1 in 100 chances are not remote enough for me. This looks to be a major accident waiting to happened. After what is happening in the gulf with BP, this would be a fatal blow to our current energy policy if a tragic event like a nuclear fire happened. We need to get on top of this and not let companies that provide such critical services and catastrophic consequences if something goes wrong, tell our agencies what safety measures are adequate. This is not a gift shop we are talking about.

Zach, you better do your research before posting YOUR information. There are 1.74 million people that live in the Raleigh, Cary, and Durham areas, all within 15 to 40 miles from the Shearon Harris nuclear facility. This does not include the numerous small towns and communities in between. So the estimated 200 million is correct, if you take into consideration the outlying areas. By the way…do you happen to be employed by, or associated with the government or the NRC? Dissemination can be powerful when adding rhetoric or other forms of persuasiveness. Remember the quote from George Washington “”Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” People need to know what the government and the NRC are doing. Look up some of the incredible atrocities that were conducted by both the NRC and the government, concerning nuclear testing on American citizens back in the late 40′s through the early 60′s. Pregnant mothers, children, military personnel, mentally handicapped were all injected, feed, irradiated with various forms of radioactive isotopes in order to see the outcome on human test subjects, some aware, some not aware. It is about time someone to speak out to protect the American citizens from its so called protectors (the government).

ahh so sad !

Like this information !

While the figures of who would be affected-2,20 or 200 million-the point is that ANYone would be. Remember, corporations who have the rights of people are NOT people, so have no consciences or ethics. They simply don’t care about anything but profit.

I think the author may have gotten a little carried away with his rhetoric. Unless the NRC commissioner is taking bribes (which seems to be implied without any offer of proof) what is the story here? That government officials are working to make a toxic dump safer?

Also I find “pools” to be a poor word choice since the waste is solid metal bars in sealed containers, not liquid ooze sitting around in holes in the ground.

To Josh, if you actually read the whole thing it would tell you that, yes they are metal rods, but they are put into pools of cold moving water so they do not heat up and catch fire.”The spent fuel rods are transported by rail and stored in four densely packed pools filled with circulating cold water to keep the waste from heating” Also, obviously they are NOT working to make it safer. The NRC keeps telling this place that they are not safe enough, they come back to check on the plant and NOTHING was done to improve the hazards. How is that working to fix it and why have they not shut this place down? Since the plant opened in 1987 the warning system has failed 15 times, so in 23 years the alarm stopped working 15 times….that isn’t counting the times it DID work. Look at the facts, the plant is a catastrophe waiting to happen. Granted it seems the author over-exaggerated the amount of people in N.C. but like Method and MILee said, no matter what the number is, the fact that anyone would be affected is awful. The long term affects of the pools catching fire are hard to think about and rather terrifying.

This is why we need breeder reactors.

Re: 200 million
The original article at http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair08092008.html says:
“An uncontrolled pool fire and meltdown at Shearon Harris would put more than two million residents of this rapidly growing section of North Carolina in extreme peril.”
Two million, not two hundred million.

esscribi en español y la traduccion es espantosa

This is frightening. My experience in dealing with North Carolina factories is that the people there are not careful in what they do. They have good intentions but manage to screw things up a lot. There is no room for carelessness and error in this. Business has only moved there to break unions and cut wages. Most have regretted it because the work ethic and care is not present in the South.

Meet Hot Girls today on the facebook of sex facebook of sex and facebook sluts

During the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, a 90% infant mortality spike occurred at McGee Hospital in Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania due to the plume release. There is no known safe dose level of radiation, if you live within 300 miles of a nuclear plant you are exposed to constant bombardment that may cause you harm or exacerbate present medical conditions. The human body is capable of selective uptake when talking of mineral absorption; this means if you can eat organic, non-contaminated fresh fruit and vegetables your body will change out the radioactive minerals for the safer ones. People who live around the Shippingport Nuclear Facility, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania have been told not to eat from their gardens as they are not safe. This valley has the longest exposure to low-level, mid and high levels than any other group of people on the planet. So much corruption surrounds the nuclear fuel cycle, the Vital Statistic Records of our state were altered to cover up the the disease and death caused by the exposure to so called safe levels of radiation. The reason that these electrical generating facilities exist is to make weapons grade plutonium (WMDs), they are part of the military corporate complex, this is how the US military kills it own people.

It’s been 25 years since Chernobyl fallout contaminated flora and fauna in Europe, but German hunting officials are still dealing with rising numbers of radioactive wild boars. But why?
This burgeoning boar population munches on radiation-absorbing truffles and mushrooms, and because of an overall increase in wild boars, the number of radioactive boars has gone up as well. The German Atomic Energy Law requires Berlin to reimburse hunters who bag radioactive boars. In 2009, the government paid out approximately €425,000 — or $555,000 — for polluted piggies. According to Der Spiegel, the contaminated boar population has been the most problematic in southern Germany:

Many of the boar that are killed land on the plates of diners across Germany, but it is forbidden to sell meat containing high levels of radioactive caesium-137 — any animals showing contamination levels higher than 600 becquerel per kilogram must be disposed of. But in some areas of Germany, particularly in the south, wild boar routinely show much higher levels of contamination. According to the Environment Ministry, the average contamination for boar shot in Bayerischer Wald, a forested region on the Bavarian border with the Czech Republic, was 7,000 becquerel per kilogram. Other regions in southern Germany aren’t much better.

I reside within site of the Shearon-Harris plant. My family and I moved into the area 3 years ago. I googled this article because I just heard an announcement on my local news channel that they will braidcast a news story about the waste dump tomorrow at 6PM. I never knew that the waste dump existed before I heard that. Luckily, we are just renting and are not tied to a mortgage. We were contemplating on moving from the area. Now that I have discovered the news about about having the largest and potenially most deadly nuclear waste dump in the country, I will definitely move far away from here. I strongly feel that residence should be made aware of these things possibly through news letters enclosed in their power bill statements.

Dear Kyle do you have an answer for the 40,000 year half life of the waste?

Wow we haven’t moved much on the
Nuclear Waste issue have we?

It’s in human nature to become corrupt over time when given power over other people.

Wasn’t that funny.

north carolina ……..