The Gary Null Show - Nuclear (un)Safety - 03/28/14

Gary's latest updates in health and healing, environmental and social commentary, and more. Plus guest Mark Leyse. 

Mark Leyse is a nuclear safety consultant, who recently researched and wrote a report for Riverkeeper titled, “Zirconium Fires in Pools of Spent Nuclear Fuel: High-Probability Scenarios and Phenomena,” which discuses how a spent fuel pool fire at the Indian Point nuclear plant, located 34 miles north of Manhattan’s Central Park, could release much more radioactive material than the quantity released by the Chernobyl accident. More land could be contaminated than the area encompassing the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, with higher concentrations of radioactive cesium-137; the number of premature deaths from cancer and economic damages would perhaps be incalculable. Leyse has also wrote a report for Natural Resources Defense Council -- “Preventing Hydrogen Explosions In Severe Nuclear Accidents: Unresolved Safety Issues Involving Hydrogen Generation And Mitigation.” The report exposes how, even after the Fukushima Daiichi accident, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is failing to meet the statutory standard of “adequate protection” of the public against the hazard of hydrogen explosions in a severe reactor accident. In March 2007, Leyse submitted a petition for rule making on raising safety issues that the N.R.C. incorporated into its rulemaking process. In January 2013, the N.R.C. Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a proposed rulemaking, partly based on safety issues Mark proposed.