Watchdogs continue to hound Entergy Pilgrim

Mother endangered Right Whale near PNPS on 1/15/13, calf is out-of-view. Images acquired under authorization of NOAA/NMFS. Credit: Rachel Karasik.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.

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).

Entergy Palisades' critics grill NRC with questions re: "recent through-wall leaks"

The long-term grassroots resistance to Palisades continued last Saturday. This photo shows a protest at Palisades in August 2000, at the Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camp. Michael Keegan, Alice Hirt, and Kevin Kamps of Don't Waste MI called for the reactor's shutdown, as its steam generators belched into the Lake Michigan sky behind.At a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) webinar on Sat., Jan. 12, another large turnout of local residents and environmental group representatives critical of the problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor grilled agency staff with questions regarding "recent through-wall leaks" (NRC's title for the webinar). Early in the meeting, NRC staff admitted that critics' questions were "overloading the system."

Palisades suffered a through-wall leak on safety-critical control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) housing, revealed on Aug. 12. Palisades had experienced an earlier CRDM through-wall leak in 2001, as well as a uniquely bad 40 years worth of CRDM seal leaks, as documented by David Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists. Lochbaum also explained that the Aug. 12 leak had been ongoing for over a month, even though NRC regulations require that reactor pressure boundary leakage lead to reactor shutdown within 6 hours. Lochbaum calculated that, at $130,000 per day, Entergy should have been fined $3 to $4 million for the violation. Instead, NRC did not fine Entergy one penny.

Most recently, Palisades suffered a through-wall leak on a valve in the service water system, also safety-significant. The service water system had also experienced previous breakdowns in recent years, which played a part in NRC designating Palisades one of the four worst run reactors in the country in Feb., 2012.

NRC's "recent through-wall leaks" webinar slide show has been posted online. Photos reveal cracks and severe rust on various safety-significant systems, structures, and componets at Palisades. One slide shows a steam leak likely drenchning electrical cords and plugs in condensation, as well as the adjacent wall and floor, begging the question whether this was not a short circuit, fire, and even electrocution hazard.

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps fired a litany of questions at NRC staff, only some of which were addressed during the short one hour long webinar.

Due to intense public concern about Palisades, NRC announced that such webinars will continue every other month. March's webinar will address the risks of pressurized thermal shock (PTS) due to reactor pressure vessel (RPV) embrittlement. On Feb. 29, 2012, NRC staff, under intense grilling by concerned citizens, admitted that Palisades has the worsed embrittled RPV in the U.S. PTS risks were the single most significant safety concern raised by environmental coalition interveners opposed to the 20-year license extension at Palisades, but NRC rubberstamped it anyways. Michael Keegan of Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes reported in 1993 that Palisades had first violated NRC's PTS safety regulations in 1981, ten short years into operation. But NRC continued to weaken PTS safety regulations, again and again, in order to accommodate Palisades. Jeff Donn of the Associated Press reported in June 2011, in the first installment of his four part series entitled "Aging Nukes," that "US Nuke Regulators Weaken Safety Rules." His top example was PTS.

May's webinar will be about radiological effluents into the environment. Besides "routine" radiological releases into air, soil, and Lake Michigan that are "allowed" by lax federal or state government "permits," Palisades has also suffered radiological leaks, such as tritium into groundwater. In fact, in his April 2010 report "Leak First, Fix Later," Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter devoted an entire chapter to Palisades.

Please take part in Sat., Jan. 12 NRC webinar from 11 AM to 12 Noon Eastern re: Entergy Palisades' "recent through-wall leaks"

Dear Friends and Colleagues concerned about Entergy's problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor,

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has just posted a press release announcing a webinar, to be held this Saturday, January 12th, from 11 AM to 12 Noon Eastern time, concerning recent through-wall leaks at the 46 year old Palisades nuclear power plant. (Palisades was first licensed to operate beginning in 1967, although its original "lemon" status -- even when brand new, and never corrected -- prevented it from firing up until 1971.)

Participants can listen in to NRC's presentation on-line via their computer, and/or call-in by phone. Once you register via NRC's press release link, a confirmation email will be sent to you, including a link for accessing the webinar on-line, as well as a toll-free phone number and passcode for calling in. Those viewing on-line will have access to NRC's visual slides and power point presentation.

NRC states: "The first part of the meeting will be a Webinar discussion by the NRC with observation by members of the public. The second part of the meeting will be an open discussion, between the NRC and the public, on the topic of through-wall leaks at Palisades and the NRC's regulatory process."

For more information about this webinar, see NRC's meeting notice at http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1236/ML12361A419.pdf, as well as additional information posted at http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm?action=search.detail&MeetingCode=20121152. Please note that the "10 AM to 11 AM" listings are for CENTRAL time (NRC's Region 3 headquarters office is located in Lisle, IL), which means the webinar will take place from 11 AM to 12 NOON Eastern time (Palisades is located in Covert, Michigan, several miles south of South Haven, in the Eastern time zone, of course). If you have any questions, you can contact NRC's Diana Betancourt at Phone: (630) 829-9617; or feel free to contact me as well (Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, (240) 462-3216).

NRC held a similar webinar on October 1, 2012, about through-wall leaks in Palisades' safety-critical control rod drive mechanism (CRDM). Last month, NRC's Region 3 Administrator, Chuck Casto, reported that 80 participants took part in that earlier webinar, even though it was held on a weekday, when many concerned people were working and could not attend. NRC has scheduled this webinar for a Saturday morning, after strong criticism for holding the last one during working hours. A Beyond Nuclear web posting about the August 2012 Palisades CRDM through-wall leak, including additional links (such as a Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) report about chronic CRDM seal leaks at Palisades dating back 40 years!), can be viewed at http://www.beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-power/2012/8/15/crisis-du-jour-at-entergy-nuclears-palisades-atomic-reactor.html

UCS's Nuclear Safety Project Director, David Lochbaum, has confirmed that the CRDM through-wall leak last August should have required Palisades to be shut down within hours, yet NRC allowed it to operate for many additional days.

This Sat., Jan. 12th webinar will very likely include discussion about yet another through-wall leak at Palisades, first publicly revealed in a preliminary notice by NRC on Sept. 25, 2012 (see http://www.beyondnuclear.org/storage/Palisades%20PNO%209-25-12%20of%209-20-12%20Leak%20ML12269A179.pdf). This through-wall leak involved a valve on the safety-significant service water system, used for cooling equipment and systems during routine operations, but also during emergencies (such as the emergency diesel generators, the last back up source for AC power to run safety and cooling systems if the offsite grid is lost). The service water system was also involved in one or more break downs at Palisades in 2011, which contributed to NRC's designating Palisades' operations as "degraded," a poor performance (that is, high risk) status shared by only a few other reactors in the U.S.

A Beyond Nuclear web posting about the most recent, December 11, 2012 NRC public meeting in South Haven, with additional links to relevant documents, can be viewed at http://www.beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-power/2012/12/15/protest-against-nrcs-absurd-rush-to-restore-entergy-palisade.html

Links to Palisades news, action alerts, background, and documents going further back in time are posted online at: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/safety/2012/12/9/online-resources-about-entergys-palisades-atomic-reactor.html

It's important that we muster a good turn out for this webinar, in order to show NRC that they are being closely watched. There were at least a half dozen major showdowns with NRC and Entergy in 2012 alone about Palisades' many leaks and breakdowns (both mechanical, as well as management-wise, including complete collapse of safety culture, as revealed by Palisades whistleblowers). Please spread the word! Feel free to forward this alert!

Let's shut Palisades down, before it melts down!

Sincerely,

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear

Update on January 10, 2013 by admin

NRC has posted its slide show presentation which will be used during the Sat., Jan. 12th webinar.

David Lochbaum, the director of the Nuclear Safety Project at Union of Concerned Scientists, posted an "All Things Nuclear" blog on 12/11/12 entitled "Palisades Reprises Davis-Besse," which sheds a lot of light on the high safety significance of Palisades' "recent through-wall leaks."

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps submitted a list of questions to NRC during the "Palisades recent through-wall leaks" webinar.

UBS Investment Bank equity analyst: 'Unlikely' Entergy will continue Vermont Yankee

While the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl disasters were "break-in phase" accidents at relatively new reactors, the Feb. 2000 steam generator tube rupture at Indian Point, NY, and the 2002 Hole-in-the-Head lid corrosion near-miss at Davis-Besse, Ohio were examples of "break-down phase" accidents.The Brattleboro Reformer has reported that UBS Investment Bank equity analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith has issued a white paper concluding that it may not be in Entergy's best financial interests to continue to operate its Vermont Yankee (VY) nuclear power plant. The article reports that Entergy stock has been given a "neutral rating" by UBS; that a number of Entergy's smaller, "merchant" atomic reactors, especially VY and FitzPatrick in Upstate NY, are not likely to generate much profit in the next two years, and by 2015-2016 run projected deficits. At VY, this is due to the expiration of purchase price agreements, as well as new taxes levied by the State of Vermont (recently upheld by a federal court against a legal challenge by Entergy), which since Feb. 2010 has officially called for VY's permanent shutdown.

"How profitable is the nuclear segment? It's not very. Entergy's nuclear portfolio doesn't generate a lot of cash," said Dumoulin-Smith.

"Notably, we believe both its NY Fitzpatrick and Vermont Yankee plants are at risk of retirement given their small size," stated the report.

Other relatively small sized, single unit, "merchant" reactors owned/operated by Entergy include the problem-plagued Palisades in Michigan, and Pilgrim in Massachusetts.

Dominion Nuclear's recently announced plan to close its small, old, single unit Kewaunee atomic reactor in Wisconsin, due to "economic reasons," has led to widespread speculation about the next domino to fall. A Dominion spokesman let slip that the utility was no longer able to afford needed major safety repairs at the four decade old reactor, deep into its "break-down phase" (see "Bathtub Curve of Nuclear Accidents," referring to the graph's shape, above left, compliments of David Lochbaum, Nuclear Safety Project Director, Union of Concerned Scientists).

Update on January 10, 2013 by admin

Vermont Public Radio has reported on this story. VPR quotes Fairewinds Associates nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, who points out that UBS's financial analysis did not even look at the nearly quarter billion dollars in repairs and safety upgrades needed at Vermont Yankee in coming years. VY needs a new condensor, with a price tag of $100 million. And post-Fukushima safety upgrades ordered by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission could easily cost tens of millions of dollars to implement. VY is a GE BWR Mark I, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4.

Vermont Digger has also reported on this story, including providing a link to the UBS report itself.

So has the Rutland Herald, as well as SNL, which focused on the vulnerability of relatively small-sized merchant atomic reactors to "early retirement" due to adverse economics, as well as on the economic complexities of decommissioning permanently closed reactors.

NRC ASLB rules against environmental coalition's contentions challenging 20-year license extension at Davis-Besse

"Homer Simpson and Humpty Dumpty act out" the Blizzard of '78 "snow job" root cause theory for shield building cracking at Davis-Besse's front entrance on March 24, 2012. The street theater was held in solidarity with the SAGE Alliance's Shut Down Vermont Yankee day of action, and protested FENOC's cherry-picked "root cause of convenience," first floated on Feb. 28th.The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) today issued two rulings rejecting an environmental coalition's intervention against the 20-year license extension sought by FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) at its problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo.

The first ruling supported FENOC's Motion for Summary Dismissal of the environmental interveners' (Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, Green Party of Ohio, represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge) Severe Accident Mitigation Alternatives (SAMA) analyses contentions, previously admitted for hearing. To do so, both ASLB and NRC had to ignore FENOC's assumption that the containment structures at Davis-Besse are fully functional, which they are not. This ruling came despite FENOC's admission that it had made five major errors in its original SAMA analyses, such as under-estimating the value of Ohio farmland and urban property values, and even getting wind directions 180 degrees wrong.

The second ruling rejected interveners' proposed cracked concrete containment contention. Intervenors' have dubbed FENOC's claim that the Blizzard of 1978 severely cracked its concrete containment shield building a "Snow Job," and its cover up of the visual evidence of the cracking with concrete in late 2011, and with a coat of paint on the shield building exterior in August 2012, a "White Wash."

The environmental coalition issued a press release in response to the ASLB rulings, vowing to fight on.

The Toledo Blade has reported on this story. At the bottom righthand side of the article, the Toledo Blade is conducting an online poll as to whether or not Davis-Besse should be re-licensed. Beyond Nuclear encourages readers to vote NO in the poll.

The article quoted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps:

"...Kevin Kamps, a radioactive-waste specialist for Maryland-based Beyond Nuclear, was unconvinced by the licensing board’s findings.

The cracks pose a 'major safety risk,' he said. 'If they can dismiss the cracking contention given the gravity of that risk, then it’s not a good sign for due process.'

Relicensing opponents believe the NRC and FirstEnergy don’t 'understand the root causes' of the cracking problem, and if the wrong cause is pinpointed then 'they can’t have adequate corrective action in place.'

'[It’s a] huge loss for the public. The risks don’t go away regardless,' he said...

...Mr. Kamps said the licensing board’s rulings are subject to challenge, and re-licensing opponents also may raise new contentions as the renewal process continues. Among unresolved issues is the effect of a June 8 federal appeals-court ruling in Washington declaring that regulators had not assessed potential environmental consequences of long-term radioactive waste storage at nuclear plant sites if no permanent disposal site is developed."

WKSU, the NPR radio affiliate at Kent State University, has also reported on this story. WKSU quoted Kevin:

"Beyond Nuclear is among the groups contesting the proposed license renewal. They contend that cracks discovered last year in Davis-Besse’s concrete shield are due to aging concrete – and a sign of more trouble to come...

...Kevin Kamps, a radioactive-waste specialist for Beyond Nuclear, says the board also rejected an analysis of what would happen in the event of a severe accident at the plant east of Toledo.

'I would say that, looking at a document like the Japanese Parliament report on the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, where they found that collusion between government and industry was actually the root cause of the catastrophe, that that very much applies to Davis-Besse.'

Kamps says an environmental impact statement is due in February, at which time the group will have another opportunity to file objections. And the board has yet to address a court order regarding the potential environmental impact of on-site radioactive waste storage."

Interveners can still submit contentions based on NRC's Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS), due out in February. Also, the NRC has acknowledged that interveners' application at Davis-Besse, of a recent court victory against its "Nuke Waste Con Game," will result in at least a two year delay in issuance of the final approval for the license extension. NRC has said it will take at least that long to carry out the court-ordered Environmental Impact Statement on its Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule.  

For more information on the Davis-Besse proceeding, click here.