Meltdown at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Ever worked at a nuke? Live near one? Have relatives who live near one? This article ought to give you those warm, toasty feelings inside! Apparently, the NRC is proposing the relaxing of fire safety protocols at nuclear plants, upon discovery that most plants weren't following them anyway.

Instead of insisting that the plants have heat-protected mechanical systems in place that will shut down reactors automatically in case of fire, which is the current standard, the Bush administration would actually let the power companies rely on workers to run through the plants and try to turn off the reactors by hand while parts of the facilities are engulfed in flames.

Here is a description of what "operator manual actions" could involve, taken from the NRC's 2002 Triennial Fire Inspection of Shearon Harris nuclear power plant near Raleigh, North Carolina:

"...exposure to smoke that would leak past the door and to the fire brigade who would be opening the door, entering the narrow [15 inches wide] energized electrical cabinet, and using a metal screwdriver inside the cabinet and seven feet above the floor with poor visibility and poor labeling....Operators may not be able to start the auxiliary feedwater pump."

So far, I estimate that every electrician reading this just had to pick their eyeballs up from off the keyboard. This article quotes another NRC document (circa 1990) that says "typical nuclear power plants will have three to four significant fires over their operating lifetime". And this was before 9-11.

Why do we have "free speech zones" surrounded by barbed wire at political events, a clear violation of our Constitutional rights, yet are relaxing fire safety standards at nuclear power plants? Hm?