Arkansas: Nuclear plant fatality and tar sands oil pipeline spill
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About This Interview
The Exxon-operated "Pegasus" oil pipeline ruptured in Mayflower, Ark. over the weekend, threatening local lakes and rivers with heavy "dilbit" crude from Canadian tar sands.
Meanwhile, in Russelville, Ark., a million-pound turbine component at Arkansas Nuclear One fell during a power disruption, killing one worker and seriously wounding four others.
[UPDATE: "Entergy" plant operators now admit EIGHT workers were injured, not four.]
An additional surge sent Unit Two into emergency shutdown, with steam releases to dissipate remanent heat in the reactor core.
ARNIE GUNDERSEN, a former nuclear plant operator and expert witness with Fairewinds Associates, analyses the fatal incident and the vulnerability of aging atomic facilities; and
DAVID LOCHBAUM of the Union of Concerned Scientists provides a national overview of American nuclear policy during his recent address to the NY Academy of Medicine on the consequences of the Fukushima disaster.
