Nuclear Watchdog Bares His Teeth
June 18, 2003
J. A. Savage AlterNet
When Oscar Shirani discovered that his employer, Exelon
Corporation, used shoddily constructed casks to store its nuclear
waste, he demanded that Exelon force the cask?s manufacturer, U.S.
Tool & Die, to remedy the issue. Unfortunately, Shirani lost
his job and the story disappeared.
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Shirani tells J.A. Savage of AlterNet that ?unqualified
workers? welded his company?s nuclear waste storage casks together
and that the ?materials control performed was inadequate to the
task.? He also alleges that the company falsified quality assurance
documents and misled the Nuclear Regulatory Commission when it
investigated the problem last year. According to David Lochbaum of
the Union of Concerned Scientists, ?The regulations require a
certain level of performance and [Shirani?s] findings were below
that minimum level. It may not be that the casks will fail when
challenged, but they are unnecessarily and illegally close to the
failure point.?
Officials at Exelon, the nation?s largest nuclear power plant
operator, insist that ?there is no substantiation for [Shirani?s]
claims.? Shirani, sticks by his story, though, and vows to keep
fighting.
?Amelia Bauerly
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