House Republicans attack NRC staff recommendation for costly containment modification on U.S. Fukushima-style reactors

The Republican membership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee attacked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff’s recommendation to Order all GE Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors, a total of 31 Fukushima-style reactors operating in the US, to install a severe accident capable venting system with radiation filters on the unreliable containment systems.  Many of the Republican members have the dangerous and vulnerable Fukushima-style reactors operating in their states. Other House members come from states hosting utility headquarters for GE reactor owners like the Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville and Entergy Nuclear in New Orleans, LA.

The NRC technical staff from the Japan Lessons Learned Task Force briefed the Commission on January 9, 2013 on their recommendation to install a hardened reliable containment venting system capable of withstanding extremely high temperature and pressure with radiation filtration systems. The modifications would not need to be completed before December 31, 2017. The staff concluded that with the modifications, operators might better manage a severe nuclear accident after the reactor core starts to melt down initiating the release of massive amounts of radioactivity and the generation of explosive hydrogen gas. The staff recommended Order, if adopted, would supersede the current NRC Order (March 12, 2012) that requires Mark I and Mark II operators to install a hardened venting system on the unreliable containments by December 31, 2016. The vent currently on Order would only provide reactor operators the option to release high temperature and pressure to the atmosphere in an effort to prevent reactor core damage. However, the March 2012 Order expressly states that the these vents need not be required for service in the event of a severe accident involving reactor core damage, the massive release of radioactivity and the generation of explosive hydrogen gas.

The NRC five-member Commission will now review the staff recommendation to order reactor containment modifications costing upwards of tens of millions of dollars per unit. The Commissioners will then take a vote to adopt the staff recommendation or whether to adopt one of three other options; take no further action, install a severe accident capable vent without a radiation filter or conduct further studies on how to address Mark I and Mark II vulnerabilities to a severe accident. The House Republicans are recommending that the Commission further study the implications of the Fukushima reactor explosions and massive land contamination in Japan for US reactor containments.

The controversial and expensive "fix" for the unreliable, aging and failing GE designs has clearly politicized the Commissioners' upcoming vote as one more financial "straw" to be factored on the economic back of any number of the 31 units.

Entergy Watch: Pilgrim, Vermont Yankee

Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee atomic reactors are among the 73 two decade license extensions rubberstamped by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in recent years. But resistance to their ongoing operations is intensifying nonetheless!

In Plymouth, Massachusetts and on Cape Cod, watchdogs continue to hound Pilgrim, Entergy's General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor -- a twin design and vintage to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 -- near Boston. And Entergy's Vermont Yankee had its day(s) in court(s) -- another risky, age-degraded Mark I, which has very much worn out its welcome in the Green Mountain State!

Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee are also relatively small sized, single reactor, "merchant" nuclear power plants. As such, they are currently very vulnerable to permanent shutdown due to crushing economics -- such as the expense of badly needed major safety repairs.

In addition to Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee, Entergy owns a small-sized, single Mark I at FitzPatrick, NY (although the Nine Mile Point Units 1 & 2 atomic reactors, a Mark I and a Mark II, respectively, are located immediately adjacent to FitzPatrick, they are owned by another nuclear utility -- formerly Constellation, now Exelon). Entergy also operates the Cooper Mark I in Nebraska on behalf of NE Public Power District.

Beyond Nuclear's pamphlet "Freeze Our Fukushimas" lists all 31 Mark Is and IIs across the U.S.

Watchdogs continue to hound Entergy Pilgrim

Entergy Nuclear's Pilgrim atomic reactor near Boston is a GE BWR Mark I, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4.

Watchdog groups such as Pilgrim Watch, Cape Downwinders, Pilgrim Coalition and Cape Cod Bay Watch keep up the good fight against Entergy's Pilgrim atomic reactor in Plymouth, MA. Pilgrim is a four decade old General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor, the same age, or older, and design as the Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 reactors. 

Pilgrim Watch spearheaded a six year long intervention against the reactor's 20-year license extension, a record of resistance. But, just as it has done 72 other times across the U.S. since 2000, NRC rubberstamped the license extension in the end.

Member of Cape Downwinders, who have carried out non-violent civil disobedience actions in opposition to Pilgrim's ongoing risks, networked with Beyond Nuclear staff at a Clamshell Alliance reunion in New Hampshire last July. A key risk is that there is "No Escape from the Cap" should the worst happen at Pilgrim, as recently affirmed by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency itself. 

Wicked Local Plymouth reported: “There are no plans to evacuate us from danger,” Pilgrim Coalition wrote in a release quoting Falmouth resident and Cape Downwinders member Bill Maurer, “but there are plans to control us during that danger, which essentially insures that we will be exposed to that danger.”

Pilgrim Coalition is plugging Pilgrim's shutdown:

"Plug-In to Unplug Pilgrim: this is an opportunity to find your place in a growing movement to remove the risk from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in your community.

Join us on February 6, 2013 in the Otto Fehlow Room of the Plymouth Public Library and kick off the new year by learning about the issue and ways you can help. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact Karen Vale at info@capecodbaywatch.org or (508) 951-4723."

And Cape Cod Bay Watch points out that "Plymouth Is Where NO NUKES Meets SAVE THE WHALES" (see photo, above left). It has just today published a piece in the Wicked Local Plymouth about Pilgrim's harmful tritium and nitrogen pollution into the underlying Plymouth-Carver Sole Source Aquifer, recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protetion Agency as “the principal source of drinking water for the residents of the area."

As reported by the Patriot Ledger, Pilgrim just resumed operations after a one week shutdown, caused by an electrical relay failure at the 41 year old reactor which blocked the operation of two water recirculation pumps.

Update on January 16, 2013 by admin

And, as reported by the Associated Press, Entergy was back in court on Wednesday, this time before the Vermont Supreme Court. The New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution requests that the Vermont Supreme Court order Entergy Vermont Yankee to shutdown, for lack of a Certificate of Public Good (CPG). Its old CPG expired, along with its original 40 year operating license, on March 21, 2012. The State of Vermont Public Service Board has yet to approve a new CPG for VY's continued operation.

Vermont Public Radio reported on this story (note that Leslie Sullivan Sachs and Nancy Rice, long-time Vermont Yankee opponents, are visible in the background of the photo). So has WCAX TV.

An op-ed by William Boardman entitled "Unlawful Nuclear Power in Vermont"  asserts that it is "Undisputed: Vermont Yankee Operates Unlawfully," due to its lack of a State of Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) Certificate of Public Good, as spelled out in a 2002 PSB order issued when Entergy took ownership of Vermont Yankee.

Update on January 18, 2013 by admin

Greenwire/E&E Publishing also reported on this story. Sandy Levine of Conservation Law Foundation, as well as Cheryl Hanna of Vermont Law School, have provided analyses in blogs.

State of Vermont makes its case against Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee at 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals

Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee atomic reactor is a GE BWR Mark I, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi's Units 1-4.

The fate of the State of Vermont's long struggle to shutdown Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee atomic reactor now rests in the hands of a three-judge panel at the 2nd Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in Manhattan. Yesterday, oral arguments were heard regarding Entergy v. Shumlin et al. Vermont is seeking to overturn a Brattleboro lower court judge's ruling a year ago that state laws had improperly strayed into radiological safety matters, the sole jurisdiction of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as settled by the 1983 PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) U.S. Supreme Court ruling. In addition to a large turn out of journalists from Vermont and beyond, a number of long-time Vermont Yankee opponents sent representatives to witness the proceeding, including Beyond Nuclear, Conservation Law Foundation, Citizen Awareness Network (CAN), Physicians for Social Responsibility, Shut It Down! affinity group, Solar Rollers, and Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance (VYDA). By most accounts, the State of Vermont --represented by Attorney General William Sorrell, and David Frederick of the Washington, D.C. law firm Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, P.L.L.C. (see photo) -- more than held its own.

Richard Watts (who took the photo above), author of Public Meltdown: The Story of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, covered the oral arguments on his blog. The Vermont Digger reported on this story, including a link to the audio of the full 37 minute long oral arguments. Vermont Public Radio filed two stories: "At Stake in Yankee Appeal: State's Rights and a Big Legal Bill," and "Appeals Judges Focus on 'Legislative Intent' in Yankee Case." The Associated Press, Burlington Free Press, Brattleboro Reformer, and Bloomberg have also reported on this story.

Markey challenges NRC on nuclear safety culture violations within the agency itself

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA)U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), Ranking Democrat on U.S. House committees of jurisdiction over the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), has been leading an investigation into alleged problems with the safety culture at some NRC regional offices -- including Region IV based in Texas, and Region III based in Illinois -- that have resulted in retaliation against NRC staff who disclose safety concerns.

Region III oversees the following GE BWR Mark Is, identical to the three Mark Is that melted down and exploded at Fukushima Daiichi: Dresden Units 2 & 3 in IL; Duane Arnold in IA; Fermi Unit 2 in MI; Monticello in MN; and Quad Cities Units 1 & 2 in IL. Region III also oversees the following GE BWR Mark IIs, very similar in design to the Mark Is: LaSalle Units 1 & 2 in IL.

Region IV oversees the Mark I at Cooper in NE, and the Mark II at Columbia Generating Station in WA.

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

Markey also highlighted allegations that the nuclear power industry has inappropriately pressured NRC's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS).

Rep. Markey was tipped off on April 24, 2012 by anonymous NRC Region IV whistleblowers about harassment, intimidation, and retaliation which, they alleged, had been perpetrated by NRC Region IV senior manager Troy Pruett, against NRC staff who raised safety concerns regarding the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska. Fort Calhoun suffered a serious fire during historic floods on the Missouri River in summer 2011, which inundated the entire nuclear power plant, and came within just a few feet of overtopping critical flood protection barriers at the facility. Pruett allegedly pressured NRC safety inspectors under his supervison to lower their proposed "Red finding" (NRC's worst safety violation designation) to a "Green finding" (indicating "low safety significance"), in order to make his own job easier as head of the the Ft. Calhoun restart regulatory oversight team. Evidence also has surfaced that Pruett resisted needed safety upgrades that proved critical in barely averting disaster during the flooding.

NRC Region IV also oversees the problem-plagued San Onofre nuclear power plant in southern California, as well as the South Texas Project nuclear power plant, which just suffered a serious transformer fire.

Rep. Markey's office has charged the NRC with dragging its feet on -- or outright undermining -- an adequateinvestigation into the allegations of safety culture violations. He cites an internal NRC survey, responded to by 3,000 of NRC's 4,000 employees, which found a majority of the staff felt the agency's differing professional opinion program, for dissent within the system, was ineffective. Markey also chided the NRC Commission itself for slow walking, or even actively blocking, post-Fukushima safety upgrades recommend by the agency's safety staff. He warned that such behavior by the NRC Commission could well embolden recalcitrant NRC senior managers to double down on retaliating against NRC safety staff for aggressively striving to protect pubic health, safety, and the environment against radiological risks. Rep. Markey's office has created a timeline, providing links to his correspondence with NRC's Chairman on these matters.