The recent devastating flash floods on July 4th in Texas resulting in 100+ deaths are causing people to ask who’s to blame for the lack of warnings and emergency preparedness. Did budget and staffing cuts to federal, state, and local government initiatives and programs contribute? I also wonder who will we be blaming when the next nuclear accident occurs?
We’ve all heard about major accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. However, there are many more near-miss events, accidents and disasters that have not been so widely reported for the entire nuclear fuel cycle. Just ask people living on the Navajo Reservation and other Native American lands subjected to uranium mines and mills. Working as a nuclear regulator starting over 45 years ago and currently seeing the dismantling of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, never have I been as alarmed and fearful of the potential for a nuclear accident and if we would even be told the truth that we might be able to protect ourselves - like the girls and counselors at Mystic Camp that were washed away in the middle of the night or required rescue without effective warning to escape.
The cover photo taken by Greg Webb with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shows the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi under repair after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the link describes their role in emergency preparedness and disaster mitigation.
When the next accident occurs there will be lots of accusations and plenty of blame to go around. To varying degrees, everyone involved including industry, government, and the users of utility-based electricity including the internet will have some role in causing the predictable disaster. The acceleration of technology including artificial intelligence (AI) is greatly increasing the demand for data centers, transmission grids, and new nuclear power generation worldwide. The International Energy Agency predicts electric data center consumption will double in five years. At the same time, industry is developing dozens of new different designs for advanced small modular reactors while governments, pushed by industry, are trying to eliminate regulatory oversight. “Haste Makes Waste” said Benjamin Franklin.
Here are some of my recent blogs, showing posting date and updates, describing these topics in more detail:
April to July 2025 PIRACY: DUMPING RADIOACTIVE REGULATIONS
May 2025 SHOULD AMERICA'S ONLY NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY STAY OPEN?
February 2025 DR. MAHMOUD SHERIF
January 2025 YESTERDAY AND TODAY
September 2024 to June 2025 EFFICIENT NUKE LICENSING
November 2023 SAYOMARA CFPP
December 2022 NEWS ON U.S. URANIUM MILLS IMPACTING GROUNDWATER
May 2022 NUCLEAR PLANT COMMUNITY AND CONTACTS
June 2019 ELECTRICITY GRID CYBER INSECURITY
I posted a series of blogs in 2019, just after retiring from the federal government, to explain my experience with the nuclear fuel cycle and provide examples of mitigating nuclear hazards:
Despite best intentions, there will be future nuclear accidents that could range from minor to catastrophic. Much can be done to prepare and promote awareness. Living only three miles away from a nuclear power station, I need to become even more proactive and will share ideas in coming blogs for nuclear emergency preparedness.