Decommissioning

Although it is imperative that we shut down nuclear plants, they remain dangerous, and expensive even when closed. Radioactive inventories remain present on the site and decommissioning costs have been skyrocketing, presenting the real danger that utilities will not be able to afford to properly shut down and clean up non-operating reactor sites.

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Entries from January 1, 2020 - January 31, 2020

Friday
Jan242020

NRC webinar, February 5th, re: atomic reactor Decommissioning Trust Funds

Webinar February 5th on Decommissioning Trust Funds
02/05/20
12:30PM -
2:30PM

Meeting info
Present NRC findings of power reactor decommissioning trust funds and financial assurance due to changes in decommissioning business models  [more...]

Participation: Category 3
Friday
Jan242020

NY State AG: 'Grave concerns' over Indian Point nuclear plant decommissioning [by Holtec]

Thursday
Jan232020

Is the company poised to decommission Indian Point too radioactive?

So asks WNYC, regarding Holtec International's proposal to take over the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, upstream of New York City on the Hudson River, in order to dismantle the reactors after they close in the next two years, clean up the severe radioactive contamination, and manage vast quantities of high-level radioactive waste stored on-site there.

As reported by the USA Today Network, many local residents deeply distrust Holtec because of the many skeletons in its closet.

Holtec's Canadian decommissioning partner, SNC-Lavalin, has many skeletons in its closet as well, including the company recently pleading guilty to fraud, being fined $280 million, and placed on a three year probation; a former executive was just convicted of fraud and corruption, and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.

How can this consortium be trusted with more than $2 billion in the decommissioning trust fund at Indian Point?

How can Holtec be trusted to safely transport irradiated nuclear fuel from U.S. reactors like Indian Point, across the country, to its proposed consolidated interim storage facility in New Mexico?

How can Holtec be trusted to operate the CISF safely?

Beyond Nuclear is part of a broad coalition actively resisting Holtec's CISF licensing by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Unlikely allies in this fight -- Fasken Oil and Ranch, and Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners -- just filed a major legal motion opposed to Holtec's CISF with the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.

Learn what you can do to help stop Holtec's de facto permanent, surface storage, "parking lot dump" in New Mexico, and the 10,000 Mobile Chernobyls, Dirty Bombs on Wheels, Floating Fukushimas, and Mobile X-ray Machines That Can't Be Turned Off that its opening would launch through most states.

Learn more about centralized storage, Yucca Mountain, and waste transportation, at our website.

Friday
Jan172020

Amicus Brief from 12 State Attorneys General, in support of MA AG, challening NRC's approval of Holtec takeover at Pilgrim

MEMORANDUM OF LAW FOR THE STATES OF NEW YORK, CONNECTICUT, ILLINOIS, IOWA, MARYLAND, MICHIGAN, MINNESOTA, NEW JERSEY, NEW MEXICO, OREGON, PENNSYLVANIA, AND VERMONT AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONER AND IN OPPOSITION TO THE MOTIONS TO DISMISS

re: COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, Petitioner, v. U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondents, HOLTEC DECOMMISSIONING INTERNATIONAL, LLC, et al., Intervenors

before the UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

See the 48 page Memorandum posted here.

Wednesday
Jan152020

Is The Company Poised To Dismantle Indian Point Too Radioactive?

As reported by WNYC.

For additional background information about Holtec International and SNC-Lavalin, see Beyond Nuclear's respective "skeletons in the closet" annotated bibliographies, provided at the hot links.

In addition to its bid to acquire the Indian Point NY nuclear power plant for decommissioning and irradiated nuclear fuel management purposes, Holtec (and its partner SNC-Lavalin) has already gotten U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to take over the Oyster Creek NJ and Pilgrim MA atomic reactor sites for such purposes. As reported in WNYC's story, the latter scheme has been challenged in court by the MA Attorney General. Holtec and SNC-Lavalin are also eyeing takeovers of the Palisades MI and Big Rock Point MI atomic reactor sites.

Holtec has also applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to construct and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for 173,600 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico. This would involve thousands of road, rail, and/or waterway shipments of high risk, high-level radioactive waste, through most states, over the course of decades.