October, 29 2008, 04:58pm EDT
Kucinich to Investigate Safety of Nuclear Plants
Multiple Close Calls and Recent Radioactivity Release Warrant Scrutiny
WASHINGTON
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, said today that he will direct his staff to investigate safety concerns in nuclear power plants. The investigation follows the latest safety incident at nuclear power plants in Northeast Ohio, the accidentally discovered release of radioactive water at the Davis-Besse Power Plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio last Friday.
In November 2007, the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Lake County, Ohio automatically shut down when two water-cooling pumps malfunctioned and portions of the backup systems failed. In February 2002, a football-sized crater was accidentally discovered in the reactor vessel and experts predicted the plant might have been as close as 60 days away from bursting the slim steel liner that stood in the way of the radioactive release into the air.
Demonstrating that the safety concerns are not restricted to Ohio is a report on the reactor meltdown risk from fire hazards released today by Beyond Nuclear, the North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Fire hazards are found to be the primary but not the only risk. Other hazards include releases of radioactivity that do not involve a full reactor meltdown, such as the underground leak of tritium-contaminated water at Davis-Besse.
"We must make sure proper oversight on these facilities is being performed in order to protect our environment and our health. Today, I have instructed my staff to investigate the safety issues associated with the operation of nuclear power plants because the dangers to the environment and economy are too great to ignore," stated Kucinich.
Dennis Kucinich is an American politician. A U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, he was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2004 and 2008.
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While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
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Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
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Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
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