A Nuclear-Free Lake Michigan?!

Dominion Nuclear permanently shut down its Kewaunee atomic reactor near Green Bay, WI on May 7th. Combined with the permanent shutdowns of Zion 1 & 2 in IL, and Big Rock Point in MI, in the late 1990s, we are halfway to a Nuclear-Free Lake Michigan! But this hopeful vision cannot happen soon enough, as Entergy's problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in MI just spilled 80 gallons of radioactive water into the Great Lake.

Beyond Nuclear shares U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton's (R-MI) outrage at Palisades' latest leak, and joins his call for complete replacement of Palisades' Safety Injection Refueling Water storage tank, which has now been leaking for more than two years, mostly through the ceiling of Palisades' safety-critical control room!

Lake Michigan is the headwaters of the Great Lakes: 20% of the world's surface fresh water; drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations; and the lifeblood for one of the world's single biggest regional economies.

In addition to Palisades, Point Beach 1 & 2 in WI, and Cook 1 & 2 in southwest MI, also still need to be permanently shut down, and their electricity replaced by efficiency and renewables such as wind and solar, in order to protect the safety, purity, and future of the irreplaceable Great Lakes.

But even if all the reactors operating immediately on Lake Michigan's shore are shutdown, there are still four GE BWR Mark Is in IL, and an additional two Mark IIs, that are located not far upwind. The four Mark Is at Dresden and Quad Cities, and the two Mark IIs at LaSalle, are listed in Beyond Nuclear's "Freeze Our Fukushimas" pamphlet.

A large amount of the catastrophic releases of hazardous radioactivity at Fukushima Daiichi initially went into the air, were blown west to east downwind, and fell out over the surface of the Pacific Ocean. The prevailing winds in IL also blow from west to east, that is, from the Mark Is and IIs, toward Lake Michigan.

Entergy Wach: Environmental coalition challenges Entergy's financial qualifications to continue operating FitzPatrick, Pilgrim, and Vermont Yankee

"Burning money" graphic by Gene Case, Avenging AngelsAs reported by E&E's Hannah Northey at Greenwire, an environmental coalition including such groups as Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE), Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Awareness Network (CAN), and Pilgrim Watch, has launched an emergency enforcement petition at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, challenging the financial qualifications of Entergy Nuclear to safely operate and decommission such reactors as FitzPatrick in New York, Pilgrim in Massachusetts, and Vermont Yankee. All three reactors happen to be twin designs to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4, that is, General Electric Mark I boiling water reactors. The coalition's petition cited financial analyses by UBS on Entergy's dire economic straits. Representatives from coalition groups, including Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter, testified today before an NRC Petition Review Board at the agency's headquarters in Rockville, MD. 

More than 2,500 to call on NRC to revoke reactor licenses: Join May 2 call!

Representatives from 24 organizations from across the United States have petitioned the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to revoke the operating license of the General Electric Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors like those at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear site in Japan. More than 2,500 co-petitioners are calling for the emergency closure. The NRC public meeting will be broadcast live in a webcast and toll-free telephone conference call by the agency on Thursday, May 2, 2013 from 1 to 3PM Eastern. 

“Anybody paying attention during the Fukushima disaster knows that if a nuclear accident happens here these same reactor designs very likely will not protect us from radiation releases,” said Paul Gunter, Director of the Reactor Oversight Project for Takoma Park, MD-based Beyond Nuclear. Read the full press release.

NRC to webcast May 2nd public call to close U.S. Fukushima-style reactors

On Thursday, May 2, 2013 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm Eastern Time, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will webcast and telephone conference link its meeting with representatives from communities challenging the continued operation of thirty-one Fukushima-style reactors here in the United States. The groups along with now more than 2,250 co-signers have petitioned the federal agency for the closure of the GE Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors because of the unreliable containment structures that are vulnerable to catastrophic failure during a serious nuclear accident. 

The NRC is meeting with the public Thursday, May 2, 2013, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm (Eastern Time), in the Commissioners’ Hearing Room at NRC Headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. The NRC will provide 300 toll-free telephone lines through 1-888-603-9750 (Passcode 5506147) for the general public and interested media to listen to the groups’ arguments for enforcement action. The NRC will also broadcast the public meeting in a LIVE video webcast .

You can sign-up to be a co-petitioner with the Beyond Nuclear call to revoke the operating license of these dangerous Fukushima-design reactors.

Former NRC Chairman Jaczko calls for all U.S. atomic reactors to be shut down

Gregory Jaczko, who served as U.S. NRC Chairman from 2009-2012As reported by the New York Times, former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko recently came to the realization that all U.S. atomic reactors have unfixable safety flaws, and should be shut down. He added, however, that "new and improved" so-called small modular reactors could take their place.

Jaczko thinks that perhaps none of the reactors that have received NRC rubber-stamps for 20-year license extensions will ever last that long, in reality, let alone an additional 20-year extension NRC is currently flirting with the idea of allowing (40 years of initial operation, plus two 20-year license extensions, adding up to 80 years of operations!).

Oyster Creek, NJ (a GE BWR Mark I) is the oldest still-running reactor in the U.S., although it is already planned to close by 2019, ten years short of its 20-year extension. Dominion Nuclear has also announced the permanent shutdown of Kewaunee in WI next month, although it still have decades of permitted operations on its license.

Ironically, Jaczko himself approved many 20-year license extensions, including at Palisades in MI (opposed by NIRS and a state-wide environmental coalition) and Vermont Yankee (another Mark I, opposed by the vast majority of Green Mountain State residents and elected officials). Jaczko even voted to not hearing Beyond Nuclear's contentions at the Seabrook, NH and Davis-Besse, OH license extension proceedings regarding renewable alternatives, such as wind power, to the 20-year extensions at the dangerously degraded old reactors.

Beyond Nuclear's "Freeze Our Fukushimas" pamphlet lists all 31 GE BWR Mark Is and IIs still operating in the U.S.

Jaczko reached out to Beyond Nuclear in May 2012 to set up a meeting between his entourage from NRC and concerned local residents and environmental group representatives near Palisades after he toured the problem-plagued reactor. During the closed-door meeting, concerned locals pressed Jaczko on why the 42-year-old, dangerously age-degraded reactor was allowed to operate. He responded, ironically enough, given his yes vote on Palisades' license extension in 2007, that once NRC grants an atomic reactor a license to operate, there is little that can then be done about it.

Jaczko did, however, earn the enmity of the nuclear power industry and his fellow NRC Commissioners, as by his past work against the proposed Yucca Mountain dumpsite, his invocation of emergency powers during the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, and his votes against proposed new reactors in GA and SC because Fukushima "lessons learned" had not yet been applied or required. Although Jaczko often voted the industry's way, as above, he didn't always (often the sole dissenting vote), making him "insufficiently pro-nuclear" for the nuclear establishment, as Beyond Nuclear board member and investigative journalist Karl Grossman put it.

Jaczko was first appointed to the NRC Commission in 2005. In 2009, President Obama appointed him the chair the agency, which he did till 2012. He had previously worked on Capitol Hill, as a staffer for U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), and as a science fellow for U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), working on the Yucca Mountain and other nuclear power and radioactive waste issues.