Nuclear Relapse? Canceled! Nuclear power? Game over!

Peter BradfordAs reported by ScienceDaily in an article entitled "U.S. May Face Inevitable Nuclear Power Exit,"  the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) has concluded its three part "Nuclear Exit" series with a look at the United States. The previous two installments examined the nuclear power phase-out in Germany, and the nuclear power status quo in France.

The BAS U.S. coverage features former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner, Union of Concerned Scientists board member, and Vermont Law School professor Peter Bradford's "How to close the U.S. nuclear industry: Do nothing," which concludes that, without massive taxpayer or ratepayer infusions, almost all proposed new reactors will not happen, and currently operating reactors will permanently shutdown by mid-century, unless the NRC rubber-stamps 80 years of operations (as opposed to the current, already risky 60). More.

Attend ANA's annual "DC Days" to help move Congress and the Executive Branch "beyond nuclear"!

Beyond Nuclear is privileged and honored to be a "Banana" -- a member organization of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA, hence the Banana term of endearment), which is celebrating its 25th anniversary of grassroots organizing this year.

ANA's annual DC Days will be held from April 14-17. Your help is needed to help educate U.S. Senate and House offices, as well as officials at the U.S. Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, etc. about the radioactive, financial, and many other risks of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Please consider coming, and bringing friends and colleagues with you! See ANA's announcements below, with links to all the information you need to register.

As but one example, your help is very much needed to stave off a legislative rush towards "centralized interim storage" (regional or national parking lot dumps) for commercial irradiated nuclear fuel. If enacted, this would launch a radioactive waste shell game onto the roads, rails, and waterways, involving unprecedented numbers of shipments through major metropolitan centers and other vulnerable areas. The top targets for "centralized interim storage" parking lot dumps are Savannah River Site, South Carolina and Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, New Mexico, even though both already bear the burden of military radioactive waste dumps. However, despite the inherent environmental injustice, Native American reservations have been targeted for "centralized interim storage" for decades, and are almost certain to be targeted again this time, as well. Nuclear power plants might be targeted as well. Illinois's Dresden nuclear power plant just west of Chicago, for example, and the immediately adjacent General Electric-Morris high-level radioactive waste storage pool, altogether store around 3,000 tons of irradiated nuclear fuel already, and thus could be targeted for more as a regional "consolidated interim storage site."

Hello Bananas!

DC Days planning is going well. We have solidified a space for our awards reception in the Rayburn building and I have successfully updated the DC Days webpage with new information and links to the DC Days registration page.

 

Here is the Organizing Packet for DC Days which includes resources and information to help you get your group to DC Days. Expect a call from me sometime this week to chat about how we can best accommodate your organization/group.

 

Please let me know if you want or need a congressional handbook by replying to this message with your name, organization, and preferred version of the handbook (state or alpha).

 

Register early (at a discounted rate) for DC Days. Click on this link!

 

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or need anything.

 

Thanks,

 

Nicole Hilson

DC Days Coordinator

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

nicolehilson.ana@gmail.com

202.544-0217

DC DAYS 2013

DC Days is Alliance for Nuclear Accountability's annual grassroots lobby event. We bring supporters from across the country to D.C. to meet directly with policy makers. DC Days is a fun and fulfilling event for both new activists and seasoned veterans. ANA's comprehensive training will build your comfort level talking about our issues and our team approach ensures that everyone can play a meaninful role in Congressional meetings.

The agenda for DC Days 2013 will be packed with educational opportunities, advocacy, and social time with other disarmament and environmental activists. 

SUNDAY, April 14th: Orientation/Training

MONDAY - WEDNESDAY, April 15th-17th: Meeting with Members of Congress and key staff of the Obama Administration

MONDAY, April 15th:  Pizza party

TUESDAY, April 16th: Awards Reception

Please book your travel and lodging in advance, as hotels will fill up quickly.

To learn more about the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, please visit our website at www.ananuclear.org, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Fermi 3 Final Environmental Impact Statement incomplete: intervenors reveal major inadequacies; NRC announces major delays in Safety Evaluation Report; major setbacks projected

An artist's rendition of the ESBWR targeted to be built at Fermi 3On Feb. 19, 2013, the environmental coalition intervening in opposition to the construction and operation of Detroit Edison's proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor filed new and amended contentions in response to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Final Environmental Impact Statement about the proposal. The coalition issued a news release.

Documents related to environmental intervenors' filing of Feb. 19, 2013 in opposition to the General Electric-Hitachi so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (or ESBWR, see image, left) proposed to be constructed and operated at the Fermi nuclear power plant in Monroe County, Michigan, on the Lake Erie  shoreline, as well as documents reveal the major schedule delays afflicting the project:

Intervenors' Feb. 19, 2013 "MOTION FOR RESUBMISSION OF CONTENTIONS 3 AND 13, FOR RESUBMISSION OF CONTENTION 23 OR ITS ADMISSION AS A NEW CONTENTION, AND FOR ADMISSION OF NEW CONTENTIONS 26 AND 27";

Current Fermi 3 COLA Review Schedule (Feb. 15, 2013), showing 2 years and 10 month of delay;

Original Fermi 3 Schedule (June 30, 2009).

Palisades updates: Wed., Feb. 27 & Sat., March 2 org'l mtgs in Kzoo & South Haven; April 11 David Lochbaum/UCS talks in west MI

Beyond Nuclear hopes you can attend the following meetings and presentations:

1. Wed., Feb. 27 organizing meeting at Kalamazoo Public Library in downtown Kalamazoo, 6-8 PM

2. Sat., March 2 organizing meeting at South Haven Memorial Library, 1-3 PM

3. Thurs., April 11 presentation, 12 Noon to 1:30 PM, at WMU's Bernhard Ctr., Kzoo, "Preventing an American Fukushima," David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists

4. Thurs., April 11 presentation, 7-9 PM, at the Beach Haven Even Ctr. in South Haven, "Preventing an American Fukushima," David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists

Please see below for more information on each of these activities.

We have to permanently shutdown Palisades, before it melts down. Please spread the word, forward this announcement, and post the linked flyers (below) in public places. Thanks.

---Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, (240) 462-3216

1. Wed., Feb. 27 organizing meeting in Kalamazoo

As the Kalamazoo Gazette has reported, on Wed., Feb. 27, from 6 to 8 PM Eastern, a special town hall meeting about Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor will take place at the Kalamazoo Public Library's downtown location (315 S. Rose St., Kal., MI 49007), on the 3rd floor in the Van Deusen Room. 

Beyond Nuclear, as well as local organizers, invite the public to learn more about the current situation at Palisades, to brainstorm strategies towards the reactor's permanent shutdown, and to address radioactive waste issues. Organizers state that Palisades is old, unsafe and must be shutdown. They also state that this 45-year-old atomic reactor, just south of South Haven in Covert on Lake Michigan, is within the 50-mile radiation zone for areas, including Kalamazoo, to experience health effects from catastrophic radioactivity releases during an accident!  "We want to prevent another Fukushima Daiichi in Japan from occurring here," say organizers. The organizers invite the public to "Join with your neighbors to organize a new group working for a safe, sustainable energy future!"

For more information, please contact Iris Potter at (269) 271-4342, Catherine Sugas at (269) 692-2827, or Kevin Kamps/Beyond Nuclear at (240) 462-3216. 

 
2. Sat., March 2 organizing meeting in South Haven

As described on the flyer posted at Beyond Nuclear's website, "Organizing to Avoid the Next Fukushima," a similar meeting will take place in South Haven on Sat., March 2, from 1 to 3 PM Eastern at the South Haven Memorial Library, 314 Broadway St., South Haven, MI 49090.

For more information about this meeting, please contact Bette Pierman at (269) 369-3993, or Kevin Kamps/Beyond Nuclear at (240) 462-3216.

3. Thurs., April 11 David Lochbaum/Union of Concerned Scientists presentation at WMU in Kzoo

As described on the flyer posted at Beyond Nuclear's website, David Lochbaum, Nuclear Safety Project Director at Union of Concerned Scientists, will present on"Preventing an American Fukushima: Safety Concerns at Palisades" on Thurs., April 11, from 12 Noon to 1:30 PM Eastern, at Western Michigan University's Bernhard Center (Student Union), in Rooms 157-159. Admission is free, and open to the public. Doors will open and refreshments will be served beginning at 11:30 AM.

 Bernhard Center is located in the heart of WMU's campus at 1903 W. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, MI 49008. Directions to Bernhard Center can be found here. An interactive campus map with information about where to park can be found here.

This event is co-sponsored by Beyond Nuclear and Kalamazoo Peace Center. For more info., contact Kevin Kamps/Beyond Nuclear at (240) 462-3216 or kevin@beyondnuclear.org, or Jessica Clark/Kalamazoo Peace Center at (616) 298-9318 or Jessica@kzoopeacecenter.org.

Dave Lochbaum is one of the nation’s top independent nuclear power experts. As director of UCS’s Nuclear Safety Project, he monitors ongoing safety issues at U.S. reactors, testifies before Congress and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and provides informed analysis of nuclear plant conditions and incidents, such as the March 2011 crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in Japan.

A nuclear engineer by training, Mr. Lochbaum worked at nuclear power plants for 17 years, including many similar to the General Electric reactors at the Fukushima plant. He left the industry in the early 1990s after blowing the whistle on unsafe practices and joined UCS in 1996. He left UCS in 2009 to work for the NRC as a reactor technology instructor and returned to his post at UCS a year later.

Mr. Lochbaum has authored numerous reports, including The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety in 2010, the first in a series of reports he plans to produce annually. Over the years he has been cited thousands of times by a wide range of news organizations, including the Boston Globe, Business Week, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Time, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CBS, CNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox, Fox Business, MSNBC, NBC and NPR.

4. Thurs., April 11 Lochbaum/UCS presentation in South Haven

As described on the flyer posted at Beyond Nuclear's website, David Lochbaum, Nuclear Safety Project Director at Union of Concerned Scientists, will present on "Preventing an American Fukushima: Safety Concerns at Palisades" on Thurs., April 11, from 7-9 PM Eastern, at the Beach Haven Event Center, located at 10420 M-140, South Haven Charter Township, MI 49090. Admission is free, and open to the public. Doors will open and refreshments will be served beginning at 6:30 PM.

This event is co-sponsored by Union of Concerned Scientists and Beyond Nuclear. Please contact Kevin Kamps for more information, (240) 462-3216.

Please click here for more information about the Beach Haven Event Center, including directions.

David Lochbaum has long watchdogged the Palisades atomic reactor (as well as the Cook nuclear power plant, 30 miles further south in Bridgman, MI, also on the Lake Michigan shoreline). In March 2011, Lochbaum published his annual report, entitled "Living on Borrowed Time: The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety in 2011." In it, he documented the 15 nearest-misses at U.S. atomic reactors during the preceding year. Two of these occurred at Palisades. A total of five -- one-third of those documented nationally -- took place at Entergy Nuclear reactors across the country (two at Palisades; two at Pilgrim near Boston; and one at Cooper in Nebraska; the latter two nuclear power plants are General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors -- twin designs to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4). During his April 11 presentations in west MI, Lochbaum will address findings from his 2013 update on his annual nuclear safety report.

Lochbaum provided commentary in 2012 about the safety significance of a water leak into Palisades' control room, which had been ongoing for over a year. He pointed out that if water can get into the control room, so can air -- which, during a radiological emergency, could contain radioactivity that would put control room operators at risk (and thus further undermine reactor safety).

Last December, Lochbaum compared safety lapses at Palisades in 2012 to the closest call to a major nuclear disaster in the U.S. since the 1979 Three Mile Island meltdown, namely the Davis-Besse, Ohio 2002 "Hole-in-the-Head" reactor lid corrosion fiasco. Lochbaum's wry "Fission Stories" comprise a regular contribution to UCS's blog, "All Things Nuclear."  

In 2010, Lochbaum documented 40 years (1972 to 2010) of safety-significant control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) seal leaks at Palisades, a chronic problem uniquely bad at Palisades as compared to the rest of  the nuclear power industry. His report is entitled "Headaches at Palisades: Broken Seals and Failed Heals." His report also documented a 2001 through-wall CRDM leak at Palisades, which was repeated in August, 2012.

Last but certainly not least in terms of safety significance, Palisades has sprung yet another leak, forcing the reactor to shutdown yet again. This time, it's the safety-significant component cooling water system. The leak had been underway for 11 days before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Entergy Nuclear made it known to the public. See Beyond Nuclear's website posting for more information, including links to media coverage. 

Also, a Michigan man has been sentenced by a federal judge in Kalamazoo to five years in prison, after he was convicted of providing false reports to the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service. One bomb plot hoax involved Palisades. The judge stated at sentencing "the false reports required both the FBI and USMS to waste time and resources conducting extensive investigations of what, if true, would have been extremely serious plots." A series of major security breaches have been documented at Palisades for more than a decade. See Beyond Nuclear's website posting for more information, including a link to media coverage.

Entergy Watch: FitzPatrick, Indian Point, Palisades, Pilgrim, Vermont Yankee

FitzPatrick

As Reuters reports, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has increased oversight and inspections at Entergy's upstate New York reactor (a Fukushima Daiichi twin, GE Mark I), after degrading its safety status:

"At FitzPatrick, the NRC is concerned about the number of unplanned power changes per 7,000 hours of operation, the agency said.

If the number exceeds six during the period, the indicator moves from 'green' to 'white' and the NRC steps up oversight. FitzPatrick's rolling average was tallied at 6.5 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012."

FitzPatrick's immediate neighbor nuke, Nine Mile Point Unit 1, owned by Constellation/Exelon, is likewise in hot water with NRC.

Indian Point

Lowhud.com has reported that the population in the 10-mile emergency planning zone surrounding Indian Point's twin reactors increased by 4.3% between 2000 and 2010, and that a new report commissioned by Entergy estimates it would take 5 hours and 25 minutes to evacuate 90% of those residents during a radiological disaster.

As the article reports:

'Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, last week panned the overall plan during a visit to the plant with NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane. She said more of the same in a statement Thursday.

“In the 40 years since Indian Point was built, the population in the Lower Hudson Valley has grown to such an extent that a facility like Indian Point would never be built there today,” she said. “It is clear that in the case of an emergency at the facility, a safe, speedy evacuation of the surrounding area would be nearly impossible.”'

The article also reports: 'Phillip Musegaas of Riverkeeper, a longtime Indian Point foe, said he planned to review the new report. He said Riverkeeper has “longstanding, major concerns about emergency planning” for Indian Point, including the Tappan Zee Bridge, often a traffic bottleneck, being overlooked because it is outside the 10-mile zone.'

Lohud.com also reported that NRC and Entergy admitted workers unwittingly drained Indian Point's steam generators, mistakenly forcing an unplanned reactor shutdown. 

In a recent UBS Financial analysis, Indian Point's future -- or lack thereof -- was discussed, in light of challenges by environmental groups such as Riverkeeper and Clearwater, as well as the State of New York Attorney General's Office, against the 20-year license extension sought by Entergy. For one thing, the State of NY's environmental agency is demanding Indian Point install cooling towers, to decrease the harmful thermal heat discharges the reactors pour into the Hudson River on a continual basis. The price tag? Hundreds of millions of dollars.

Palisades

Palisades' latest "leak per week," which has yet again shut the reactor down, involves the safety-significant component cooling water system. Apparently, the leak had been going on for at least 11 days, before NRC or Entergy got around to informing the public. But this is nothing new -- Entergy and NRC kept the public -- and even NRC's own chairman, during his tour of Palisades! -- in the dark about a leak into the safety-critical control room (full of electrical circuitry and equipment which must remain dry at all times) for over a year, until courageous whistleblowers, their attorney Billie Pirner Garde, and U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) brought it to light.

Last month, a man in Michigan was sentenced to five years in prison for making false reports to the FBI and U.S. Marshall's Service about bomb plots, including against Palisades. While delivering his sentencing decision, a federal judge in Kalamazoo, less than 40 miles downwind of Palisades, stated "the false reports required both the FBI and USMS to waste time and resources conducting extensive investigations of what, if true, would have been extremely serious plots." (emphasis added)

There are lots of activities in west Michigan regarding Palisades. On Wed., Feb. 27th a grassroots organizing meeting will take place in Kalamazoo. On Sat., March 2nd, a grassroots organizing meeting will take place in South Haven. David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists' Nuclear Safety Project Director will speak in both Kalamazoo and South Haven on Thurs., April 11th on "Preventing an American Fukushima." Beyond Nuclear has posted an announcement page on its website, with more details about all these events.

Pilgrim

Wicked Local Bourne reports that local residents are campaigning to get ballot questions included for upcoming area town meetings, asking whether Pilgrim should be allowed to continue to operate, given the impossibility of evacuating Cape Cod downwinders in the event of a catastrophic radioactivity release from the Fukushima Daiichi twin (a GE Mark I). While the ballot question is on in Harwich and Dennis, Bourne Selectmen are forcing the campaigners to get a full 10% of the town's residents to sign a petition before placing the question on the ballot.

As previously reported by Wicked Local Bourne, Bourne and Sandwich "have pressed Entergy and Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency officials to include both towns in Pilgrim nuclear-evacuation planning, with marginal success this winter." Regarding the Pilgrim shutdown ballot initiative, the article reports "[t]he petition was filed by Margaret Stevens of Pocasset, a member of the Pilgrim Anti-Nuclear Action of Occupy Falmouth."

The Cape Cod Times has also reported on Cape Downwinders' efforts to get the ballot question asked at upcoming town meetings.

Meanwhile, the Plymouth Patch has reported that the Pilgrim 14, protestors arrested last May while delivering a letter to Entergy calling for the reactor's shutdown, are set for their day in court, on March 18, to face trespassing charges. In a blog post, Cape Downwinders introduces the Pilgrim 14 (including a photo from their arraignment hearing), and confirms they will introduce a "necessity defense" of "competing harms" to justify their trespass while attempting to seek Pilgrim's shutdown.

Lohud.com has reported that the population in the 10-mile emergency planning zone around Pilgrim increased by 8% between 2000 and 2010, and that an evacuation of 90% of that local population -- blocked to the east by the Pacific Ocean -- would take 3.5 hours. Many residents on Cape Cod and nearby islands would be ordered to "shelter in place" during a radiological emergency, due to the impossibility of evacuation. 

As reported by the Cape Cod Times, after being shutdown for more than a week due to Winter Storm Nemo, Pilgrim has returned to full power operations. Pilgrim relied on its emergency diesel generators on two separate occassions during the past week to run safety and cooling systems, due to problems with the off-site electric grid. U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) documented in May 2011, shortly after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe began, that U.S. reactors have experienced 74 instances of emergency diesel generator failure in just the past decade or so.

Cap Cod Bay Watch published an op-ed in the Wicked Local Plymouth about the risks of high-level radioactive waste stored at Pilgrim.

Vermont Yankee

WCAX-TV, Vermont Business Magazine, and the Burlington Free Press have reported that Entergy is planning to replace a third of the irradiated nuclear fuel in Vermont Yankee's (VY) core this spring, as it plans to run the reactor until 2032. This, despite the State of Vermont's and environmental groups' challenges to the NRC's 20-year license extension, including in ongoing federal and state court proceedings. The Vermont Public Service Board is also still considering whether or not to grant Entergy a needed Certificate of Public Good for doing business in the state, the denial of which could force the shutdown of VY. Entergy's confidence about running VY for two more decades also contradicts UBS Financial analysts, who have predicted VY could permanently close yet this year.

As reported by the Times Argus, Entergy's executives and lawyers are now arguing before the PSB that VY's cooling tower collapses in 2007 and 2008, as well as its tritium leaks beginning in 2009, are precluded from any state regulatory consideration, due to NRC's sole purview over radiological safety. However, Entergy seems to be extending that federal safety preemption far beyond what even the U.S. Supreme Court intended in its 1983 PG&E ruling, even into areas such as the tourism and recreation economies.

Entergy's vice president for external affairs, T. Michael Twomey, "raised eyebrows" more than once, as when he stated "Honestly, we don't want to go to court," and when he said "We didn’t bargain for legislative action.” Entergy has hired four law firms to defend itself in the PSB proceeding, and has filed multiple lawsuits against the State of Vermont and its officials in federal and state courts of law. And that Entergy was surprised by the State of Vermont Senate's 26 to 4 vote to block VY's 20-year license extension is itself surprising. As shown in Richard Watts' book Public Meltdown, Vermont has a long history of direct democracy, and citizens of the Green Mountain State do no like to be lied to by out-of-state corporations.

The Rutland Herald also reported on Entergy's bizarre arguments before the PSB.