Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 17:39:17 -0400

[ This was read at the hearing ]

To: Kevin Kamps <kevin_at_nirs.org>

CC: OShirani_at_aol.com

Subject: Re: Oscar's testimony to NRC at Indian Point

References: <F843DDD6574AE54384B9A1F257E6B49708A754_at_nirssrv1.NIRS.local>

I am making this presentation on behalf of Oscar Shirani who could not be here tonight. Mr. Shirani is a nuclear engineer who was employed in the nuclear industry for 23 years, including as a senior lead quality assurance auditor before he was fired by Exelon for refusing to look the other way when he found serious safety violations.

Mr. Shirani started with Commonwealth Edison, which was later taken over by Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear utility, as a structural engineer. He has authored numerous publications in technical trade journals, some of which have been used as codes and guidelines by nuclear power plant manufacturers and organizations such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Motor Operated Valve Users Group (MUG), and American  Power Conferences, among others. He has also received numerous honors and awards from ComEd and various trade groups and was often invited to lead national quality assurance trainings for other nuclear industry inspectors. Besides serving as senior lead quality assurance inspector for ComEd/Exelon for most of the 1990s, Mr. Shirani also performed that function for coalitions of nuclear utilities, such as the Nuclear Users Procurement Issues Committee, or NUPIC. Mr. Shirani was selected a number of times by NUPIC to lead quality assurance inspections of Holtec dry casks, which are certified by the NRC to both store and transport irradiated nuclear fuel, or high-level waste, across the country.

Mr. Shirani and his team found so many design, manufacturing, and regulatory code violations with the Holtec dry casks that in May 2000, he issued a Stop Work Order to force the company to correct its faulty practices. He was particularly concerned about defective welds on the casks that would be weakened by heat-related stress. These casks are to be used for storing high-level waste at many of the nation's nuclear power plants -- Including Indian Point. They are also used to transport this intensely radioactive material on the country's rail lines and public roads, where up to 50 million people live within half a mile. Faulty containers increase the likelihood of a nuclear accident at any of those places.

Mr. Shirani was already in trouble with ComEd/Exelon because of an earlier Stop Work Order he issued against General Electric Nuclear Engineering (GENE) because of more than 50 design, safety system, and safety parts violations in GE Boiling Water Reactors, which make up about one-third of the nation's fleet of nuclear power reactors. Instead of supporting him, Exelon stepped up its harassment and eventually fired him. Mr. Shirani's design, manufacturing and safety flaws in the casks as well as attempting to hold GE Nuclear Engineering accountable to public safety was a demotion, a transfer out of the audit department -- his area of expertise -- to the finance department, and finally termination from his job.

Mr. Shirani has continued his efforts to try to get these safety issues with the dry casks resolved by the NRC. Except for one NRC inspector in Region III, he maintains that the agency has not addressed his concerns and that these serious design, manufacturing and regulatory code violations remain unresolved.


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