Word: betancourt
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most important one failed. Instead, the company had analyzed the loss of a far less critical system. The report was worthless, the NRC hadn't noticed, and the consequences could be dire. If Millstone lost its primary cooling system while the full core was in the pool, Galatis told Betancourt, the backup systems might not handle the heat. "The pool could boil," he said. "We'd better report this...
...Betancourt saw that Galatis was right. "But you do that," he said, "and you're dogmeat...
Galatis knew what he meant. Once a leading nuclear utility, Northeast had earned a reputation as a rogue--cutting corners and, according to critics, harassing and firing employees who raised safety concerns. But if Galatis wanted to take on the issue, Betancourt told him, "I'll back...
...adding other concerns he had found, such as the fact that some of the pool's cooling pipes weren't designed to withstand an earthquake, as they were required to do. Northeast sat on the memo for three months, until Galatis filed an internal notice-of- violation form, and Betancourt, a leader in the spent-fuel field for years, wrote a memo backing...
...When I started in the industry, 20 years ago," Betancourt says, "spent fuel was considered the ass end of the fuel cycle. No one wanted to touch it. Everyone wanted to be on the sexy side, inside the reactor vessel, where the action and danger were. No one noticed fuel pools until we started running out of room in them...