"Cyber war" threatens nuclear facilities

Public Radio International's The World has reported that the U.S. military now recognizes "cyber war" as the "new fifth domain of war between states, after air, land, sea and outer space." It reported "the humanitarian consequences of a cyber attack could include damage to infrastructure like power grids and toxic waste facilities," which could, of course, include atomic reactors and high-level radioactive waste storage pools. Bennett Ramberg warned more than 25 years ago that reactors and radioactive waste could be targeted during war, in his book Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy: An Unrecognized Military Peril. The Stuxnet computer worm, targeted at the Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, is rumored to have been launched by the U.S. and/or Israeli militaries, although no radioactivity releases to the environment from the resulting damage were reported.

NRC approves Davis-Besse re-start despite lingering questions about cracked shield building

At 4:41 p.m. on Friday afternoon -- a traditional time to try to sneak controversial news past the public -- December 2, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) publicly announced its decision to allow the Davis-Besse atomic reactor to re-start, despite lingering questions about its cracked shield building. NRC did so with a press release, and an attached Confirmatory Action Letter addressed to FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company.

The Toledo Blade reported on this story. It quoted Michael Keegan of Don't Waste Michigan:

"Michael Keegan, one of several critics who have intervened in the re-licensing proceedings, called the Confirmatory Action Letter 'a big fat nothing' and repeated his doubts about the wisdom of re-starting Davis-Besse.

The NRC’s re-start approval, he said, is 'a promise to kick the can down the road and roll the dice one more time. The concept of ‘Use As Is,’ when it comes to operating a nuclear power plant, is a risky proposition.' "

Beyond Nuclear, along with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, has won standing and admission of several contentions against the 20 year license extension sought by FENOC for Davis-Besse. Terry Lodge of Toledo serves as the environmental coalition's attorney. Al Compaan, emeritus chair of the University of Toledo physics department, serves as the coalition's expert witness. A year ago, Beyond Nuclear published a backgrounder on the many close calls with disaster Davis-Besse has experienced in the past 35 years of operations.

Update on December 4, 2011 by admin

NRC inspector examines cracks in Davis-Besse shield buildingOn Nov. 21st, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) wrote NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko, putting forth a technical theory that could explain Davis-Besse's concrete shield building cracking, and calling for a public hearing on this vital safety issue before the atomic reactor is allowed to re-start. Kucinich wrote a related op-ed in the Toledo Blade.

The shield building is supposed to protect the reactor within from such threats as tornadoes. In June 1998, a tornado scored a direct hit on Davis-Besse, passing between the shield building and the cooling tower, knocking out the primary electrical grid, and causing a near-disaster when the back up emergency diesel generators didn't work properly. An NRC ordered study from 1982 (ironically entitled "CRAC-2") reported that a major radioactive release at Davis-Besse could cause 1,400 "peak early fatalities," 73,000 "peak early injuries," 10,000 peak cancer deaths," and $84 billion in property damage [$185 billion when adjusted for inflation].

Update on December 4, 2011 by admin

On November 4th, David Lochbaum, Director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission with questions regarding the cracking in the Davis-Besse shield building walls. He asked NRC to treat the questions as allegations, if they were unable to answer them before approving Davis-Besse's re-start.

What Do You Know About Nuclear Energy? Let's Learn Together! New York City, Dec. 7th

Yuko Tanaka of the NY Women's Network will host a "Learn from 3/11" event, entitled "What Do You Know About Nuclear Energy? Let's Learn Together!" on Wed., Dec. 7th at 6:30pm at the Japanese American Association of New York (15 W. 44th Street, 11th Floor, NY, NY 10036).
 
Doors will open at 6pm, and there will be books to check out, as well as informational handouts to take.
 
Gary Shaw of Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, Yuko Tonohira of Todos Somos Japon, and Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear will be speaking, and Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action will skype in from Japan.
 
See the flyer for more information, or check out updates on Facebook:
 
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=211429102264216

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Learn-From-311-Lets-learntogether/287771747917483
 
ADMISSION is $10, plus any donation will be appreciated. A portion of the proceeds will go to ‘Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation.’
 
Please RSVP to learnfrom311@yahoo.co.jp if you would like to attend. Please spread the word! Thanks!

NRC licensing board blocks Massachusetts effort to challenge Pilgrim license extension

The New York Times reports that a panel of three administrative law judges at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has rejected a bid by the State of Massachusetts to challenge the Pilgrim nuclear power plant's license extension by requiring "lessons learned" from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe to be applied. Both Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 and Pilgrim share the same reactor design, the General Electric Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor. Beyond Nuclear's "Freeze Our Fukushimas" emergency enforcement petition to NRC calls for the immediate shut down of Pilgrim and 22 additional Mark 1s operating across the U.S. NRC has rubberstamped 71 reactor license extensions in the past 12 years. Mary Lampert at Pilgrim Watch has led the grassroots effort challenging the 20 year license extension at Pilgrim, keeping the proceeding alive for 6 years, a record.

Beyond Nuclear's "Freeze Our Fukushimas" emergency enforcement petition, joined by over 8,000 groups and individuals, also pointed out that Mark 1 pools are vulnerable to gradual boil downs or sudden drain downs which could result in catastrophic high-level radioactive waste fires, which very well may have occurred at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4, prompting NRC to order Americans to flee at least 50 miles away in the earliest days of the catastrophe. Pilgrim's pool contains all the high-level radioactive waste ever generated there over the past several decades, more than Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 to 4's pools combined.

NRDC challenges Limerick license extensions

NRC file photo of Limerick (does not indicate if the flowers are spiderwort mutated by radioactivity)Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has filed a petition, backed up by technical declarations, to intervene with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), challenging the 20 year license extension sought by Exelon, the largest U.S. nuclear utility, for its twin-reactor Limerick Nuclear Power Plant near Pottstown, PA. Limerick is just 21 miles northwest of Philadelphia, with 8 million people living within 50 miles. NRDC argues that after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Limerick's two decade old severe accident mitigation alternatives analysis is obsolete and far from sufficient. The Philadelphia Enquirer, Associated Press, WHYY (Philly NPR), and Pennsylvania NPR, among others, covered the story.  States News Service carried NRDC's media statement. NRC has rubberstamped 71 license extensions in the past dozen years. In 1982, an NRC sponsored study (which the agency unsuccessfully tried to cover up) reported that a major accident at Limerick could cause 74,000 "peak early fatalities" (second worst in the U.S. after Salem in New Jersey), 610,000 "peak early injuries" (by far the worst in the country), 34,000 "peak cancer deaths," and around $200 billion in property damage ($450 billion when adjusted for inflation). The population downwind of Limerick has grown by over a million since that study was produced. Both Limerick units are General Electric boiling water reactors with Mark 2 containment designs, similar in many ways to the catastrophically failed Fukushima Daiichi GE Mark 1s.