News items collected in the week ending May 7, 2011

Nuclear Agency Is Criticized as Too Close to Its Industry
NY Times, May 7, 2011, by Tom Zeller, Jr.

In the fall of 2007, workers at the Byron nuclear power plant in Illinois were using a wire brush to clean a badly corroded steel pipe — one in a series that circulate cooling water to essential emergency equipment — when something unexpected happened: the brush poked through. The resulting leak caused a 12-day shutdown of the two reactors for repairs.

NRC chief plans Indian Point tour
lohud.com, May 5, 2011, by Brian Tumulty, Washington Bureau

Washington — The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will tour the Indian Point nuclear power plant in northern Westchester County on Tuesday, along with two House members who want the plant shut down.

Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant On Heightened Alert After Osama Bin Laden’s Death
CBS News 2, May 5, 2011

Buchanan, NY — The outside of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan looks as it always does, calm . . . But inside, guards are on heightened alert following the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Unsafe at Any Dose
NY Times, April 30, 2011, by Helen Caldicott

Sydney, Australia — SIX weeks ago, when I first heard about the reactor damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, I knew the prognosis: If any of the containment vessels or fuel pools exploded, it would mean millions of new cases of cancer in the Northern Hemisphere.

Entergy 'Hangover' is no meltdown
Politico.com, April 29, 2011, by Darius Dixon and Dan Berman

The CEO of one of the nation’s largest nuclear plant operators downplayed his company’s woes to political fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant — with the 2009 alcohol-and- sex comedy “The Hangover” as his guide.

Indian Point Worry: Not The Reactor, The Leftovers
City Limits, April 29, 2011, by Polly Kreisman

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex that was damaged in Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami has faded from the front pages. But even as the troubled reactors are brought under control, another problem persists: Three of seven damaged cooling pools that store spent fuel rods are still emitting radiation there. The spent fuel rods, exposed to the air, released large amounts of radiation after the tsunami knocked out the cooling system; it is a graphic example of the risks inherent in onsite spent-fuel storage.