CBS Investigates Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant

JULY 19, 2011

The CBS Early Morning Show had a lengthy feature on July 19, 2011 (video below) on the problems at the nuclear power plants run by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the inadequate oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The segment featured Ann Harris, a client of Bernabei & Kabat, and a former TVA whistleblower at the Tennessee Valley Authority, who discussed the long history of problems discovered by whistleblowers at TVA’s Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant.

“Basically the books are being cooked. People are saying things, they swear under oath it’s been done, and it hadn’t been done,” says Harris in the story.

As a result of inspections conducted in response to the Fukushima earthquake disaster in Japan, the NRC recently issued a report that identified numerous safety problems at Watts Bar, yet the NRC allowed the TVA to continue operating that plant.

This CBS show is part 1 of a 2 part series; the second part will be broadcast on the morning of July 20. The Tennessean, a major newspaper in Nashville, also published an article on Ann Harris, the NRC’s findings at Watts Bar, and the NRC’s failure to take meaningful action.