NRC told labs to “knock it off” on Fukushima testing and public comment

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff had a meeting on March 12, 2011. United States National Laboratories (these labs include Brookhaven, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, etc.) were contacting them about analyzing Fukushima data and wanting to help. The NRC staff discusses in this transcript telling the labs to “back off” and “knock it off” because “the last thing we want is the labs going off, talking to the press, talking about consequences and all sorts of other stuff.”

Title: NRC worried about US National Labs “chomping at the bit” to help with Fukushima Radiation analysis – Call lab directors and say “Knock it off”
Source: Enformable
Date: Feb 28, 2012

JAPAN’S FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI ET AUDIO FILE http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1205/ML12052A100.pdf
Nuclear Regulatory CommissionSaturday, March 12, 2011

MR. SHARON: This is Brian Sharon. Quick question, well, not question, but I’ve gotten a couple of emails here today, from some of the National Labs, and they’re all — there are a couple of them chomping a the bit, you know, saying, “Ghee, can we help? Ghee, can we go calculate this,” with the codes and all that stuff.
I keep telling them, “No, you don’t know the scenario,” but you know, somebody might want to call DOE and tell them to tell their labs to cool it, because the last thing we want is the labs going off, talking to the press, talking about consequences and all sorts of other stuff, because you know, they’re chomping at the bit, to do something, and I’m not sure, Eliot, maybe you’ve got a point of contact up there at DOE?

MR. BRENNER: I’ll send a note to their Press Secretary, asking him, through his chain, to reach out, down to the labs and tell them to back off. If we’ve got other chains, we might as well –

MALE PARTICIPANT: If I could chime in on that? On the Deputy’s call yesterday, I was on with the Chairman, and Pete Lyons was one of the principals at DOE. Lyons may be a good source to contact at DOE.

MR. JOHNSON: This is Mike Johnson. My other thought was, it may be just to cut to the chase, just to pass the same, to call the lab directors and say, “Knock it off,” or whatever messages we want to get to them.
There are a number of ways we can do this.
So, I agree, Brian, we’ve got to do it soon.

MR. McDERMOTT: Okay, we’ll take that action from headquarters.

Originally posted here
http://enformable.com/2012/02/nrc-worried-about-us-national-labs-chomping-at-the-bit-to-help-with-fukushima-radiation-analysis-call-lab-directors-and-say-knock-it-off/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Enformable+%28Enformable%29

This article was also posted at http://enenews.com/nrc-weve-stop-labs-testing-fukushima-radiation-directors-knock-doe-cool-worried-about-talking-press-about-consequences and has some informative public comments

By the way, Brian Sharon, what is the “scenario”?

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