Nuclear Whistleblower: They tried to crush us — Our house was foreclosed on, there was bankruptcy

Gundersen: They tried to crush us — Our house was foreclosed on, there was bankruptcy — We were followed, harassing calls — Got sued for $1.5 million


Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer and former executive of a nuclear power company has a story to tell.

After pointing out some violations at a power plant, he claims to have been systematically ruined.

An article has some revealing insight.


Published: March 7th, 2012 at 2:57 pm ET -- ENEnews

AMY GOODMAN: [...] Arnie Gundersen, your own background, how you came to be a whistleblower? You’re a nuclear engineer. You worked in Connecticut?

ARNIE GUNDERSEN: Yeah, I had — I have a bachelor’s and a master’s in nuclear. I was a licensed reactor operator, was a senior vice president of a nuclear firm. And I discovered some license violations. This is twenty years ago. I told the president about them, president of the company, and he fired me. I then contacted John Glenn and my local senator, Senator John Glenn, about the license violations. And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission came in and found no violations. John Glenn then had the inspector general come in, and they found seven violations and found that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had been taking illegal gratuities from my employer.

Didn’t stop there, though. I was sued for a million-and-a-half dollars by my employer, because I was slandering their reputation by writing to John Glenn. It went on for six years. And at the end, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission refused to do anything, despite what’s called a SLAPP suit, a strategic litigation against public participation. The net result of that was that we, my wife and I, took an out-of-court settlement, because the litigation would have continued on for another five years, and we got on with our lives. And I became a nuclear watchdog. And we moved from Connecticut to Vermont.

Story and Videos


This must be the Vermont Yankee plant, that is possibly going to be shut down


Related Links:
Democracy Now: In Historic Vote, Vermont Poised to Shut Down Lone Nuclear Reactor

Federal judge rules Vermont can’t close nuclear plant — Must remain open though state wants it shut down — Gundersen featured on local news

reply to post by xuenchen

John Glenn then had the inspector general come in, and they found seven violations and found that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had been taking illegal gratuities from my employer.

How dare he "slander" them... Who feels safe having criminals like this in charge of nuclear power plants hmmm?

Freakin messed up world...

reply to post by xuenchen

just follow the money

Energy From Thorium: A Nuclear Waste Burning Liquid Salt Thorium Reactor @ Google Tech Talks
www.youtube.com...

:Frankenstein [monster]: True News: Nuclear Power Exposed! - From Freedomain Radio board.freedomainradio.com...

Because LFTRs operate at atmospheric pressure, they are less likely than conventional pressurized reactors to spew radioactive elements if an accident occurs. In addition, an increase in operating temperature slows down the nuclear chain reaction, inherently stabilizing the reactor. And LFTRs are designed with a salt plug at the bottom that melts if reactor temperatures somehow do rise too high, draining reactor fluid into a containment vessel where it essentially freezes.

It is estimated that 83 percent of LFTR waste products are safe within 10 years, while the remainder needs to be stored for 300 years. Another advantage is that LFTRs can use plutonium and nuclear waste as fuel, transmuting them into much less radioactive and harmful elements, thus eliminating the need for waste storage lasting up to 10,000 years. No commercial thorium reactors currently exist, although China announced a project earlier this year that aims to develop such reactors.

The main problem with energy supply systems is that for the last 100 years, governments have insisted on meddling with them, using subsidies, setting rates, and picking technologies. Consequently, entrepreneurs, consumers, and especially policymakers have no idea which power supply technologies actually provide the best balance between cost-effectiveness and safety. In any case, let’s hope that the current nuclear disaster will not substantially add to the terrible woes the Japanese must bear as a result of nature’s fickle cruelty.

reason.com...





At this point in history, if all government liability loopholes, tax breaks, and subsidies were removed in the energy industry, SOLAR would be the most profitable energy source.

Nuclear, coal and oil plants cost more to build and insure than a couple different varieties of the latest solar plants, and require the purchase of fuel that keeps rising in price. Solar plants cost less to build (at least some of them), and have no future fuel costs, and cost less to insure. Without insurance breaks, nuclear is less profitable that solar. Without subsidies, coal and oil are less profitable than solar. Without government, companies would follow the money to solar.


most of the plants in the states are leaking, then fukushima is blamed to cover it up,
meanwhile the japanese go on with their daily lives without any seeming concern.
hmmmmm....

don't forget the media's links to nuclear power
the following video is banned **COUGH** blocked in some countries just google Conspiracy Rock
youtu.be...


S&F

reply to post by xuenchen


Gundersen was one of the few who consistently brought us news
about Fukishima...and glad he did.Hardly anyone was willing to tell us the truth!


www.youtube.com...

do some research on the nuclear reactor (lol) gunderson was in charge of, all he is in charge of now is maintaining the facade of fukushima fabrication, if arnie isn't talking about it, it can't be happening.
People trust him to tell them the truth, to know what is happening, he is just gate-keeping feeding you what he is told to.

Originally posted by The X
do some research on the nuclear reactor (lol) gunderson was in charge of, all he is in charge of now is maintaining the facade of fukushima fabrication, if arnie isn't talking about it, it can't be happening.
People trust him to tell them the truth, to know what is happening, he is just gate-keeping feeding you what he is told to.

Interesting perception.

In other words, the scapegoat and the shill could be the same person !

Perhaps by creating the illusion of "victim hero" and providing "neutrality" at the same time.

Therefor keeping the "solution" just barely out of reach at all times.

Brilliant actually.

The status quo is never really in jeopardy !

And an illusion-of-truth effect is maintained.

Almost like a reverse Hegelian Dialectic combined with some Delphi Techniques.

Shakespeare said, "You doth protest too much!" meaning if you have to refute something over and over again and defend yourself vigorously, then you're probably guilty of whatever it is you're protesting.

reply to post by DerepentLEstranger


It would seem that Thorium and Solar are viable.

BUT,

They need to get the corruption out of the picture.

As long as the psychopaths are running things, money and greed will rein supreme.

He was the only person I saw speaking out against the "hot particles"

its so amazing they get away with this stuff but yet they dont want iran having nuclear energy and such.hhhhhhhhhh

reply to post by xuenchen


The entire system is backwards.

Our public policy is shaped by career politicians. These politicians obtain their job by convincing (through lies, distortion, or any other means they deem necessary) an ignorant public to put them in office, based off pleas to emotion.

When our system was designed, political aspirants would seek out public office because they cared about their community, and would receive a nomination based on their ideas and their character. Being a politician wasn't lucrative, and it wasn't uncommon to have a separate job to support their family.

These days, it seems the majority of politicians seek only power and fame. Sure they may throw the people a bone here and there, but the majority of their decisions are made with selfish intentions. Our political elite are in bed with the business elite, all of whom have no concept of what a day in the life of 'average Joe' is actually like, and the public is kept in a state of apathetic inebriation through the opinions talking heads and and endless supply of mindless entertainment.

I'm starting to hope the Mayans were right. Maybe if everything comes crashing down, we can rebuild the system into something with a little bit of moral depth.

reply to post by DerepentLEstranger


Similar thing happened to Dr. Alvin Weinberg, former director of the Oak Ridge National Labs, and designer of the first light water reactor. After pointing out that uranium LWRs are inferior in safety to designs such as thorium molten salt reactors, and advocating this route for civilian nuclear power instead, he was fired by the Nixon administration, which irrationaly favored LWRs and liquid metal uranium fast breeders over technically superior LFTRs.
Where could we be now, if we listened to scientists, instead of carreer politicians and lobbyists?

Just wondering whether you can make nuclear weapons out of thorium reactor materials. If not you have the answer to why a lot of governments do not like them as you can not hide the production of nuclear weapons behind them. Their are a lot of technologies that are hidden from the general public that would produce very cheap power but then the elites may not be able to make much money of them. The energy industry must be one of the most corrupt and evil industries in the world at the moment
If the politicians are serious about protecting whistle blowers then if the whistle blower is proven to be correct they must be exempt from prosecution or being sued. People making true provable claims should not be sacked and should be entitle to compensation for wrongful dismissal. It should be an offense for a superior to dismiss their employee for pointing out an illegal activity done by the company or government department and this should include the president.

reply to post by Qspeedyrock


Apparently Thorium can be used for weapons.

Yes you can make nuclear weapons from thorium, as well as from uranium

He said this all happened in CT amd THEN he moved to Vermont.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

From rns.trb.org...

"....structures are comprehensively reviewed by means of physical sounding and/or visual inspection, without any real means to evaluate the condition of the prestressing steel that is internal to the structure. The need for nondestructive and reliable methods for identifying both the magnitude and extent of prestressed tendon corrosion... is essential to improving public safety and optimizing the use of the large inspection budget. There is an urgent need to develop reliable and inexpensive techniques to assess the internal prestressing components. The corrosion of prestressing tendons and an inability to assess their condition has led to a number of structural failures..."

"Most of the recent structural failures on the list did not exhibit signs of distress prior to collapse."

"It appears that corrosion and potential failure of post tensioned structures is more problematic than previously thought."

"A typical investigation of the corrosion of prestressing tendons maybe performed by visual inspection augmented with the use of a bore scope, use of impact echo testing, an evaluation of corrosion potentials, and an assessment of chloride contamination. It is now known that this approach has not always identified ongoing corrosion and has actually provided a false sense of security while tendons continue to corrode."

"Urgency
It is now clear that checking for tendon corrosion is essential to insuring that public safety is met and the condition of the structure can be realized for purposes of evaluating maintenance and repair strategies. It is also clear that there are no national standards as to how to evaluate if tendons are corroded and there is no national standard as to how often this type of inspection should be conducted."

And here's the best part.

From Freyssinet.

Prestressed Concrete In Nuclear Power Stations

Total = 143 Pressured Vessels

Someone tell Arnie.