Grassroots activism laid the groundwork for Vermont Yankee's announced demise

This infamous photo of Vermont Yankee's 2007 cooling tower collapse was sent to media reporters by whistleblowersBob Bady, a founding member of the Safe and Green Campaign, has penned an op-ed at the Vermont Digger entitled "What Killed the Beast?"

The beast to which he refers is Vermont Yankee, a GE Mark I boiling water reactor, identical in design to the wrecked, leaking Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 in northeastern Japan.

He writes: "...The ultimate goal of a large corporation such as Entergy is to make money. Its growth or demise is about profit. The backstory is actually what prevented Vermont Yankee from making enough profit to continue to operate for decades to come.

Certainly cheaper natural gas was a signficant factor, as was an old plant that would require significant maintenance in the coming years. Pending costly federally mandated safety improvements, precipitated by the Fukushima disaster, also loomed.

The tipping point, however, the thing that might have really sealed Vermont Yankee's fate, was grassroots activism...".

He concludes that "because the anti nuke environmental community in Vermont, southwestern New Hampshire and western Massachusetts worked hard, long and intelligently to rally public opinion, and educate the Vermont Legislature," state laws signed by Vermont's former, pro-nuclear Republican governor became a "big expensive problem" for Entergy.

Bady adds "Entergy's income was first impacted when, by late 2010 and early 2011, its reputation had become so damaged by its own misdeeds, brought to the spotlight by activists, that Vermont electric utilities played hardball in contract negotiations. As a result, no deal emerged between Vermont Yankee and Vermont utilities, and Entergy was left to sell its product on the "spot" market, where prices had dropped because of cheaper natural gas."

Author Richard Watts asked the same question: how could Vermont Yankee go from being seen as a good neighbor and mainstay of the Green Mountain State's economy by some, to being almost universally disdained, even by former supporters, as a pariah, with top elected officials referring to Entergy publicly as a "rogue corporation"? Watts' book, Public Meltdown: The Story of Vermont Yankee, shows that Entergy's cover ups and lies under oath to state officials -- such as the 2007 cooling tower collapse brought to light by whistleblowers (photo, above left), and Entergy executives' perjury regarding radioactivity leaks into groundwater -- combined with widespread grassroots activism, turned the tide.

Joseph Mangano/RPHP report on radioactivity releases from Palisades and increased death rates in the surrounding area

Entergy's problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, MI, on the Lake Michigan shorelineJoseph Mangano, Executive Director of Radiation and Public Health Project, has published a report, commissioned and endorsed by Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste Michigan, Michigan Safe Energy Future, and Nuclear Energy Information Service. Based on government data and documentation on radioactivity releases from Palisades, as well as area health statistics, the report's major findings raise serious questions about the connections between radioactivity releases and increased overall death and cancer mortality rates.

Palisades received a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rubber-stamp for 20 extended years of operations -- out to 2031 -- back in 2007, despite hard-fought resistance that sought to block it.

Press release

Full report: NUCLEAR CONTAMINATION AND HEALTH RISKS FROM THE ENTERGY PALISADES NUCLEAR REACTOR.

Beyond Nuclear pamphlet "Routine Radiation Releases from U.S. Atomic Reators: What Are The Dangers?" Note that the water discharge pathway photo was taken (by Gabriela Bulisova) at the Palisades atomic reactor, discharging into Lake Michigan. Although the atmospheric discharge pathway was photographed at the Callaway atomic reactor in Missouri, Palisades has a very similar vent attached to its containment building for aerial discharges of radioactive gases and vapors).

Beyond Nuclear report (published April 2010) by Reactor Oversight Project Director Paul Gunter, "Leak First, Fix Later," with a chapter on Palisades' tritium leaks into groundwater, first reported by Entergy Nuclear in 2007.

Update on August 21, 2013 by admin

WWMT TV 3 Kalamazoo reported on this story -- including a short summary at noon, and a longer story on the evening news -- as have WSBT TV-22 South Bend, Indiana and ABC57 News South Bend, as well as WKZO Radio Kalamazoo. The Detroit News and Holland Sentinel published articles, as has the Kalamazoo Gazette/MLive. WKZO Radio also interviewed Kevin on Lori Moore's morning show on Wed., Aug. 21st.

Latest incident at Palisades: Control room not protected against radioactive air inleakage in case of a radiological emergency

The cover of John G. Fuller's 1975 classic "We Almost Lost Detroit" -- about the partial meltdown of the Fermi 1 plutonium breeder reactor on Oct. 5, 1966 -- shows an artist's rendition of a typical respirator and radiation protection suit worn by nuclear workers in radiological contamination zonesAs described in an Event Notification Report posted at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) website, the problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, MI experienced its latest mishap on August 13th:

'BOTH CONTROL ROOM VENTILATION FILTRATION TRAINS DECLARED INOPERABLE

"At approximately 1102 [EDT], August 13, 2013, both control room ventilation filtration trains were declared inoperable in accordance with Technical Specification 3.7.10, Condition B, due to a control room boundary door not being fully closed. The door was unable to be closed for approximately nine minutes due to an apparent mis-operation of the door operating mechanism. The door's locking bolts fully extended causing interference between the door and door frame. The door was restored to operable status at approximately 1111 [EDT], August 13, 2013.

"Technical Specification 3.7.10 allows control room boundary doors to be opened intermittently, under administrative control for preplanned activities, provided the doors can be rapidly restored to the design condition. Previous evaluations of the door not being fully closed for a limited time concluded no loss of safety function had existed.

"This condition had no impact on the health and safety of the public.

"The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified."'

In a radiological emergency situation, however, the condition could well have a direct impact on the health and safety of Palisades control room workers -- which could have indirect, but catastrophic, consequences for the health and safety of the public downwind, downstream, up the food chain, and down the generations.

When Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps queried the Union of Concerned Scientists' Dave Lochbaum regarding the incident, Dave confirmed Kevin's understanding was accurate. Kevin asked if the issue involved the requirement to protect control room workers against radioactivity entering the control room during an emergency at Palisades.

Dave responded:

"That's the concern. The design provides for the control room to be maintained at a slightly higher pressure than neighboring areas and the air outside. This design forces clean air to leak out of the control room rather than potentially contaminated air leaking in. With this design functional, the operators need not wear respirators and clean suits while occupying the control room.

With the door not closed, the ventilation system cannot maintain the control room at a higher pressure. That inability is why both ventilation system trains were declared inoperable."

Lochbaum had previously written to NRC, pointing out that leaks of water into the control room from the ceiling above showed that the control room was also vulnerable to the inleakage of radioactivity in air during an accident.

Depending on the type and concentration/dose rate of the radioactivity entering the control room, Palisades operators could be forced to don radiation suits and respirators, complicating their communications and efforts to address the emergency situation, or could be forced to abandon the control room altogether. Gamma penetrating radiation, like X-rays, for example, would not be stopped by a thin plastic suit.

NIRS has a pamphlet for nuclear industry workers entitled "Your Nuclear Workplace: Know Your Risks, Know Your Rights," which shows a typical radiation protection suit, as well as respiratory protection equipment.

Whistleblowers at Palisades have confided in Kevin over the decades that their managers have instructed them not to wear radiation protection suits and respirators, even in radioactively contaminated areas, as it slows down their work!

Orwell & Kafka roll in their graves: Federal appeals court rules for Entergy, against Vermont, in Vermont Yankee dispute!

Like a bizarre mix of 1984 and The Trial, on August 14th, a three-judge panel at the Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City ruled in favor of Entergy Nuclear, and against the State of Vermont, in the marathon battle over the fate of the Vermont Yankee atomic reactor. The appeals court judges agreed with a lower court's Orwellian determination that Vermont state legislators had really meant "safety" when they passed laws regulating energy economics, the need for (or lack thereof) Vermont Yankee going forward, and the atomic reactor's impacts on the Connecticut River from thermal water discharges, impacts on tourism and recreation, etc. 

While radiological safety has been deemed the "sole province" of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission under the Atomic Energy Energy of 1954 (never mind the agency is asleep at the Geiger counter, derelict in its duty to protect public health, safety, and the environment!), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1983 PG&E case that states retain jurisdiction regarding nuclear power in all those other areas.

As documented in the classic 1975 book We Almost Lost Detroit by John G. Fuller (about the Oct. 5, 1966 partial meltdown at the Fermi 1 experimental plutonium breeder reactor in Monroe County, MI), a half-century ago, a strongly worded dissent in the U.S. Supreme Court case United Auto Workers v. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission described the Atomic Energy Act as a dark day for our democracy. Ironically, in spite of yesterday's New York City appeals court ruling, one of the judges pointed out that Congress probably didn't intend to so undermine state's rights when it passed the Atomic Energy Act six decades ago!

The silver lining, however, is that the court did not order Vermont taxpayers to pay for Entergy's multi-million dollar legal bills. Also, the authority of the State of Vermont's Public Service Board to rescind the "rogue corporation" Entergy's Certificate of Public Good, its license to do business in the Green Mountain State, seems to be retained intact. The PSB, which can consider the company's character in its deliberations, is set to rule in late autumn or early winter. Not only Vermont's Governor and Attorney General seem determined to fight on, but so does the grassroots environmental resistance. There are diverse manifestations of that grassroots resistance, from successful petitions urging NRC to investigate the financial shakiness at Vermont Yankee (as well as Pilgrim, MA and FitzPatrick, NY), flotillas on the Connecticut River to protest Vermont Yankee's harmful thermal discharges, and ongoing non-violent civil disobedience actions, such as the Shut It Down Affinity Group's latest action on August 6th.

To paraphrase U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), recently elected to the U.S. Senate, Franz Kafka is spinning so fast in his grave, he should be hooked up to a turbo-generator and connected to the electric grid!

Vermont Digger, Vermont Public Radio, the Brattleboro Reformer, and the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus have all reported on this story.

"Attorney Generals Fight for Public Access in Nuclear Issues"

Environmental coalition attorney Terry Lodge of Toledo speaks out against Davis-Besse's 20-year license extension at a press conference in Oak Harbor, OH in August 2012An article written by Roger Witherspoon, "Attorney Generals Fight for Public Access in Nuclear Issues," begins:

"The Attorney Generals of New York and Vermont have joined the fight against California’s San Onofre Nuclear power plant in an effort to stop federal regulators from erasing all record of a judicial ruling that the public has a right to intervene before major amendments are granted to an operating license.

If the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission grants the request of their staff to vacate the ruling of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board and expunge the record, it will eliminate a precedent that affects power plant operations and regulatory practices around the country. In particular, it will affect the six-year fight in New York to shut the Indian Point power plants 25 miles north of New York City; and Vermont’s ongoing effort to shut the Vermont Yankee power plant.

The cross country battle now being waged by NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell is an uphill fight against one of the most powerful professional staffs in the US government and an agency that has a unique view of its own independence.

“The Commission has stated that it is not bound by judicial practice, including that of the United States Supreme Court,” stated Schneiderman and Sorrell in a brief filed June 24 with the NRC challenging the staff request...". Continue reading Roger Witherspoon's article here.

The next proceeding most likely to be immediately and directly impacted by the survival or demise of Friends of the Earths' (FOE) San Onofre precedent involves the replacement of steam generators at FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's (FENOC) problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor, located on the Lake Erie shoreline in Oak Harbor, Ohio just east of Toledo. A coalition of environmental groups -- Beyond Nuclear, Citizen Environment Coalition of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club -- have challenged FENOC's attempt to avoid transparent, open, and publicly accessible license amendment proceedings, by arguing the new steam generators are "like-for-like" replacements of the old ones.

But the coalition's expert witness, Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc., has documented numerous major changes from the degraded old to the new replacement steam generators. Gundersen also serves as FOE's expert witness at San Onofre. Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge (photo, above left) serves as the coalition's legal counsel.

An Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel heard pre-hearing oral arguments regarding the environmental interveners' standing, as well as the merits of its arguments, on July 24th. The ASLB indicated it would rule on the admissibility of the coalition's intervention petition this month.