A new nuclear fiasco

The radioactive leak on Bluff Road will eventually touch all of us. The leak occurred through holes drilled in the base at the plant.

At the new VC Summer nuclear site, there were construction “errors” with the concrete floor of the reactors. As an intervenor, I asked questions about those errors and received evasive responses and assurance that the “patches” were “standard”.

At the time the errors were made, the company had completed the concrete base of the new reactors. The next step was to drill holes a certain distance down in the concrete base to place the reactor rods with a gracious amount of concrete (for radioactive insulation) left below the holes.

Workers who either had poor plans or misread them, actually drilled the rod holes completely through to the earth.

This error was “corrected,” not by redoing the base but simply “patching” the problem by filling the holes to the desired depth and continuing from there. A patch is a patch and will eventually need repair. But this is in an inaccessible location after they are finished. Repair later is impossible.

Is this what happened at the Westinghouse plant on Bluff Road? Is this “radioactive leak” the result of “patched” construction just like VC Summer?

How many of those testing the radioactive contamination on Bluff Road live there?

These problems were created by the same company, Westinghouse Electric. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, SC Department of Health & Environmental Control and other officials need an independent investigation of Westinghouse and its practices.

The only way to correct this problem is to dig up the site and contain all the parts. South Carolina does not need to be known as “the radioactive cancer state”.