Nuclear safety oversight board takes aim at new policies

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Updated 6:58 pm CDT, Tuesday, August 28, 2018

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An independent safety panel that provides oversight of some of the nation's highest risk nuclear facilities voiced concerns Tuesday that new federal policies could limit inspections and curtail access to key information.

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board peppered Energy Department officials with questions about the intent of the policies during a public hearing in Washington.

Safety board staff members testified that they have had difficulties accessing information since May, when the change was adopted. Some of the information involved a worker complaint at Los Alamos and documents related to safety challenges at Los Alamos' plutonium facility, they said.

More meetings are planned but department officials denied they are changing their approach to safety and rebuffed calls by board members and watchdog groups to put the policies on hold.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Nuclear-safety-oversight-board-takes-aim-at-new-13188849.php

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. oh great.

[keithbvadu2]

2. Donald's new Chernobyl policies?

Donald's new Chernobyl policies?

[Nitram]

3. When nuclear material was released from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, it came out that

many nuclear power facilities in the US were not meeting safety requirements such as maintaining working generators with sufficient fuel to prevent a similar disaster if power was lost. Standards and oversight should be tightened up, not reduced.