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Just one day after the country celebrated the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Tuesday rejected concerns over racial discrimination around a proposal to build a nuclear reactor in a poor Mississippi community of color. The commission denied an appeal submitted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Claiborne County, Mississippi chapter, Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), Public Citizen and Sierra Club of Mississippi that showed how the proposed construction of additional reactors on the current Grand Gulf site in Port Gibson would result in racial discrimination. The application for an Early Site Permit, filed by Entergy, owner of Grand Gulf, would double the risk but provide no substantial benefit to a minority population already ill equipped to cope with the environmental and health consequences of a nuclear accident, sabotage or routine radioactive releases. “NRC once again has bowed to its master – the nuclear industry – to pave the way for construction in an area where they expect the least resistance,” said A.C. Garner, spokesperson for the NAACP Claiborne County Chapter. “This decision amounts to posting a ‘WHITES ONLY’ sign on the hearing room door,” he added. Claiborne County is 84% African American with 32.4% of the population living below the poverty line. [more]