Will Entergy clean up its act at Palisades' security department?

Don't Waste Michigan board members Michael Keegan, Alice Hirt, and Kevin Kamps call for Palisades' permanent shutdown at the 2000 Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camp, on the Lake Michigan beach at Van Buren State Park, with the atomic reactor's cooling tower steam visible in the backgroundJudging by Entergy's several years worth of security failures at Palisades, and breaches going back over a decade at other Entergy nuclear power plants such as Indian Point near New York City, the answer to that question is quite dubious.

Beyond Nuclear has published a backgrounder chronicling Entergy security problems at Palisades and Indian Point, and the lethal, and potentially catastrophic risks, at stake. See the PDF, as well as the Word version (containing live links to various documents cited).

The backgrounder was prompted by an NRC Confirmatory Order that went into effect on August 22nd.

Update on August 26, 2014 by admin

NBC 5 Chicago reporter Chris Coffey interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, regarding the security failures at Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor on the shore of Lake Michigan -- Chicago's drinking water supply. Kevin warned that the security department at Palisades is a "chilled work environment," because guards are reluctant to raise safety and security concerns for fear of being harassed, retaliated against, and even fired by their own management. Kevin added that "They've got a very serious safety and security and accident potential at Palisades because of the age of the reactor."

The Kalamazoo Gazette's Yvonne Zipp has also reported on this issue, in an article entitled "Safety culture of Palisades Nuclear Plant's security department scrutinized after ex-guards raise concerns." The article is one in a multi-part series appearing this week.

Environmental groups oppose Fermi 2 license extension

NRC file photo of Fermi 2Multiple environmental groups have met an arbitrarily short, 11:59pm Eastern deadline, and officially intervened against the application by DTE (Detroit Edison) to extend the operating license at its Fermi 2 atomic reactor (photo, left) for an additional 20 years. Fermi 2's operating license is currently set to expire in 2025.

DTE's Fermi nuclear power plant, most infamous for the October 5, 1966 "We Almost Lost Detroit" partial meltdown of its Unit 1 experimental plutonium breeder reactor, is located on the Lake Erie shore of southeast Michigan, in Monroe County.

Beyond Nuclear has entered into coalition with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, as well as Don't Waste Michigan, to file four contentions against Fermi 2's license extension.

Two of the contentions concern radioactive waste. The first is about the risk of catastrophic irradiated nuclear fuel storage pool fires. Fermi 2's storage pool holds around 600 tons of irradiated nuclear fuel, more than all four destroyed units at Fukushima Daiichi put together (419 tons). The second radioactive waste contention is about the lack of safety and environmental assurances, since the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "Nuclear Waste Confidence" policy was declared null and void two years ago by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and NRC has not yet replaced it.

Another contention concerns the General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor, and its containment's, long-known, fatal design flaws. Fermi 2 is largest GE Mark I BWR in the world, almost as big as the melted down Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 and 2 reactor cores put together. 

The final contention is about the interconnected risks between the age-degraded Fermi 2, and the untested, proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor, including the vulnerability of both sharing a common off-site electricity transmission corridor.

The three groups, joined by Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, as well as the Sierra Club, Michigan Chapter, have also been intervening against the Fermi 3 proposed new reactor since March, 2009.

Both coalitions challenging Fermi 2, and Fermi 3, are represented by Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge.

Citizens Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT) separately filed 14 contentions of its own against the Fermi 2 license extension. CRAFT released a press release.

Two dozen groups urge State of MA to divest from Entergy due to safety and economic risks at Pilgrim

Beyond Nuclear has signed onto an effort spearheaded by the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, and endorsed by two dozen local groups, to urge the State of Massachusetts to divest more than $8 million invested in Entergy. The signatory groups cited the economic and safety risks associated with the nuclear utility's problem-plagued Pilgrim atomic reactor. A June 4th letter was sent to Governor Patrick and Treasurer Grossman, as described in a June 9th press release.

NRC recently placed Pilgrim on its "degraded" performance short list. The only other reactor in the country with a worse performance designation is FitzPatrick in upstate New York. Both Pilgrim and FitzPatrick are General Electric Mark I boiling water reactors, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4.

Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor in Michigan was similarly designated one of the worst performers in the U.S. a couple years ago, after not one but two near-misses in 2011, and yet another one in 2012, as documented by David Lochbaum at Union of Concerned Scientists.

A year ago, energy economist Mark Cooper of Vermont Law School identified Entergy's six merchant reactors (half its national fleet), including Pilgrim, as at risk of near-term shutdown. This is due to a variety of factors, including economic uncompetitiveness and needed, costly safety repairs. In August 2013, Cooper was proven right, when Entergy announced the permanent shutdown of Vermont Yankee (another Entergy GE BWR Mark I) by the end of 2014.

Update on June 11, 2014 by admin

The State Treasurer of Massachusetts has responded to the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, expressing strong support for the efforts to permanently close Entergy's Pilgrim atomic reactor. However, the State Treasurer has indicated that divestment of state pension funds from Entergy would require the enactment of legislation -- that is, action by the state legislature, as well as the governor.

Environmental coalitions defend Lake Erie against reactor risks

Terry Lodge, Toledo-based environmental coalition legal counselEnvironmental coalitions continue to strive to defend Lake Erie against atomic reactor risks, both old and new.

At the age-degraded Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo on the Lake Erie shore, a coalition has defended its new contention challening Shield Building wall gaps, cracks, and rebar damage. The coalition includes Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste MI, and the OH Green Party.

Another coalition, resisting the proposed new reactor at the Fermi nuclear power plant in Monroe County, MI, has just suffered a major setback, but vows to fight on.

Late in the afternoon on the Friday before the Memorial Day holiday long weekend (May 23, 2014), a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) hearing the Fermi Unit 3 intervention announced its ruling against the coalition's quality assurance (QA) contention, as well as its endangered species contention. (However, the coalition's Nuclear Waste Confidence contention is still in play, as its challenge against proposed new transmission lines.)

Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, serves as the coalition's expert witness on QA. Gundersen warned last Halloween that the ASLB's adverse ruling would undermine whistleblower protections, and in fact all safety regulations, not just at Fermi 3, but would set a bad precedent that could lead to abuses at all proposed new reactors.

Regarding the endangered species contention, the ASLB declared its own ruling a "NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] success story." Intervenors beg to differ. Detroit Edison's mitigation plan is woefully inadequate. The ASLB points out that the threatened Eastern Fox Snake, the subject of the contention, has four habitat ranges in Michigan and Ontario on the shoreline of Lake Erie -- implying that the loss of one of them, at Fermi 3, is no big deal. Combined with other ecological pressures, including climate chaos, the ASLB's flippant ruling could well spell the extinction of this species. But the Eastern Fox Snake is only one of many threatend and endangered plant and animal species put at further risk by the Fermi 3 proposal.

The coalition officially intervening against Fermi 3 includes Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste MI, and the Sierra Club, Michigan Chapter.

Terry Lodge, Toledo based attorney, serves as legal counsel for the environmental coalitions in both the Davis-Besse and Fermi 3 ASLB proceedings.

The intervening groups are joined by others, including Citizens Resistance at Fermi 2, and the Alliance to Halt Fermi 3. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps will speak at an Alliance press conference and rally in Detroit on May 30th. See the Alliance's press advisory, as well as its flyer.

Coalition defends its challenge against Davis-Besse Shield Building cracks, gaps, and rebar damage

Environmental coalition attorney Terry LodgeAn environmental coalition, represented by attorney Terry Lodge of Toledo (photo, left), has filed a defense of its contention alleging that FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's (FENOC) Davis-Besse atomic reactor on the Lake Erie shore should be denied a 20-year license extension by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Most recently, Davis-Besse's concrete containment Shield Building has exhibited ever more severe cracking, steel reinforcement damage, as well as wall gap 80% of the way through its 2.5 foot thickness (an air space, or void, through 24 of 30 inches of the wall). The filing rebuts challenges against the contention by FENOC and NRC Staff.

As official intervenors in the NRC Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) proceeding, the coalition, comprised of Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Coalition of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Ohio Green Party, has resisted Davis-Besse's 20-year license extension since the end of 2010. Davis-Besse's 40-year operating license expires on Earth Day (April 22), 2017. This is the coalition's sixth contention filed.