Exelon's Ginna atomic reactor in upstate NY also at risk of near-term shutdown

NRC file photo of Exelon's Ginna atomic reactor on the Lake Ontario shore of upstate NY near RochesterAs reported by the Democrat and Chronicle, Exelon Nuclear's Ginna atomic reactor -- one of the oldest in the U.S. -- is at risk of near-term shutdown. Dr. Mark Cooper of Vermont Law School, in his July 2013 report Renaissance in Reverse, identified Ginna as one of a dozen atomic reactors across the U.S. most at risk of near-term, permanent shutdown, for a variety of safety, financial, and societal reasons.

The 45-year-old Ginna reactor is located in Ontario, NY, near Rochester, on the shoreline of Lake Ontario (photo, left). More.

U.S. leads opposition to strengthening post-Fukushima international safety standards

A Swiss-led European Union (EU) initiative to amend and strengthen international reactor safety standards in a post-Fukushima world was blunted by the United States delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Convention on Nuclear Safety.  The US is being recognized as the leading opponent to upgrading international nuclear safety standards to prevent the next nuclear meltdown.

In face of US opposition and to a lesser degree Russian objections to reactor safety upgrades, the EU coalition is retreating from filing a formal amendment for a vote at the February 2015 convention. The coalition will instead submit an unratified statement that does not press for any new safety obligations for global reactor operators.

The US delegation insisted that it did not oppose the initiative because of increasing costs and market losses to the nuclear industry, asserting that current upgrades are adequate.

Senators Edward J. Markey (Dem/MA) and Barbara Boxer (Dem/CA) however had expressed their grave concern in a December 1, 2014 letter to the former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Allison Macfarlane exposing the agency’s role in undermining the proposed international reactor safety upgrades. One of Macfarlane’s last communications before permanently resigning her post at the end of 2014 declared, “Media reports that the United States opposes changes to the Convention because of cost issues related to safety upgrades are not correct.”

Contrary to Macfarlane’s parting claim, the Commission had already shown its hand by rejecting one such significant safety upgrade that was strongly recommended by the agency’s own Japan Lessons Learned Task Force. The lesson, now unlearned by the Commission, would have ordered all U.S. operators of Fukushima-style reactors (GE Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors) to install high capacity external radiation filters for hardened vents on the vulnerable containment systems. Senior staff had concluded that installing external filters was “a cost-benefited substantial safety enhancement” to more reliably manage the next severe nuclear accident by venting the extreme heat, high pressure, explosive gases while still significantly reducing the consequences by capturing large amounts of radioactivity. However, the UBS international energy investment bank had earlier predicted that the Commission would likely vote down its senior managers’ recommendation because of the “added stress this places on the incumbent’s portfolio” and “the fragile state of affairs” of their licensees' financial and economic condition.

This same safety upgrade is widely installed on Europe's reactors and a new reactor restart requirement of the Nuclear Regulation Authority for a still “zero nuclear” Japan. Nearly one-third of the remaining 99 reactor units in the US fleet are these dangerous Fukushima-style reactors.

"Emanuel lines up with Exelon critics to push clean-power agenda"

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (photo credit: Bloomberg)As reported by Steve Daniels in Crain's Chicago Business, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (photo, left) has joined with the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition to promote genuinely clean energy, such as wind, solar, and efficiency.

As the article reports, "Members of the coalition include frequent Exelon foes like consumer advocacy group Citizens Utility Board, the Sierra Club and Wind on the Wires, the industry trade association for Illinois wind producers. But it also includes growing clean energy firms like commercial solar installer SoCore, California-based solar firm SolarCity, GE Wind and energy efficiency firm Schneider Electric...[and] Chicago Pipefitters Local 597...".

The article also reports:

'...Exelon also has suggested that nuclear power, which emits no carbon, ought to be eligible for the same subsidies other clean sources like wind and solar receive.

At the press conference, one of the group's members scoffed at the notion that nuclear should be considered green the way wind and solar power are.

“Everybody knows what (clean power) is,” said Howard Learner, executive director of the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, a frequent Exelon critic.'

State of Vermont resists Entergy's attempts to eliminate emergency preparedness for high-level radioactive waste storage pool fire

NRC file photo of VY. The HLRW storage pool is located in the lighter colored upper portion of the reactor building, some 50 feet or more in the air.As reported by Vermont Digger, a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel has just denied a petition by the State of Vermont demanding NRC require Entergy Nuclear to maintain emergency monitoring data systems on its high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) storage pool at the recently permanently shutdown Vermont Yankee (VY) atomic reactor. VY's pool currently holds nearly 3,000 highly radioactive, thermally hot irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies.

As also reported three months ago by Vermont Digger, Entergy also wants to do away with emergency response planning by April 2016, even though HLRW will remain in the storage pool for several years beyond that. The State of Vermont wants emergency preparedness kept in place as long as HLRW is stored in the pool. More.

Photos released from 2013 Entergy ANO fatal drop of a very heavy load

The 500+ ton stator crashed through the floor, on top of its heavy haul vehicle, causing extensive damage, killing one worker, and injuring several others.David Lochbaum, director, Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists, writes:

"On March 31, 2013, workers were removing a large, heavy part of the main generator at Arkansas Nuclear One when this load dropped. It killed one worker and injured others.

Pictures of the dropped part being removed from the plant and of the damage it did to the floor and walls of the turbine building were released via the Freedom of Information Act. Some of those pictures along with captions explaining what the images are showing are in a file posted to the UCS blog this morning at: http://allthingsnuclear.org/arkansas-nuclear-one-pictures-of-an-accident/"

When, during an NRC public meeting in Michigan, Entergy Palisades' site vice president, Anthony Vitale, bragged about his atomic reactor's spotless industrial safety record, just a few days after this Easter Sunday, 2013, fatal accident at Palisades' sister plant in Arkansas, Beyond Nuclear corrected the record, by sharing the tragic news from Arkansas. As Beyond Nuclear reported at the time, the worker killed at ANO was named Wade Walters of Russellville, AR. He was 24 years old. More.