Poor Oversight at Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant

Asbury Park Press reported yesterday that the leaks of radioactive tritium at Oyster Creek could have been prevented and appears to have been covered up by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In case you are unfamiliar with the NRC, here is a description of what they do from their website...

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was created as an independent agency by Congress in 1974 to enable the nation to safely use radioactive materials for beneficial civilian purposes while ensuring that people and the environment are protected. The NRC regulates commercial nuclear power plants and other uses of nuclear materials, such as in nuclear medicine, through licensing, inspection and enforcement of its requirements.

That all sounds great. I think government, and our tax dollars, should protect the public from corporate interests in massive public utilities like a nuclear power plant. But is sounds like the NRC released their initial report redacted because it contained "proprietary information". Since I would hope the NRC isnt making decisions about what a private company finds "proprietary", then I can only reason that the private company (Exelon, the multi-billion dollar energy conglomerate with close ties to the Obama white house Rahm Emanual and David Axelrod) asked that the NRC redact the information. And what information was that?

Oyster Creek had 23 significant, documented underground pipe leaks from 1980 to the present time. An 8-inch pipe that leaked in April 2009 also had leaked in July 1991, but the repair was only a temporary plug

sounds "proprietary" to me. So instead of doing their stated job and protecting the "people and the environment" the NRC is protecting the corporation they are supposed to be regulating. This is the same type of bulls--t that led to the gulf coast filling up with oil and the SEC dropping the ball on Madoff and the housing bubble.

Excellent article in The New Yorker about government regulation, why it sucks, and how to make it better.