Glow boldly where no one has gone before.
A "Star Trek"-themed training video made in 2010 at the at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in southern California is causing some heated controversy.
The video, titled "SONGS Trek," features senior employees at the plant dressed as Capt. Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Lt. Uhura with the San Onofre control room simulator sitting in as the deck of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
The video was allegedly made for training purposes for a reported $800 budget to be shown at an employee recognition event, but one unnamed employee who leaked the film to KGTV-TV said he and others felt it was inappropriate.
"Supposedly it was for training," the source told told the station. "How that fits in and how that works for training, your guess is as good as mine."
The video also got low marks from Friends Of The Earth, an environmental activist group that has protested other issues at San Onofre including earlier this month when a photo was published showing a leaky pipe being held together with masking tape, plastic bags and broom handles.
"The video is ridiculous and funny, but it shows how the plant's corporate culture makes light of safety issues," Friends of the Earth spokesperson Kendra Ulrich told The Huffington Post. "It focused on 'Star Trek,' not 'The Simpsons,' but we expected to see Homer Simpson in the background."
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was unaware of the video until KGTV-TV brought it to their attention. After reviewing, NRC spokesman Victor Dricks told The Huffington Post that the video did not violate any protocols.
"There was no safety implication, other than enforcing safety," he said, adding that the video's purpose was to emphasize three-way communication. "That's where an officer requests something, the person responds back saying what the request was and the first person confirms it by repeating it."
"Since it was filmed in a simulator, there was no safety issue."
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