Engineer guilty of hiding nuclear plant damage

[Judi Lynn]

Source: MSNBC/Associated Press

Engineer guilty of hiding nuclear plant damage
Man hid worst corrosion found at U.S. reactor; second defendant acquitted
Updated: 6:28 p.m. ET Oct. 30, 2007

TOLEDO, Ohio - A federal jury convicted a former nuclear plant worker Tuesday of concealing the worst corrosion ever found at a U.S. reactor. A second defendant was acquitted.

David Geisen, the Davis-Besse plant’s former engineering design manager, was accused of misleading regulators into believing the plant along Lake Erie was safe. He faces as much as five years in prison.

Private contractor Rodney Cook was acquitted by the same federal jury.
(snip)

Prosecutors said the men lied in fall 2001 so the plant could delay a shutdown for a safety inspection. Months later, inspectors found an acid leak that had nearly eaten through the reactor’s 6-inch-thick steel cap. It’s not clear how close the plant was to an accident.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21550374/

[sailor65]

1. That plant is only 100 miles from home

we pass it often.

:wow:

[kestrel91316]

2. Countdown begins - waiting any minute now for the post that

sputters and spews and shrieks and calls names and so forth: "Dangerous fossil fuels!!!1!! Dangerous fossil fuels!!!1!1!!!11!"

Our friend is SOOOOO predictable.

[AdHocSolver]

3. Why no more nuclear plants: maximizing profit at expense of safety and covering up mistakes. n/t

[MadHound]

4. If the true extent of this was known, we would all be horrified

And demanding that every single plant be shut down. The nasty little truth is that for reasons of profit, nuclear plant owners are trying to flog the last bit of life out of an aging fleet of nuclear reactors. Corrosion, leaks, foundation cracks, all this and more is being hushed up or glossed over. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, there is going to be a major accident that will shock and horrify us unless these aging reactors are shut down.

[Nihil]

5. No, you "all" wouldn't ...

... any more than you "all" aren't horrified at the atrocities in Iraq,
you "all" aren't horrified about the cover-ups & incompetence in your
administration and you "all" aren't horrified at the prospect of yet
another pre-decided election.

Only a frighteningly small minority of "you all" actually bothers to read
the news, actually has the intelligence to understand it and actually has
the vitality to do something about problems. The rest of "you all" just
press the remote to switch channels until you get to more mind-numbing pap
that avoids "you all" from having to think.

MadHound, you are in that minority and you might well be shocked & horrified
at future events but you should not overestimate the attention span of your
fellow Americans.