about how safe and clean nuclear power is, and how no one has ever been harmed or killed by it. No one does swivel-eyed loons as well as the Americans, particularly ones who are in the pockets of big corporations…
(The above clip is approx. 1 hour 35 minutes into the original C-Span video.)
In the above clip, Ostendorff tries to cite what Allison Macfarlane says about spent fuel pools, but please note how ambiguous Macfarlane is…
(The above clip is approx. 1 hour into the original C-Span video.)
In the perjury clip, William Ostendorff says that the NRC has a good record of openess and honesty. This next clip shows an exchange between Barbara Boxer, Chair of the Oversight Committee, and Allison Macfarlane, Chair of the NRC, about the NRC’s refusal to hand over documents. This has been an ongoing tussle which I covered in greater detail in my post about the previous Oversight Committee meeting. It should be noted that it’s totally unprecedented for a federal agency like the NRC to refuse to give documents to a Senate Committee…
(The above clip is approx. 43 minutes into the original C-Span video.)
This next clip shows Barbara Boxer and Allison Macfarlane going at it again, with regard to the 12 post-Fukushima recommendations, none of which the NRC has implemented, and also the fire that almost engulfed the San Onofre plant in California. San Onofre was recently shut down following massive public pressure. It was a victory of sorts, but what many people don’t realise is that nuclear plants remain highly dangerous even after the reactors have stopped operating: highly toxic spent fuel, tons and tons of it that no one knows what to do with, much of which remains lethal for 10s of 1000s, 100s of 1000s and even millions of years. Remind me again, what’s the definition of insanity…
(The above clip is approx. 46 minutes into the original C-Span video.)
It should be noted that most of these NRC officials do understand the technicalities of nuclear energy, and thus they know that what they spout in public is complete propaganda and bullshit, and they are also aware that what they do is killing untold millions of people. The psychology of these nuke officials is beyond my realm, because surely they know that they are also killing their own nearest and dearest. They don’t call it the ‘Nuclear Priesthood’ for nothing, because for these loons it’s a kind of religion, a cult, a madness that you can’t address with rationality. I might try to tackle that in a later post. In the meantime let’s get back to good, old-fashioned corruption.
This final clip from last week’s Oversight Committee has Barbara Boxer hauling the NRC’s William Magwood over the coals, with regard to his extensive foreign travel…
(The above clip is approx. 1 hour 46 minutes into the original C-Span video.)
Now, I live in Europe, and you may be wondering why I take such an interest in the American Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Two reasons: firstly, the NRC is totally corrupt and incompetent, and when it comes to a major nuclear accident occuring in the States it’s a case not of ‘if’ but ‘when’. Such an accident will effect everyone on the planet. Secondly, the NRC are part of the worldwide nuclear establishment, which is also corrupt and incompetent. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the United Nations and the unholy alliance between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). To put it simply, the public have been lied to, big time, about the health consequences of man-made radionuclides (you can find my jolly post about the cancer pandemic here).
Alison Katz is a sociologist and psychologist who worked for the WHO for 18 years, and has an intimate knowledge of the corruption and outright criminality that goes on. Katz is a leading player in IndependentWHO, a grassroots movement that aims not to reform the World Health Organisation, but to replace it entirely. Katz was recently interviewed by Libbe HaLevy on the Nuclear Hotseat podcast. The following are outtakes from this interview. This is the short version, if you will. You can find the original hour long interview here.