nuclear regulatory commission was reported back in 1990 as not managing counterfeit and substandard parts. and so the report from the oig now in 2011 is disturbing because it s back harkening back on the faults and failures of the agency to capture substandard parts again. let me ask you about this. i m worried about the profit motive. if you make shoddy sweaters, i go to a different manufacturer to get my sweaters. that s capitalism. no problem. but if you try to cut corners at a nuclear plant, it seems that that could be disastrous. is there any indication of that at plants in the u.s.? absolutely. there s been a constant tug of war between production margins and safety margins and we ve had a number of close calls
the san andres fault is safe, i think that should raise questions right there. when we re told that production margins are not the priority, we should look at the nuclear power station just outside of toledo, ohio. both the nuclear regulatory commission and first energy nuclear basically allowed corrosion through boric acid leaking out of that reactor for years to eat through 6 3/4 inches of steal down to 3/16 of an inch of a terrible accident that would have blown the reactor out into the containment and challenged that containment system and, you though, they had rust, pictures of rust flowing off the top of the reactor vessel head when the plant was allowed to go back online for two years. and they had those inspections so they have been setting aside.