What you can do to help shutdown Palisades before it melts down

U.S. Sens. Levin and StabenowThere are many actions you can take to help shutdown Palisades before it melts down.

For example, you can contact U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow (see photo, left), both Michigan Democrats, and senior Democratic Party leaders (committee chairs) in the U.S. Senate. Their full contact information is listed below. Read on for ideas on what you can say to them.

Urge them to do all they can to force Palisades' shutdown, for safety's sake.

Urge them to work together to request an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) into the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) regulatory rollbacks on safety standards, enabling the age-degraded Palisades atomic reactor to keep operating. Specifically, urge them to launch a GAO investigation on Palisades' embrittled reactor pressure vessel, at risk of rupturing due to pressurized thermal shock if the emergency core cooling system is ever activated. This would lead to a loss of coolant accident, reactor core meltdown, and catastrophic radioactivity release, potentially killing and injuring tens of thousands, and causing over $100 billion in property damage downwind and downstream.

Palisades has the worst embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the U.S., as admitted by senior staff at a Feb. 29, 2012 public meeting in South Haven. Michael Keegan of Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes documented that Palisades had violated NRC safety standards just 10 years into its operations, by 1981. In June 2011, the Associated Press pointed to reactor pressure vessel embrittlement as the top example of NRC weakening safety standards in order to enable dangerously degraded atomic reactors to keep operating.

A coalition of dozens of Michigan environmental groups asked for this GAO investigation from Sens. Levin and Stabenow in spring 2006 -- yes, 7 years ago. Concerned citizens and environmental group representatives again asked them to do this in early 2012. Yet they never have.

You could also urge Sen. Stabenow to hold hearings in the Senate Agriculture Committee, which she chairs, regarding the risks to Michigan's agricultural economy from a catastrophic radioactivity release at Palisades.

You could also urge Sen. Stabenow to call for hearings on the Water and Power Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on which she serves, to look at the risks to Lake Michigan -- source of drinking water for tens of millions -- if Palisades were to unleash a Fukushima-like catastrophe on its shoreline.

Here are the two Senators' contact information:

U.S. SENATOR DEBBIE STABENOW:

Click on this link for Sen. Stabenow's Webform, where you can send her an email. 

Washington, D.C. Office

Senate Hart Office Building #133, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510; phone (202) 224-4822; Fax (202) 228-0325.

Flint/Saginaw Bay Office

432 N. Saginaw St, Suite 301, Flint, MI 48502; Phone: (810) 720-4172

Southeast Michigan Office 

243 W.Congress Suite 550, Detroit, MI 48226; Phone: (313) 961-4330

Mid-Michigan Office 

 
221 W. Lake Lansing Road, Suite 100, East Lansing, MI 48823; Phone: (517) 203-1760

Western Michigan Office 

3280 E. Beltline Court NE, Suite 400, Grand Rapids, MI 49525; Phone: (616) 975-0052

Northern Michigan Office

3335 S. Airport Road West, Suite 6B, Traverse City, MI 49684; Phone: (231) 929-1031

Upper Peninsula Office

1901 W. Ridge, Marquette, MI 49855; Phone: (906) 228-8756

U.S. SENATOR CARL LEVIN:

Click on this link for the Webform where you can send him an email.

Washington, D.C. Office

269 Russell Office Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510-2202; Phone (202) 224-6221; Fax (202) 224-1388; TTY (202) 224-2816

Detroit Office

Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building; 477 Michigan Avenue, Suite 1860; Detroit, MI 48226-2576; Phone (313) 226-6020; Fax (313) 226-6948; TTY (800) 851-0030

Escanaba Office

524 Ludington Street, Suite LL-103, Escanaba, MI 49829-3949; Phone (906) 789-0052; Fax (906) 789-0015

Grand Rapids Office

Gerald R. Ford Federal Building, Suite 720, 110 Michigan Street, NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503-2313; Phone (616) 456-2531; Fax (616) 456-5147

Lansing Office

124 W. Allegan Street, Suite 1810, Lansing, MI 48933-1716; Phone (517) 377-1508; Fax (517) 377-1506

Traverse City Office

107 Cass Street, Suite E, Traverse City, MI 49684-2602; Phone (231) 947-9569; Fax (231) 947-9518

Saginaw Office

515 N. Washington Avenue, Suite 402, Saginaw, MI 48607-1370; Phone (989) 754-2494; Fax (989) 754-2920

Warren Office

30500 Van Dyke Avenue, Suite 206, Warren, MI 48093-2109; Phone (586) 573-9145; Fax (586) 573-8260

If you live in west Michigan, you could join in the activities of the grassroots groups working for Palisades' shutdown.

For the Michigan Safe Energy Future--Shoreline Chapter, contact Bette Pierman at bette49022@yahoo.com or (269) 369-3993. The Shoreline Chapter meets monthly on the first Saturday of each month at 1 PM Eastern at the South Haven Memorial Library.

For the Michigan Safe Energy Future--Kalamazoo Chapter, contact Iris Potter at b.irispotter@gmail.com or (269) 271-4342. 

Dr. Gordon Edwards on the in's and out's of radioactive steam generators

Given all the attention being directed at steam generators due to San Onofre 2 & 3's closure, Dr. Gordon Edwards (photo, left), President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, has prepared a backgrounder on the subject. In doing so, he has shown yet again why he was awarded the Nuclear-Free Future Award in 2006: "for his enduring role in demystifying nuclear technology helping the public to understand its radioactive predicament."

In 2010, tremendous controversy was generated throughout the Great Lakes, in both the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Europe, when Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario proposed shipping 64 radioactive steam generators, by boat, to Sweden. Bruce wanted to "recycle" the radioactive steam generators' outer shells into the metal recycling steam. Bruce CEO, Duncan Hawthorne, admitted at Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission hearings in Sept. 2010 that there were no emergency plans in place if one of the shipments sank. 

Dr. Edwards documented the radiological hazards contained in the steam generators. TheGreat Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative documented that the breach of a single steam generator, and release of even a fraction of its radioactive contaminants, could cause a federal radiological emergency in Canada, leading to the shutdown of nearby drinking water intakes. The Great Lakes are the drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.

The Bruce shipping plan was stopped dead in its tracks, thanks in large part to a resolution,signed by scores of Quebec municipalities representing hundreds of thousands of residents along the St. Lawrence leg of the route, as well as pledges by Mohawk First Nations to not allow the shipment to pass through their territory.

Swan SONGS as Edison opts to permanently close San Onofre

Image by J. DeStafano, 2012Southern California Edison has decided to permanently shutter its Units 2 and 3 San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations (SONGS) reactors in Southern Cal! Congratulations to all who fought so hard for this great victory! Read the Edison press release.

"This is very good news for the people of Southern California," said [a] statement from Friends of the Earth president Erich Pica. "We have long said that these reactors are too dangerous to operate and now Edison has agreed. The people of California now have the opportunity to move away from the failed promise of dirty and dangerous nuclear power and replace it with the safe and clean energy provided by the sun and wind." 

Steam generator tube ruptures, as occurred at San Onofre Unit 3 on Jan. 31, 2012, are very safety significant. Enough tube ruptures all at once (a "cascading" failure) can lead to a Loss of Coolant Accident in the core, reactor meltdown, and a catastrophic radioactivity release. In fact, a steam generator tube rupture at Indian Point near New York City in Feb. 2000 was considered one of the worst "breakdown phase" accidents at a U.S. reactor, only to be eclipsed two years later by the Hole-in-the-Head reactor lid corrosion hole at Davis-Besse near Toledo. 

Despite the clearly known safety significance of steam generator tube ruptures, New York Times reporter Matt Wald asked repeatedly what the safety significance of steam generator tube ruptures are to Friends of the Earth on a telephone press conference about the San Onofre closures. Wald's question was all the more ironic, given the near-miss at Indian Point 13 years ago, so close to New York City and the New York Times HQ office.

Beyond Nuclear has compiled comprehensive media coverage on, and other reactions to, the San Onofre 2 & 3 closures at its Nuclear Retreat page.

Davis-Besse Intervention Looms Large as San Onofre Units 2 & 3 Terminated Because Of Faulty Steam Generators

Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, IncOn May 20th, an environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, petitioned to intervene against the steam generator replacement proposed at FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse atomic reactor in Oak Harbor, Ohio. The coalition's intervention petition, expert witness Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates, Inc's expert testimony, Gundersen's Curriculum Vitae, and a coalition press release are posted at this link.

Today, the coalition issued a media release, pointing out the similarities between their intervention at Davis-Besse, and the Friends of the Earth (FOE) intervention at San Onofre, CA. Earlier today, Southern California Edison threw in the towel, and announced the permanent shutdown of San Onofre Units 2 & 3, due to the fatal degradation of their replacement steam generators. Gundersen (pictured, above left) serves as FOE's expert witness at San Onofre.

On Dec. 27, 2010, an overlapping environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, intervened against Davis-Besse's 20-year license extension. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in that proceeding has rejected all of the coalition's contentions, except for its Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision contention. That one has led to an inevitable two-year delay in NRC's finalization of the license extension, until the agency completes its court-ordered Environmental Impact Statement on the risks of long-term storage of high-level radioactive waste at on-site pools and dry casks.

Update on June 9, 2013 by admin

The Toledo Blade has reported on this story.

Palisades springs yet another leak into the control room: Failure of moisture barrier violates agreement with NRC

MI Radio image showing location of chronically leaking SIRWT above Palisades' control roomBeyond Nuclear and Michigan Safe Energy Future--Shoreline Chapter issued a media release on June 6thupon learning of yet another leak into Entergy Nuclear's Palisades atomic reactor control room (see image, left). The leakage has been a recurring problem for over two years now.

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps stated: “When I raised the SIRWT [Safety Injection Refueling Water Tank] leak into the control room at Entergy’s public open house in South Haven on May 14^th, and on an NRC [U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission] Webinar May 23^rd, I was told by company and agency spokespeople that that issue was a thing of the past, that an installed moisture barrier had taken care of the problem. But as William Faulkner famously said, ‘The past is never dead. It's not even past.’ If Palisades can’t even prevent basic leakage through the ceiling of the control room, which has now been going on for over two years, what does that say about its reactor and radioactive waste safeguards? Entergy’s use of buckets, tarps, and ineffective sealant against this leak into the safety-critical control room begs the question, is it prepared to prevent large-scale radioactivity releases into the environment from a long list of severely age-degraded, critical safety systems, structures, and components?”

The leak, which was detected on June 3rd, was made known to the public in an NRC document released on June 6th.

Update on June 12, 2013 by admin

Lindsey Smith at Michigan Radio has reported on this story, including the fact that the sand bed region, an integral componet of the SIRWT structure, was never put in place 40 years ago. Blueprints at Palisades were never updated to document this fact. Thus Entergy's and NRC's assumption, that ongoing leaks from the SIRWT even after repairs had been made last summer were coming from the sand bed region, were erroneous and based upon a fantom architectural feature that in fact did not even exist. 

Update on June 13, 2013 by admin

WSJM has also reported on this story:

"A new leak at Palisades has led Entergy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the discovery of a design flaw at the nuclear plant. Consumers Energy did not put the water tank, which is now being repaired, on a grout ring as the original blueprints indicated, and the NRC says Palisades and Entergy are working to fix that with new fiberboard and reinforced concrete..."

Entergy is aiming to restart Palisades by late spring/early summer.

Update on June 13, 2013 by admin

Entergy has provided this explanation for the 45-year-old construction error recently discovered at Palisades:

[Entergy] Communications Specialist Lindsay Rose issued a statement, saying, "The discovery of a lack of sandbed refers to Palisades Safety Injection Refueling Water (SIRW) tank, not the control room. We are currently undergoing work in the SIRW tank to replace the tank’s aluminum flooring and sub-flooring. When we removed the pre-existing aluminum floor plates, the condition of the subflooring was not as we had expected. It became apparent that the sand subflooring had not been installed many years ago as we had thought. We have subsequently installed fiberboard subflooring that has asphalt embedded to provide a more robust and reliable system to support the aluminum floor...".