Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama: Resurrected

More than 30 years following a near melt down and close-call burndown, and more than 20 years after it was finally shut down the Tennessee Valley Association Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant has received the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission'sfinal go ahead to put the plant back online.

In March 1975,a single candle nearly burned one of the reactors at Browns Ferry to the ground exposing how unsafe the nation's nuclear power industry was at the time. The plant actually continued operating for another ten years before it was shut down in 1985. But now the ill-fated reactor is once again about to go nuclear and begin generating electricity.

Peter Gwynne the science editor for Newsweek in 1975 said this, in a recent radio broadcast interview on NPR, about the 1975 Browns Ferry reactor fire:

..."a couple of the technicians were in one of the corridors using a candle to sniff out air leaks which was the normal way of doing things at the time. They found a leak in an area where a lot of cables were going into the control room of the plant and they decided to repair it with polyurethane foam, which was again the standard way of doing things."

Turns out the polyurethane foam was not fire proof.

"....when they tested two things happened. First they realized that they hadn't sealed up the leak. And second the leak that was there sucked in the flame and set the polyurethane on fire. And then the fire really took off despite all their efforts to control it."

The fire was near the control room, which filled with smoke quite rapidly. From that point on it was like a comedy of errors

."....All of the safety systems or at least the first series of safety systems just didn't work. .... the pumping of the emergency water system started and then it stopped. And the water in the nuclear reactors, which protect the reactor from melting down, the water gradually started to drop and drop and drop. It dropped from around 200 inches above the fuel rods down to just about four feet. ....there was real panic in the plant at the time."

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Browns Ferry Nuclear Reactor Online Again In Alabama: Do They Really Need Electricity in Alabama?

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has just approved returning the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama to full operation. As noted in the previous post this is the plant that nearly burned-down in 1975 which could have caused a melt-down. It did not cease operation until 1985.

It is generally concluded that checking for air leaks using a lit cnadle is probably and unsafe procedure to follow when the sealant is polyurethane, a highly falammable substance, it was later discovered the technicians in the plant, located in Alablama, had not been trained in safety procedures; nor had they tested the polyurethane foam to determine if it was indeed flammable. The authorities at Brown's Ferry did not perform the necessary safety checks necessary for the competent operation of nuclear power facility. We wonder, as should the residents of the area where this plant is located, what steps have been taken to insure the secure operation of the facility this time 'round? Something else to make you say, "Hmmmmmm".


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Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson~Clark Dark'sCelebrity Round-Up

Having dropped her appeal of a 45 day sentence, Paris Hilton is to serve 23 days if she behaves in jail. Hilton begins serving the sentence June 5.

Her psychiatrist said in court documents filed last week she is "emotionally distraught and traumatized" by the May 4 hearing and is not fit to take part in a civil trial brought against her by diamond heiress Zeta Graff.

In the lawsuit, Ms. Graff alleges that Ms. Hilton used her wealth, power and celebrity to purposely damage Ms. Graff's reputation by spreading lies to the press which were subsequently published in news outlets, websites, blogs and other media and read by millions of people around the world. Ms. Graff sued Paris Hilton on July 15, 2005 for libel and slander (defamation). Trial is scheduled to begin August 22, 2007.

Jessica Simpson: No sooner than it's reported Simpson has a new boyfriend whom it is also reported her father approves, there are reports of a break-up with John Mayer, a new lover Jude Law, and Simpson is reconciled with John Mayer.

Mayer was seen leaving Simpson's hotel suite at the Soho Grand. Gee, makes you wonder if Jude Law was waiting around the corner to see when Mayer left.

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War in Iraq=American Bi-partisan Bamboozle

Attention! Attention, John and Jane Q. Public, it's official! The American public has been hood-winked, bamboozled, lied to, and generally duped by the Hypocritical Party and the More Hypocritical Party with regard to the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Somehow the promise of the newly seated Democrats in both houses of the federal government has been forgotten. In this recent approval of the bill allowing President Bush to send more troops, or rather re-cycle troops to Iraq, there was no time table for a reduction in forces nor any indication of when those troops would be returned home...as in return expected to be sooner than later.

Just goes to show you there are hypocrites on both sides of the isles in the U.S. Congress. We get to bear the result of the pretense by tending to the ones who return from the war disabled, without limbs; we get to attend the funerals and care for their families. We get to do what the government will not do for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the nation.

This betrayal of the trust provided by the American voters is despicable. It is shameful. The entire govenrment, the president, leaders in the House and the Senate, candidates, members of the Senate and the House, even cabinet members, as concerns the war in Iraq, all have behaved in a manner to be despised.

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