Nuclear Whistleblower: “The Books Are Being Cooked” Fukushima In American Will Happen
The Intel Hub
By Alex Thomas
July 19, 2011
A longtime nuclear whistleblower, as well as a new report from the nuclear watchdog agency, have shed light on some startling flaws at The Watts Bar Nuclear plant in Spring City, Tennessee.
The NRC report highlighted over 24 vulnerabilities after assessing the nations nuclear power plants after the Japanese earthquake and subsequent full scale nuclear disaster.
Ann Harris, a former Watts Bar employee and long time whistleblower, was interviewed during a CBS investigation.
In the interview she revealed startling information that the nuclear industry, as well as certain officials in the NRC, do not want you to hear.
“Basically the books are being cooked, people are saying things they are not doing, that they swear under oath they have been done and they just aren’t done.”
When asked if a Fukushima type scenario could happen in America, Harris had this to say.
“You can see a Fukushima happening here in the U.S.”
So it’s not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of -
“When,” Harris finished the sentence.
According to CBS, the report included these vulnerabilities:
– a lack of emergency responder training
– faulty control panels
– malfunctioning communications equipment
– and issues with portable backup diesel generator
Unfortunately these are very similar to the problems that led to 3 full scale meltdowns after the massive earthquake that rocked Japan.
As a nuclear whistleblower for our 15 years who has won a record 6 lawsuits against Watts Bar, Harris has seen her fair share of threats and what she described seemed to be attempted murder.
“They ran me off the road, they wired my car for fireboming, they dropped the universal joint off my car”
So is Ann Harris correct? Is a major nuclear disaster in American on the horizon?
Officials at the nuclear power plant in question have claimed that these reports are inaccurate and that Watts Bar is safe.
To many, reassurance from the nuclear industry falls on deaf ears considering the fact that almost every single radiation release on the planet has been covered up to a certain extent.
How can we trust an industry that is being accused by a prominent, credible whistleblower of intimidation and possible attempted murder?
As we have reported in the past, the NRC and the nuclear industry are riddled with corruption on par or above the oil cartels.
Even though the NRC recently released a report that was critical of Watts Bar, history shows that most likely the problem will be ignored and moved out of sight and out of mind.
As the nuclear gamble continues, the people of the world must continue to expose the dangers of nuclear power plant flaws in the hopes that they may be fixed before another big one hits.
LATEST WATER NEWS: Radiation Detected In Drinking Water In 13 U.S. Cities — Get your ANTIRAD-Plus — Radioisotope (Radiation), Heavy Metal and Chemical Reduction + Alkalizer WATER FILTER TODAY!(Ad)
Follow @IntelHub
I have worked at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant for over 15 years and 10 years at the other TVA Nuclear Plants. I’m here to tell you that Ann Harris is NOT a credible whisleblower, she has no idea what she is talking about. She was a clerk on the construction side of the plant and put herself through college by suing TVA for triveal stuff. ‘The squeeky wheel gets oiled’. This is what she is doing now. Nuclear power has it’s problems but this crap isn’t it. No one is addressing the real issues.
so she just magically won 6 lawsuits against the very company you work for?
I don’t work for TVA, I’m a contract engineer. Like I said the squeeky wheel gets oiled.
What we DO need to be discussing is the future of nuclear power, it’s inherant dangers and how we are going to be dealing with them. Not the hysteria of Ann Harris. If Watts Bar is going to be another Fukushima why does she live so close to it? When she won those lawsuits why did she buy a house so close?
This is the last time i am going to ask this and if you refuse to answer for a third time then i am done talking to you. If she is a liar why has she won six lawsuits against Watts Bar? Stop bringing up other points and answer the question. Also your last comment you said you work for Watts Bar now you are changing your story?
I still support nuclear energy. Western plants are much safer than Japan’s which obviously did not design it for the type of earthquake and tsunami that hit it. Also, while the NRC is accused of being too cozy with industry, it looks postively innocent compared to Japan. I heard a lecture from a woman who actually worked on that plant (it was before the accident), but she said that the safety and industry people were practically sharing an office. Also, I think culture does play into this a bit. Americans value individual decision-making as well as group decisions, whereas Japan doesn’t do anything with making it a group decision-making process. It took them hours to decide to inject seawater to cool the reactors. I’m not saying this couldn’t happen here in the U.S., it certainly could. But it’s unlikely. What happened in Japan was unlikely. But the unlikely happens, and when it does, with catastrophic consequences. I myself worry more about the nuclear waste.
But I still support it because I’d rather use more nuclear than fossil fuels. Just because global warming is not instantaneous does not make it less dangerous. It is not feasible that renewables will satsify all of our energy needs. More nuclear, wind, solar, natural gas (cogeneration combined cycle), and geothermal is the way to go in my opinion. Definitely not coal, and oil dependence comes from transportation, but there aren’t very good alternatives yet (e.g. biofuels, electricity which runs on coal…) We’d need a breakthrough on fuel cell technology… unless someone can just finaly unlock the secret to thermonuclear fusion. But I digress…
My point is that people shouldn’t panic and overreact because that is an emotional response, not a logical decision. Yes, there are risks, but everything has a risk (remember the Deep Water Horizon?).
I just don’t like how the media gets everyone in a panicked frenzy. Masses of people bought potassium iodide and most likely did more harm to themselves than good. I just hope most people take a step back and do their research before coming to conclusions. Alas, I doubt this to be the case for most people. I don’t mind if people come to a different conclusion than me, if you are against the expansion of nuclear power. But have valid reasons that reach further than one event. Accidents happen. Ones that can be prevented. We are never going to stop that from happenening. We should be safe as we can, but we must also be realistic. There is no rationale behind decommissioning every single nuclear plant. There is no evidence to suggest that we are about to have a nuclear disaster. The best thing we can do is to make sure that adequate safety measures are taken.