Pilgrim and NRC Blew Accident Reportability Requirements In Blizzard!

Updated Oct 1 2015

This is one of the clear examples where the failures of the OIG can be seen. Mr Guzman told me my meteorological problems at pilgrim were referred(May 2013)to the OIG. The OIG doesn't have a 

(2013)"Mr Guzman: So here is an official concern to the NRC by me. I am not crazy (On adams in 2013)!" 

transparent process with publicly documenting all referrals...they find it convenient to not disclose why they didn't accept or decline a referral. The open process holds the OIG accountable to the public. Who is the OIG of the OIG? 

I can make the case whistle-blower confidentiality and anonymity is nothing but a invention/tool...protection of the agency and nuclear industry.   

Does the OIG serve the greater public or just the congress? Are they just a corrupt arm of congress and political mega contribution to the politicians?

Just saying, as I laid it clearly out on this entry...if the OIG would have discussed the meteorological problem with me I would have told them Pilgrim and the NRC are overwhelmed with problems and are in a dire state of technical confusion. If the OIG was competent, they would have agreed with me. 

I was trying to save the Pilgrim Plant in 2013. 

They would have opened up a much wider investigation...they would have seen what was going on at the plant bringing us to today. They would have immediately demanded swift changes at pilgrim and the region 1. Ninety nine percent of the current problems at Pilgrim and the NRC would have been cut off at the 2013 early stage...

Nov 25, 2013: "Come on, Entergy Pilgrim is overwhelmed, as they are informing the NRC that they don’t have enough people to do the SRV LER" 

This just backs up my my long stated beliefs, as operability of Vermont Yankee was collapsing...the NRC turned off the oversight of Pilgrim. The agency felt Entergy was especially vulnerable over the closure of VY...they stopped enforcing regulations on Pilgrim trying to protect Entergy and the other big nuclear utilities.   

Guzman, Richard May 29, 2013 (1 day ago) to me Mr. Mulligan,  The purpose of this message is to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail correspondence below. As you requested, your message has been added to ADAMS and made publicly available. Your concerns have also been forwarded to the Office of Investigations and the Region I Office for consideration.  Sincerely,  Rich Guzman Sr. Project Manager NRR/DORL US NRC 301-415-1030 Richard.Guzman@nrc.gov

Reposted originally from May 2013

So the met tower asperator fan wasn't redundant and neither is the National Weather Service? 

“An element of the NRC’s Safety Philosophy that employs successive compensatory measures to prevent accidents or lessens the effects of damage if a malfunction or accident occurs at a nuclear facility. The NRC’s Safety Philosophy ensures that the public is adequately protected and that emergency plans surrounding a nuclear facility are well conceived and will work. Moreover, the philosophy ensures that safety will not be wholly dependent on any single element of the design, construction, maintenance, or operation of a nuclear facility.”

Nov 25:

Come on, Entergy Pilgrim is overwhelmed, as they are informing the NRC that they don’t have enough people to do the SRV LER...so the NRC is handling them with kid gloves.

Just saying, I called the Pilgrim NRC today. Thee resident had no idea wth the quality of the data with the national weather service. He had no record or analysis of the reliability of the NWS. Had no idea of the input of say the wind direction or speed...had no idea if the inputs or anything else had a back up power supply. He said it was the responsibility of Entergy to know that as they are paying for that service.

Well I said, what if we had a release and the Met didn’t work again.  Imagine if Pilgrim, the NRC and the national weather service bugled the evacuation data...can you imagine the public debate our nation would have over that for the next year?

The senior had no idea what caused the failure...he said their Region I or something  rad inspector came onto the site and did the inspection. He didn't do it.

He said Pilgrim would have been able to use the National Weather Service during and after Blizzard Nemo???

The inspection was really skimpy...

"...was out of service from February through March of this year because of impacts from the February bliz­zar..."

I wonder if the stop maintenance on the second Met tower and Entergy shutting it down is a cost saving measure?

I think the biggest violation is Entergy and the NRC didn't promptly notify the public?

Here below is my May 17, 2013 note that is on the NRC web site. So it's the fan motor. With the goings on with the employees cuts and the big mouth of the Union president....do they think somebody is talking to me?

May 17, 2013:

Pilgrim Cover-Up: Public Notification And Radiation Evac Plan Broke During Accident

May 28, 2013:

Mr Guzman,

So here is an official concern to the NRC by me. I am not crazy!

In LER 2013-003-00 Entergy admits the met instrumentation stopped recording data. Whatever that means? Was the spinning cups out in the weather frozen and iced over during blizzard Nemo or did the instruments fail because of the power failure? Was it just a data recording issue or did the site lose wind speed and direction indication in the control room or at the tech support center?

Cover-Up: Public Notification And RadiationEvac Plan Broke During Accident

I am calling it, they lost wind speed and direction indication in the control room and the evacuation plan was severely impaired.

Pilgrim LER 2013-003-00: "During the storm on February 8, meteorological instruments at PNPS recorded sustained wind speeds between 42 and 49 mph through 2338 hours at which time the plant information (PI) system stopped recording weather data until 1840 hours the following day. The wind direction was predominantly from the ocean toward the switchyard during the storm.

During Nemo Blizzard why didn’t Pilgrim make an event report like the Cooper station on 05/23/2013?

"At 1019 CDT, AC power was removed from the site meteorological monitoring system (MET) equipment for planned maintenance in order to remove abandoned equipment left in place since installing the new meteorological system in October 2012..."

Why was there no “major loss of assessment capability and reportable under 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(xiii)" like the Cooper station?

"Since there was no direct information of site meteorological conditions during the period of lost power, CNS considered this to be a major loss of assessment capability and reportable under 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(xiii)."

And it raises questions if this should have been reported in the emergency classification system such as a Unusual Event?

It raises issues if the Met instrumentation has failed in other power failures, blizzards and weather conditions and not reported as required?

It is beyond utter incompetence and negligence with public reporting on plant events with Entergy and the NRC...this atrociously incomplete statement: "the plant information (PI) system stopped recording weather data". Entergy should have been forced to add a few sentences like; we still had wind speed and direction indication in the control room or this is how the site would have carried out the evacuation if we had became blind to knowing wind speed and direction.

So why didn’t Entergy fully carry out their licensing reporting responsibilities during Blizzard Nemo and why is the NRC negligent with enforcing their rules?

I see the meteorological instrumentation issue wasn’t carried at all in your most recent inspection report. And the diesel smoke in the reactor building wasn’t covered in the LER. This is so shoddy documentation reporting by both of you.

Would you add this to the docket?

Sincerely,

Mike Mulligan

Hinsdale, NH

Nov 22:

Between Seabrook and Pilgrim, we sense a unannounced change of NRC policies or philosophy with shifting more to unsited violations from sited violation. I had one senior resident inspector bitching to me yesterday about this. It is a pain in the ass with sited violation for the inspector as well as the licence.

They don't care what their employees are put thought. Can you imagine the trauma of a event where they are requiring a community evacuation. Now you got a added complexity of calling the national weather service. Come on. Then as in Blizzard Nemo with widespread knocked down trees and power outages...I bet contact with the weather service was unpredictable and unreliable.

 Pilgrim plant cited for federal violation

 The meteorological towers are required under the plant’s emergency-response plan. According to the NRC report, the towers “provide data on the wind speed, wind direction, air temperature and delta air tem­perature to perform off-site dose assessment during a radio­logical emergency condition.” 

Sheehan said “both have been out of service for several peri­ods of time.” 

Entergy stopped performing preventative maintenance on one of the towers in late 2011. It then stopped functioning. The main tower, too, was out of service from March 2012 to July 2012 because of a broken aspirator fan; February through March of this year because of impacts from the February bliz­zard; and then again April 26 through 30.

Sinclair said plant operators still had access to meteorologi­cal information. “The National Weather Service was always available to provide the neces­sary data,”Sinclair said.

Nov 21:

Not many people is the USA would be able to catch this kind of error with Entergy and the NRC like I did. So I made them fess up!

The below inspection report is from the Professional Reactor Operator Society. It hasn't come out on the NRC's Adams site yet. I am holding by breath till then.

Think about it, On Aug 27, 2013 Entergy disclosed they were shutting down Vermont Yankee...

I am just perplexed with why the NRC didn't catch it when it first showed up...

The NRC should disclose in the inspection report that a outsider caught and made the NRC confront this...cause it now looks the agency caught it on their own. That's fraud! And they should use my name.

SUBJECT:PILGRIM – NRC PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION AND RESOLUTION INSPECTION REPORT -November 20, 2013

Green. A violation of 10 CFR Part 50.54(q)(2) because Entergy did not ensure that the Pilgrim Emergency Plan met the planning standards in 10 CFR 50.47(b). Specifically, on various occasions in 2012 and 2013, Pilgrim failed to maintain both meteorological towers as necessary to support emergency response. As of the date of this inspection, the 220’ meteorological tower was functional and the National Weather Service is still available as an alternate data source.

The inspectors determined that failure to maintain the 160’ and 220’ meteorological towers resulting in both towers being out of service concurrently for three separate periods in 2012 and 2013 was a performance deficiency that was within Entergy’s ability to foresee and correct. This performance deficiency is more than minor because it is associated with the facilities and equipment attribute of the Emergency Preparedness cornerstone and adversely affected the cornerstone objective of ensuring the licensee is capable of implementing adequate measures to protect the health and safety of the public in the event of a radiological emergency.

This finding has a cross- cutting aspect in the area of Problem Identification and Resolution, Corrective Action Program, because Pilgrim did not take appropriate corrective actions to address safety issues and trends in a timely manner. Specifically, the station did not take timely corrective actions to correct deficiencies associated with both meteorological towers resulting in both towers being simultaneously non-functional on multiple occasions.

Wrote this below on May 17, 2013...

Cover-Up: Public Notification and Radiation Evac Plan Broke During Accident.

The below I post on 6/22/13.

I believe that the plant trip and lost of site power was a extremely complicated 24 hours. I don't think they seen the lost of Met Tower for many hours after the trip. Maybe it was so complex they just missed calling the Met Tower inop.

And that is the rub, the public has no idea with how busy the crew was in the first 24 hours or so.

Originally published on 6/26/2013...

So why couldn't the NRC make a quick presumptive statement...we found merit with your concern or the agency found no merit. But the results will be in some future inspection...

It is a common tactic for the agency to stick it in a OIG or enforcement process where the results won't be seen for two years or so. This generally is the function of the enforcement and OIG investigation...to stick the violation into a prolonged investigation process so the violation emerges when the iron is not hot.

And that is the exact function of the OIG and enforcement... a huge delay tool that makes most violations obsolete and meaningless to a utility. I think actually this is a utility campaign contribution  process.

So the NRC and the Pilgrim are having a huge controversy with the Pilgrim Board of Selectman...the NRC says they have been abused at a recent meeting and they will never give another selectman meeting again. So the NRC is burying my complaint...hoping to get by this controversy.

....

They made a report on the JIC (Joint Information Center) to the Feds but not on the Meteorological instrumentation...so why wasn't the Met tower supplied by batteries or a back up power? Why wasn't the JIC on a back up power source?

This is how Entergy does emergency response in Guatemala?

"On Monday, February 11, 2013 at 1435 EST with Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station (PNPS) at 0% core thermal power, the Joint Information Center (JIC) was determined to be unavailable and was declared non-operational. [Power was lost] to the facility [due] to winter storm Nemo. This facility serves as the Joint Information Center for Entergy, State, and Federal organizations during an emergency response.

"Existing emergency procedures direct the responsible Emergency Plant Manager to relocate the JIC staff to the designated alternate location (Bridgewater State University) as required. It has been confirmed that the alternate location is available for use.

"The Emergency Response Organization has been informed to establish the JIC at the Moakley Center at Bridgewater State University in the event of a declared emergency classification requiring activation of this Emergency Response Facility.

"The licensee has notified the NRC Senior Resident Inspector and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

"This eight-hour notification is being made in accordance with 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(xiii) due to the loss of an emergency offsite response facility.

May 32: So here is my letter off the NRC web site!...they put it up!

Generally I don't get any acknowledgement with a concern as this...but I made a stink and called his boss.

Guzman, Richard	May 29 (1 day ago)
to me

Mr. Mulligan,

The purpose of this message is to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail correspondence below. As you requested, your message has been added to ADAMS and made publicly available. Your concerns have also been forwarded to the Office of Investigations and the Region I Office for consideration.

Sincerely,

Rich Guzman

Sr. Project Manager

NRR/DORL

US NRC

301-415-1030

Richard.Guzman@nrc.gov

Strange:  

May 26 (2 days ago)
Guzman, Richard
to me

I am out of the office from 5/24 to 5/28 and will return on 5/29. For urgent matters, please contact Mr. James Kim, at 301-415-4125.
….

May 26 (2 days ago)
Kim, James
to me

I am currently out of the office and I will return on May 29, 2013. For urgent matters regarding Catawba or McGuire Power Station, please contact the Backup PM, John Boska, at (301) 415-2901 or Branch Chief, Robert Pascarelli at (301) 415-6603.

Thanks,

Jim Kim

 

Power Reactor	Event Number: 49062
Facility: COOPER Region: 4 State: NE Unit: [1] [ ] [ ] RX Type: [1] GE-4 NRC Notified By: NATHAN L. BEGER HQ OPS Officer: CHARLES TEAL	Notification Date: 05/23/2013 Notification Time: 15:45 [ET] Event Date: 05/23/2013 Event Time: 10:19 [CDT] Last Update Date: 05/23/2013
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(3)(xiii) - LOSS COMM/ASMT/RESPONSE	Person (Organization): NEIL OKEEFE (R4DO)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
1	N	Y	100	Power Operation	100	Power Operation

Event Text

TEMPORARY LOSS OF METEOROLOGICAL MONITORING SYSTEM DURING PLANNED MAINTENANCE "At 1019 CDT, AC power was removed from the site meteorological monitoring system (MET) equipment for planned maintenance in order to remove abandoned equipment left in place since installing the new meteorological system in October 2012. Removing AC power was not expected to have an effect since all MET information would continue to be available due to an 8-hour battery backup system installed at the meteorological tower. However, when power was removed, all onsite meteorological data was lost to the control room via the Plant Management Information System (PMIS). PMIS is the only display of local direct meteorological conditions available. Subsequently, [Cooper Nuclear Station] CNS determined the interface between MET system and PMIS was not powered from the 8 hour MET battery backup system which accounted for the lost MET indication. CNS corrected the condition and restored meteorological data to the control room via the PMIS system at 1219 CDT. "Site backup assessment capability relies on Meteorological model estimates from the National Weather Service out of Valley, Nebraska or on default values derived from historical local weather patterns. Since there was no direct information of site meteorological conditions during the period of lost power, CNS considered this to be a major loss of assessment capability and reportable under 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(xiii)." The NRC Resident Inspector has been informed.

May 17, 2013:

Pilgrim Cover-Up: Public Notification And Radiation Evac Plan Broke During Accident

May 28, 2013:

Mr Guzman,

So here is an official concern to the NRC by me. I am not crazy!

In LER 2013-003-00 Entergy admits the met instrumentation stopped recording data. Whatever that means? Was the spinning cups out in the weather frozen and iced over during blizzard Nemo or did the instruments fail because of the power failure? Was it just a data recording issue or did the site lose wind speed and direction indication in the control room or at the tech support center?

Cover-Up: Public Notification And Radiation Evac Plan Broke During Accident

I am calling it, they lost wind speed and direction indication in the control room and the evacuation plan was severely impaired.

Pilgrim LER 2013-003-00: "During the storm on February 8, meteorological instruments at PNPS recorded sustained wind speeds between 42 and 49 mph through 2338 hours at which time the plant information (PI) system stopped recording weather data until 1840 hours the following day. The wind direction was predominantly from the ocean toward the switchyard during the storm.

During Nemo Blizzard, why didn’t Pilgrim make an event report like the Cooper station on 05/23/2013?

"At 1019 CDT, AC power was removed from the site meteorological monitoring system (MET) equipment for planned maintenance in order to remove abandoned equipment left in place since installing the new meteorological system in October 2012..."

Why was there no “major loss of assessment capability and reportable under 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(xiii)" like the Cooper station?

"Since there was no direct information of site meteorological conditions during the period of lost power, CNS considered this to be a major loss of assessment capability and reportable under 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(xiii)."

And it raises questions if this should have been reported in the emergency classification system such as a Unusual Event?

It raises issues if the Met instrumentation has failed in other power failures, blizzards and weather conditions and not reported as required?

It is beyond utter incompetence and negligence with public reporting on plant events with Entergy and the NRC...this atrociously incomplete statement: "the plant information (PI) system stopped recording weather data". Entergy should have been forced to add a few sentences like; we still had wind speed and direction indication in the control room or this is how the site would have carried out the evacuation if we had became blind to knowing wind speed and direction.

So why didn’t Entergy fully carry out their licensing reporting responsibilities during Blizzard Nemo and why is the NRC negligent with enforcing their rules?

I see the meteorological instrumentation issue wasn’t carried at all in your most recent inspection report. And the diesel smoke in the reactor building wasn’t covered in the LER. This is so shoddy documentation reporting by both of you.

Would you add this to the docket?

Sincerely,

Mike Mulligan

Hinsdale, NH

Did The NRC Streamline Their Organization For Guys Like Me Too?

Did The NRC Streamline Their Organization For Guys Like Me Too?

NRC Announces Management Changes, Streamlining

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today announced senior personnel changes that help streamline agency management and broaden the scope and diversity of its leadership at the top as the agency works to reduce its size in the coming years.

The most senior changes – which required Commission approval and will occur in early November – include:

Deputy Executive Director for Material, Waste, Research, State, Tribal and Compliance Programs Mike Weber will become director of the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research;

Jennifer Uhle, currently deputy director for engineering in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, will become director of the Office of New Reactors;

Director of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards Catherine Haney will become the Region II regional administrator in January, succeeding Victor McCree, who just assumed the agency’s most senior career position, Executive Director for Operations (EDO).

In addition, the position vacated by Weber will absorb new corporate management responsibilities and be known as the Deputy EDO for Materials, Waste, Research, State, Tribal, Compliance Administration and Human Capital (DEDM), effectively reducing one deputy EDO position and moving the Office of Administration and the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer under the newly titled post. Darren Ash, the current deputy EDO for corporate management, remains as the agency’s Chief Information Officer and the Office of Information Services is renamed the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

Future announcements will focus on additional steps to fill vacancies created by personnel movements and enhance succession planning.

“Our agency faces the challenge of reducing our size, becoming more efficient and delivering more value for the money,” said NRC Chairman Stephen G. Burns. “The steps announced today will put in place a management structure well suited to ensuring we accomplish our mission of protecting people and the environment even as we reduce our size and budget.”

“In my discussion with the Chairman and Commissioners, I recommended changes to a number of senior executive positions as well as a change in the organizational structure of the Office of the EDO,” said McCree. “The recommendations were inspired by a desire to support agency streamlining…

NRC’s Alternate Disputed Resolution

Have we ever had a "independent" investigation on the NRC's ADS?
 
Does the NRC's and licensees arbitrators "split the baby" in order to drum up the arbitrator business? 

Brutalized Behind Bars in New York State

"State corrections officials moved to fire the officer. But the politically powerful union exercised a contract provision that puts disciplinary cases like this one before an arbitrator who is jointly chosen by the union and the corrections department. Arbitrators often end up “splitting the baby” to keep both sides satisfied and ensure they are chosen for future cases. Even when compelling evidence warrants dismissal, officers often get off with less."

Alternative Dispute Resolution in the NRC's Enforcement Program

What Is Wrong With Seabrook At 64% Power Now.

Update 10/8

Well, it was a clumsy shutdown and down power. This is all I've seen about the routine outage in the newspapers.   

Hmm, Entergy helping nextera plants? This seems to imply its a routine outage.  

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20151008/NEWS07/151009103

10/8: Senft, who was a guest in a room on the second floor, lives in Arkansas and is staying at the hotel temporarily while working at the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant during its routine outage.

Update 10/07

It is doubtful Millstone and Seabrook would be down at the same time.

I was told Seabrook was shutdown because of massive fuel pin leakage. I don't think this is plausible as it would be beyond reckless not to disclose it. These guys are that dumb.

 Millstone security gate moved closer to power plant

Published October 07. 2015 5:29PM

By Judy Benson

 Waterford — The security gate at the Millstone Power Station has been moved about a half mile south on the access road to nuclear power plant.

Ken Holt, spokesman for the nuclear power plant, said Wednesday that the security gate, which continues to be staffed by guards, was relocated by plant owner Dominion last week to better accommodate the increased number of workers during the refueling outage for Unit 2. The outage began on Saturday and is expected to last about a month.

10/5

still shut down...not a peek why it's shutdown.

Update 10/01

I think this is the case where if there no official comment about the plant shutdown...then it doesn't get in the news.

Hmm, it most be one of them secret shutdowns. It is shutdown today and not a peep out of news they are in refueling. I doubt it is in refueling.  

Update 9/30

61% and still no response from the NRC...

*** ( 8:30 pm) Most of the day the NEISO was trending about $50 per megawatt-hour, then midafternoon spiked up to $325, came down to $50 for a few hours, then at 6 pm spiked up to $1150, right back down to $50 for an hour, now about $300.

 

We are in particularly mild weather at 70 degrees right now.

Maybe they took a lot of plants off for maintenance preparing for the winter?

***Just noticed, the grid price just spiked up to $325 in the last few hours?

So Seabrook power has been trending down for a week. It seems this fall they might be going into refueling. They unusually coast down some say 2% a week or so for a month. This clearly doesn’t look like entering a refueling

Here is the last nine days

61%

59%

88%

90%

90%

92%

92%

93%

94%

The senior resident kinda said curtly I can’t tell you anything for completive reasons. That sounds like it is coast down to refueling.

But the drop to 59%/61% seems abnormal.

Japanese Nuclear Regulator Requested Tsunami Barriers Just Before Earthquake.

So why wasn't this Japanese NRC discussion memorialized on the docket at the time it occurred.

Our NRC would be terrorized with the outcome to the agency if this information would be seen after any big accident. They'd be afraid of the political fallout...how it might destroy the agency and damage the industry. In order to protect themselves from a terribly destructive cover-up...

Mostly likely our NRC would have created a open discussion...they would know outsiders would have initiated the discussions with processes like the 2.206 or got the problem published in the media.

Tepco rejected requests for anti-tsunami steps before 2011 nuclear crisis

Kyodo

Tokyo Electric Power Co. turned down requests in 2009 by the nuclear safety agency to consider concrete steps against tsunami waves at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which suffered a tsunami-triggered disaster two years later, government documents showed Friday.

“Do you think you can stop the reactors?” a Tepco official was quoted as telling Shigeki Nagura of the now-defunct Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, who was then assigned to review the plant’s safety, in response to one of his requests.

The detailed exchanges between the plant operator and the regulator came to light through the latest disclosure of government records on its investigation into the nuclear crisis, adding to evidence that Tepco failed to take proper safety steps ahead of the world’s worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

According to records of Nagura’s accounts, Nagura heard Tepco’s explanations of its tsunami estimates at the agency’s office in Tokyo in August and September 2009 as it was becoming clear that coastal areas of Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures were hit by massive tsunami following an earthquake in 869.

Tepco said the height of waves was estimated to be around 8 meters above sea level and will not reach the plant site, which was located at a height of 10 meters, they show.

But Nagura said he remembered thinking pumps with key cooling functions, which were located on the ground at a height of 4 meters, “will not make it” and told Tepco, “If this is the outcome, you better consider concrete responses.”

In refusing to immediately act, Tepco said it would wait for related studies to be carried out by the academic society of civil engineers, which it had requested to be done by March 2012.

Nagura also proposed placing the pumps inside buildings to protect them from being exposed to water, but a Tepco official told him, “Our company cannot make a decision without seeing the results of the (studies by the) society of civil engineers.”

Then another Tepco official told Nagura, “Do you think you can stop the reactors?” according to the government documents.

Nagura recalled in the documents, “I wondered why I had to be told such a thing.” But he also admitted that, after all, he only encouraged Tepco to “consider” tsunami countermeasures and did not request that it “take” specific measures.

The Fukushima crisis has revealed how Japan, which had boasted of possessing the world’s safest nuclear power plants, was ill-prepared against a severe nuclear accident.

Three reactors suffered core meltdowns after they lost their key cooling functions amid a loss of all electrical power following a huge earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

The government-appointed nuclear accident investigation panel has already issued a final report, and the government is now gradually disclosing the records of hearings conducted to people involved.

Pope Francis "Chewing Out" The World At The UN.

Pope Francis will speak before the United Nations General Assembly Friday morning, the first time that a pope will speak at the annual session where all member countries are represented.

Here is a full transcript of his remarks

Thank you for your kind words. Once again, following a tradition by which I feel honored, the Secretary General of the United Nations has invited the Pope to address this distinguished assembly of nations. In my own name, and that of the entire Catholic community, I wish to express to you, Mr Ban Ki-moon, my heartfelt gratitude. I greet the Heads of State and Heads of Government present, as well as the ambassadors, diplomats and political and technical officials accompanying them, the personnel of the United Nations engaged in this 70th Session of the General Assembly, the personnel of the various programs and agencies of the United Nations family, and all those who, in one way or another, take part in this meeting. Through you, I also greet the citizens of all the nations represented in this hall. I thank you, each and all, for your efforts in the service of mankind.

This is the fifth time that a Pope has visited the United Nations. I follow in the footsteps of my predecessors Paul VI, in1965, John Paul II, in 1979 and 1995, and my most recent predecessor, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in 2008. All of them expressed their great esteem for the Organization, which they considered the appropriate juridical and political response to this present moment of history, marked by our technical ability to overcome distances and frontiers and, apparently, to overcome all natural limits to the exercise of power. An essential response, inasmuch as technological power, in the hands of nationalistic or falsely universalist ideologies, is capable of perpetrating tremendous atrocities. I can only reiterate the appreciation expressed by my predecessors, in reaffirming the importance which the Catholic Church attaches to this Institution and the hope which she places in its activities.

The United Nations is presently celebrating its seventieth anniversary. The history of this organized community of states is one of important common achievements over a period of unusually fast- paced changes. Without claiming to be exhaustive, we can mention the codification and development of international law, the establishment of international norms regarding human rights, advances in humanitarian law, the resolution of numerous conflicts, operations of peace-keeping and reconciliation, and any number of other accomplishments in every area of international activity and endeavour. All these achievements are lights which help to dispel the darkness of the disorder caused by unrestrained ambitions and collective forms of selfishness. Certainly, many grave problems remain to be resolved, yet it is clear that, without all those interventions on the international level, mankind would not have been able to survive the unchecked use of its own possibilities. Every one of these political, juridical and technical advances is a path towards attaining the ideal of human fraternity and a means for its greater realization.

For this reason I pay homage to all those men and women whose loyalty and self-sacrifice have benefitted humanity as a whole in these past seventy years. In particular, I would recall today those who gave their lives for peace and reconciliation among peoples, from Dag Hammarskjöld to the many United Nations officials at every level who have been killed in the course of humanitarian missions, and missions of peace and reconciliation.

Beyond these achievements, the experience of the past seventy years has made it clear that reform and adaptation to the times is always necessary in the pursuit of the ultimate goal of granting all countries, without exception, a share in, and a genuine and equitable influence on, decision-making processes. The need for greater equity is especially true in the case of those bodies with effective executive capability, such as the Security Council, the Financial Agencies and the groups or mechanisms specifically created to deal with economic crises. This will help limit every kind of abuse or usury, especially where developing countries are concerned. The International Financial Agencies are should care for the sustainable development of countries and should ensure that they are not subjected to oppressive lending systems which, far from promoting progress, subject people to mechanisms which generate greater poverty, exclusion and dependence.

The work of the United Nations, according to the principles set forth in the Preamble and the first Articles of its founding Charter, can be seen as the development and promotion of the rule of law, based on the realization that justice is an essential condition for achieving the ideal of universal fraternity. In this context, it is helpful to recall that the limitation of power is an idea implicit in the concept of law itself. To give to each his own, to cite the classic definition of justice, means that no human individual or group can consider itself absolute, permitted to bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals or their social groupings. The effective distribution of power (political, economic, defense-related, technological, etc.) among a plurality of subjects, and the creation of a juridical system for regulating claims and interests, are one concrete way of limiting power. Yet today’s world presents us with many false rights and – at the same time – broad sectors which are vulnerable, victims of power badly exercised: for example, the natural environment and the vast ranks of the excluded. These sectors are closely interconnected and made increasingly fragile by dominant political and economic relationships. That is why their rights must be forcefully affirmed, by working to protect the environment and by putting an end to exclusion.

First, it must be stated that a true “right of the environment” does exist, for two reasons. First, because we human beings are part of the environment. We live in communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect. Man, for all his remarkable gifts, which “are signs of a uniqueness which transcends the spheres of physics and biology” (Laudato Si’, 81), is at the same time a part of these spheres. He possesses a body shaped by physical, chemical and biological elements, and can only survive and develop if the ecological environment is favourable. Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity. Second, because every creature, particularly a living creature, has an intrinsic value, in its existence, its life, its beauty and its interdependence with other creatures. We Christians, together with the other monotheistic religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the Creator; he is not authorized to abuse it, much less to destroy it. In all religions, the environment is a fundamental good (cf. ibid.).

The misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion. In effect, a selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged, either because they are differently abled (handicapped), or because they lack adequate information and technical expertise, or are incapable of decisive political action. Economic and social exclusion is a complete denial of human fraternity and a grave offense against human rights and the environment. The poorest are those who suffer most from such offenses, for three serious reasons: they are cast off by society, forced to live off what is discarded and suffer unjustly from the abuse of the environment. They are part of today’s widespread and quietly growing “culture of waste”.

The dramatic reality this whole situation of exclusion and inequality, with its evident effects, has led me, in union with the entire Christian people and many others, to take stock of my grave responsibility in this regard and to speak out, together with all those who are seeking urgently-needed and effective solutions. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the World Summit, which opens today, is an important sign of hope. I am similarly confident that the Paris Conference on Climatic Change will secure fundamental and effective agreements.

Solemn commitments, however, are not enough, even though they are a necessary step toward solutions. The classic definition of justice which I mentioned earlier contains as one of its essential elements a constant and perpetual will: Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius sum cuique tribuendi. Our world demands of all government leaders a will which is effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate measures for preserving and improving the natural environment and thus putting an end as quickly as possible to the phenomenon of social and economic exclusion, with its baneful consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labour, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organized crime. Such is the magnitude of these situations and their toll in innocent lives, that we must avoid every temptation to fall into a declarationist nominalism which would assuage our consciences. We need to ensure that our institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges.

The number and complexity of the problems require that we possess technical instruments of verification. But this involves two risks. We can rest content with the bureaucratic exercise of drawing up long lists of good proposals – goals, objectives and statistical indicators – or we can think that a single theoretical and aprioristic solution will provide an answer to all the challenges. It must never be forgotten that political and economic activity is only effective when it is understood as a prudential activity, guided by a perennial concept of justice and constantly conscious of the fact that, above and beyond our plans and programmes, we are dealing with real men and women who live, struggle and suffer, and are often forced to live in great poverty, deprived of all rights.

To enable these real men and women to escape from extreme poverty, we must allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny. Integral human development and the full exercise of human dignity cannot be imposed. They must be built up and allowed to unfold for each individual, for every family, in communion with others, and in a right relationship with all those areas in which human social life develops – friends, communities, towns and cities, schools, businesses and unions, provinces, nations, etc. This presupposes and requires the right to education – also for girls (excluded in certain places) – which is ensured first and foremost by respecting and reinforcing the primary right of the family to educate its children, as well as the right of churches and social groups to support and assist families in the education of their children. Education conceived in this way is the basis for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and for reclaiming the environment.

At the same time, government leaders must do everything possible to ensure that all can have the minimum spiritual and material means needed to live in dignity and to create and support a family, which is the primary cell of any social development. In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three names: lodging, labour, and land; and one spiritual name: spiritual freedom, which includes religious freedom, the right to education and other civil rights.

For all this, the simplest and best measure and indicator of the implementation of the new Agenda for development will be effective, practical and immediate access, on the part of all, to essential material and spiritual goods: housing, dignified and properly remunerated employment, adequate food and drinking water; religious freedom and, more generally, spiritual freedom and education. These pillars of integral human development have a common foundation, which is the right to life and, more generally, what we could call the right to existence of human nature itself.

The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can threaten the very existence of the human species. The baneful consequences of an irresponsible mismanagement of the global economy, guided only by ambition for wealth and power, must serve as a summons to a forthright reflection on man: “man is not only a freedom which he creates for himself. Man does not create himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature” (BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Bundestag, 22 September 2011, cited in Laudato Si’, 6). Creation is compromised “where we ourselves have the final word… The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any instance above ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves” (ID. Address to the Clergy of the Diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone, 6 August 2008, cited ibid.). Consequently, the defence of the environment and the fight against exclusion demand that we recognize a moral law written into human nature itself, one which includes the natural difference between man and woman (cf. Laudato Si’, 155), and absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions (cf. ibid., 123, 136).

Without the recognition of certain incontestable natural ethical limits and without the immediate implementation of those pillars of integral human development, the ideal of “saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war” (Charter of the United Nations, Preamble), and “promoting social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom” (ibid.), risks becoming an unattainable illusion, or, even worse, idle chatter which serves as a cover for all kinds of abuse and corruption, or for carrying out an ideological colonization by the imposition of anomalous models and lifestyles which are alien to people’s identity and, in the end, irresponsible.

War is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment. If we want true integral human development for all, we must work tirelessly to avoid war between nations and between peoples.

To this end, there is a need to ensure the uncontested rule of law and tireless recourse to negotiation, mediation and arbitration, as proposed by the Charter of the United Nations, which constitutes truly a fundamental juridical norm. The experience of these seventy years since the founding of the United Nations in general, and in particular the experience of these first fifteen years of the third millennium, reveal both the effectiveness of the full application of international norms and the ineffectiveness of their lack of enforcement.

When the Charter of the United Nations is respected and applied with transparency and sincerity, and without ulterior motives, as an obligatory reference point of justice and not as a means of masking spurious intentions, peaceful results will be obtained. When, on the other hand, the norm is considered simply as an instrument to be used whenever it proves favourable, and to be avoided when it is not, a true Pandora’s box is opened, releasing uncontrollable forces which gravely harm defenseless populations, the cultural milieu and even the biological environment.

The Preamble and the first Article of the Charter of the United Nations set forth the foundations of the international juridical framework: peace, the pacific solution of disputes and the development of friendly relations between the nations. Strongly opposed to such statements, and in practice denying them, is the constant tendency to the proliferation of arms, especially weapons of mass distraction, such as nuclear weapons. An ethics and a law based on the threat of mutual destruction – and possibly the destruction of all mankind – are self-contradictory and an affront to the entire framework of the United Nations, which would end up as “nations united by fear and distrust”. There is urgent need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons, in full application of the non-proliferation Treaty, in letter and spirit, with the goal of a complete prohibition of these weapons.

The recent agreement reached on the nuclear question in a sensitive region of Asia and the Middle East is proof of the potential of political good will and of law, exercised with sincerity, patience and constancy. I express my hope that this agreement will be lasting and efficacious, and bring forth the desired fruits with the cooperation of all the parties involved.

In this sense, hard evidence is not lacking of the negative effects of military and political interventions which are not coordinated between members of the international community. For this reason, while regretting to have to do so, I must renew my repeated appeals regarding to the painful situation of the entire Middle East, North Africa and other African countries, where Christians, together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even members of the majority religion who have no desire to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and religious heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to peace by their own lives, or by enslavement.

These realities should serve as a grave summons to an examination of conscience on the part of those charged with the conduct of international affairs. Not only in cases of religious or cultural persecution, but in every situation of conflict, as in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and the Great Lakes region, real human beings take precedence over partisan interests, however legitimate the latter may be. In wars and conflicts there are individual persons, our brothers and sisters, men and women, young and old, boys and girls who weep, suffer and die. Human beings who are easily discarded when our only response is to draw up lists of problems, strategies and disagreements.

As I wrote in my letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 9 August 2014, “the most basic understanding of human dignity compels the international community, particularly through the norms and mechanisms of international law, to do all that it can to stop and to prevent further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities” and to protect innocent peoples.

Along the same lines I would mention another kind of conflict which is not always so open, yet is silently killing millions of people. Another kind of war experienced by many of our societies as a result of the narcotics trade. A war which is taken for granted and poorly fought. Drug trafficking is by its very nature accompanied by trafficking in persons, money laundering, the arms trade, child exploitation and other forms of corruption. A corruption which has penetrated to different levels of social, political, military, artistic and religious life, and, in many cases, has given rise to a parallel structure which threatens the credibility of our institutions.

I began this speech recalling the visits of my predecessors. I would hope that my words will be taken above all as a continuation of the final words of the address of Pope Paul VI; although spoken almost exactly fifty years ago, they remain ever timely. “The hour has come when a pause, a moment of recollection, reflection, even of prayer, is absolutely needed so that we may think back over our common origin, our history, our common destiny. The appeal to the moral conscience of man has never been as necessary as it is today… For the danger comes neither from progress nor from science; if these are used well, they can help to solve a great number of the serious problems besetting mankind (Address to the United Nations Organization, 4 October 1965). Among other things, human genius, well applied, will surely help to meet the grave challenges of ecological deterioration and of exclusion. As Paul VI said: “The real danger comes from man, who has at his disposal ever more powerful instruments that are as well fitted to bring about ruin as they are to achieve lofty conquests” (ibid.).

The common home of all men and women must continue to rise on the foundations of a right understanding of universal fraternity and respect for the sacredness of every human life, of every man and every woman, the poor, the elderly, children, the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a statistic. This common home of all men and women must also be built on the understanding of a certain sacredness of created nature.

Such understanding and respect call for a higher degree of wisdom, one which accepts transcendence, rejects the creation of an all-powerful élite, and recognizes that the full meaning of individual and collective life is found in selfless service to others and in the sage and respectful use of creation for the common good. To repeat the words of Paul VI, “the edifice of modern civilization has to be built on spiritual principles, for they are the only ones capable not only of supporting it, but of shedding light on it” (ibid.).

El Gaucho Martín Fierro, a classic of literature in my native land, says: “Brothers should stand by each other, because this is the first law; keep a true bond between you always, at every time – because if you fight among yourselves, you’ll be devoured by those outside”.

The contemporary world, so apparently connected, is experiencing a growing and steady social fragmentation, which places at risk “the foundations of social life” and consequently leads to “battles over conflicting interests” (Laudato Si’, 229).

The present time invites us to give priority to actions which generate new processes in society, so as to bear fruit in significant and positive historical events (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 223). We cannot permit ourselves to postpone “certain agendas” for the future. The future demands of us critical and global decisions in the face of world-wide conflicts which increase the number of the excluded and those in need.

The praiseworthy international juridical framework of the United Nations Organization and of all its activities, like any other human endeavour, can be improved, yet it remains necessary; at the same time it can be the pledge of a secure and happy future for future generations. And so it will, if the representatives of the States can set aside partisan and ideological interests, and sincerely strive to serve the common good. I pray to Almighty God that this will be the case, and I assure you of my support and my prayers, and the support and prayers of all the faithful of the Catholic Church, that this Institution, all its member States, and each of its officials, will always render an effective service to mankind, a service respectful of diversity and capable of bringing out, for sake of the common good, the best in each people and in every individual.

Upon all of you, and the peoples you represent, I invoke the blessing of the Most High, and all peace and prosperity. Thank you.