Palisades a catastrophe waiting to happen, must be shutdown before it melts down

Catharine Sugas, a local concerned citizen and longtime anti-nuclear watchdog, testifies for Palisades' shutdown at an NRC public meeting in South Haven, Michigan. Photo Credit: Steve Carmody/Michigan RadioWWMT TV 3 interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps about the problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor. Kevin charged both Entergy Nuclear and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission with a cover up, after a survey of Palisades workers -- revealing a complete collapse of safety culture -- was concealed from the media and public for months. In June, U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), acting on a tip from D.C. attorney Billie Pirner Garde, who works with Palisades whistleblowers, revealed the safety culture collapse to the public.

TV 3 later reported Kevin vowing, during testimony before the NRC meeting about Palisades' safety culture in South Haven, Michigan, "We will do our best to keep our eyes on you, because we feel burned countless times by the NRC." Corinne Carey with Don't Waste Michigan was also interviewed: "My family and I live in Grand Rapids, and that 70 miles or so is not far enough should there be a serious problem there. I just became a great-grandma, and I'm worried about my sweet little Emilia Rose."

The St. Joe Herald Palladium reported on the NRC public meeting:

"Wade Adams of Kalamazoo told the NRC he thought the corrective action plan was a 'smokescreen' for Entergy to blame employees for its performance problems. 

The real issue, he said, is that Palisades is an old nuclear power plant and will continue to have performance problems.

'It's old and it should be shut down,' Adams said."

TV 8 Grand Rapids also reported on this story, interviewing Benton Harbor resident Bette Pierman, who called for the troubled atomic reactor to be shutdown before catastrophe strikes, radioactively contaminating the region's food and drinking water supply.

Michigan Radio also reported on public calls for Palisades' shutdown:

"The owners of the Palisades nuclear power plant promised last night to improve their 'culture of safety.'   

But dozens of people at the public meeting doubted that promise. Catherine Sugas spoke for many people who attended the meeting when she questioned why the problem plagued nuclear power plant is still operating.

'If you can’t shut down a plant that’s dangerous…what are you? How can you keep a plant going that’s obviously dangerous,' Sugas asked a panel from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission." (see photo, above left)

The Kalamazoo Gazette also reported on this story, including concerned local residents and environmental representatives' calls for Palisades to be shutdown.

Like a seen straight out of The Simpson's, where Homer works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, the Gazette also reported:

"Officials at Wednesday's meeting went into details about how specifically they are working to address the problems, which include increasing communication between employees, having assessments of managers, and having supervisors coach workers on working more safely.

One example is that if employees report a problem or raise a concern, they are rewarded with a candy bar." (emphasis added)

The Gazette also reported on Kevin's talk in Kalamazoo on Sept. 13th, entitled "The Catastrophe Waiting to Happen at Palisades, and What You Can Do to Prevent It!" That event was hosted by Kalamazoo Peace House, and was held at Sunnyside United Methodist Church. Kevin presented a PowerPoint.

Beyond Nuclear issued a media statement.

Update on September 18, 2012 by admin

Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire compiled more media coverage, including WKZO Radio, which quoted Kevin:

"Longtime anti-nuclear activist Kevin Kamps repeated his desire that he wants Palisades to be shut down during the forum, saying people have been 'burned countless times by the NRC.'"

Concerned local residents and environmental groups express concerns to NRC Chair Macfarlane about leaks & coverups at Palisades

The area of the control room at Palisades where, on Sept. 25, 2011, a short circuit nearly electrocuted a worker, cutting off 50% of control room power, which plunged Palisades into near-disaster, testing age-degraded systems, structures, and components to the breaking point. Photo taken by Mark Bugnaski, Kalamazoo GazetteA coalition of concerned local residents, as well as representatives of environmental groups, has responded to a letter sent to them on September 4th by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairwoman, Allison Macfarlane. The exchange centers on a leak of radioactive and acidic water above, around, and even into the control room at the problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, Michigan on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Chairwoman Macfarlane stated that the NRC Staff had determined that the leak was not significant enough for the NRC Chair and Commissioners, as well as the general public, to be notified about it. The coalition begged to differ.

Chairwoman Macfarlane also stated that NRC's approval of Palisades' 20 year license extension requires Entergy to manage aging of safety significant systems, structures, and components. The coalition, which includes groups like Don't Waste Michigan that actively intervened against Palisades' license extension, responded that Entergy is utterly failing at that, as are NRC's own oversight and inspections, for Palisades has suffered a large number of sudden, age-related break downs, some of "substantial significance to safety," in NRC's own words (see photo, above left).

25 members of the coalition had met with former NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko on May 25th, immediately after his tour of Palisades, and a press conference he held, in nearby South Haven, Michigan. Neither NRC Chairman Jaczko, nor any of the NRC Staff in attendance -- including NRC Region 3 Administrator Chuck Casto, director of NRC's Office of Public Affairs Elliot Brenner, NRC resident inspectors at Palisades, and others, said one word about the leak during the meeting or press conference.

On June 12th, just over two weeks after the May 25th meeting, Palisades suddenly shutdown to investigate the leak. Press statements by Palisades' spokesman Mark Savage quickly made it clear the leak had been ongoing since before the May 25th meeting. The coalition immediately wrote Chairman Jaczko on June 14th, asking whether or not he had himself known about the leak, and why the concerned public and media had been kept in the dark.

On June 22nd, U.S. Congressman Markey (D-MA), acting on tips from Palisades whistleblowers who had confided in D.C. attorney Billie Pirner Garde, revealed that the leak was actually into the control room. Markey also revealed that Palisades' safety culture was in complete collapse. NRC had known about the safety culture problems for months, it turned out. And NRC had also known about the control room leak for a year. However, neither scandal had been revealed publicly.

On August 14th, HuffPost Hill then broke the story that NRC Chairman Jaczko had himself been kept in the dark by his own Staff about the leak, and had ordered an investigation to find out why. NRC Commissioner Ostendorff has been accused of attempting to interfere with that investigation, including yelling at the lead investigator, who happens to be a woman. If the allegation is true, it is most ironic, and hypocritical. In a letter to the White House as well as at congressional hearings, Ostendorff joined NRC Commissioners Svinicki, Magwood, and Apostalakis in seeking Jaczko's ouster from NRC for allegedly bullying female staffers, a charge never substantiated.

On August 15th, Chairwoman Macfarlane answered Markey's June 24th letter. Of note, in Macfarlane's "Response to Information Requests," she states "the licensee cannot exclude the possibility that the tank is leaking from a structural defect," and that Entergy justifies continued use of the leaking and potentially structurally defective Safety Injection Refueling Water (SIRW) storage tank under standards for the "Temporary Acceptance of Degradation." However, temporary appears to be indefinite, for no further repair or replacement is spelled out. In addition, the safety culture assessment executive summary noted a "repeated emphasis of production over safety" at Palisades. ("Production over safety" was a key factor in FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse Hole-in-the-Head fiasco in 2002, according to a Dec. 2002 NRC Office of Inspector General Investigation into NRC wrongdoing associated with the scandalous near-disaster. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Davis-Besse's 2002 Hole in the Head Fiasco was the most infamous nuclear safely lapse in the U.S. since the 1979 Three Mile Island meltdown.)

However, on August 30th, Markey was compelled to write Macfarlane again, after Palisades sprung yet another, unrelated leak -- this time, a safety-critical primary coolant leak, through-wall from a control rod drive mechanism (CRDM). Unique in the nuclear power industry, Palisades has suffered chronic CRDM seal leaks for 40 years, as documented by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

On Wed., Sept. 12th at 6 PM Eastern, NRC will hold a public meeting on Palisades' (lack of) safety culture. For those unable to attend in person, there is a toll-free call-in number.

On Thurs., Sept. 13th, at 7:30 PM Eastern, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps will speak at Kalamazoo Peace House about "The Catastrophe Waiting to Happen at Palisades, and What You Can Do to Prevent It."

On Mon., Sept. 17th, and continuing through Fri., Sept. 28th, a team of NRC inspectors will descend on Palisades for a "IP95002 supplemental inspection." Last Valentine's Day, when NRC designated Palisades as one of the four worst-run atomic reactors in the U.S., it generously allowed Entergy as long as it needed to get back to it as to when it would be ready for a supplemental inspection. Thus, it took Entergy seven months to "clean house." This is but the latest amongst multiple probes, investigations, and inspections taking place at the problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor.

NRC's Nuke Waste Confidence EIS will delay reactor licenses for at least two years!

Cover of Beyond Nuclear's pamphlet "A Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High"The five Commissioners who direct the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have just ordered NRC Staff to carry out an expedited, two-year long Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process to revise the agency's Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision (NWCD) and Rule. Critics have charged the NWCD is a confidence game, which for decades has prevented environmental opponents of new reactor construction/operation licenses, as well as old reactor license extensions, from raising high-level radioactive waste generation/storage concerns during NRC licensing proceedings, or even in the federal courts. This EIS process and NWCD revision will thus delay any final NRC approval for new reactor construction/operation licenses, or old reactor license extensions, for at least two years.

The Court's ruling mandated that NRC give a "hard look" at the safety, security, and environmental risks and impacts of extended (not years or decades, but centuries or even permanent) storage of high-level radioactive waste at reactors sites, in pools and/or dry casks.

The "Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High" conference in Chicago Dec. 1-3 will serve as a launch pad for generating public comments to NRC on this EIS, as well as to push back against the nuclear establishment's backlash proposals to begin "Mobile Chernobyl" irradiated nuclear fuel shipments by road, rail, and waterway to "consolidated interim storage." See Beyond Nuclear's pamphlet on high-level radioactive waste (cover reproduced at left). More.

NRC: loss of offsite power at Catawba Unit 1 last April was potentially of substantial significance to safety

NRC's file photo of Catawba nuclear power plant in South CarolinaThe U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has just announcedthat on Sept. 11th, it will conduct a post-incident review with Duke Nuclear to discuss an April 2012 loss of off-site power at Catawba Unit 1 atomic reactor in South Carolina (picture, left). NRC's preliminary review has determined that the incident may be designated a "yellow finding" (in NRC's green, white, yellow, red system of increasingly significant incidents), meaning "of substantial significance to safety." Off-site power is the primary power source for running safety and cooling systems.

While General Electric Mark Is (such as the Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4) and IIs are Boiling Water Reactors with too small, too weak "pressure suppression" containments, ice condenser containments, as at Catawba Unit 1, are a form of "pressure suppression" containment -- again too small and too weak -- at a Pressurized Water Reactor design. The ice condeners in the U.S. include two units at Catawba in SC, two units at McGuire in NC, two units atSequoyah in TN, one unit at Watts Bar in TN, and two units at Cook in MI.

Ice condensers were originally desiged for floating atomic reactors on barges, where the containment, of necessity, would have to be smaller and lighter, so it wouldn't sink under its own weight. Once licensed by NRC or its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission, however, nuclear utilities took advantage of the certified reactor design, by building them on land, in order to save money on the containment structure. 

Thanks to revelations by Tennessee Valley Authority whistleblower Curtis Overall, and nuclear safety advocacy by David Lochbaum at Union of Concerned Scientists, the Cook ice condensers in southwest Michigan were shutdown from 1997 to 2000 for major safety violations, resulting in one of the biggest fines in NRC history up to that point.

"Entergy Watchers" needed to "Occupy" NRC meetings: 9/10 on ANO, Grand Gulf, River Bend, Waterford; 9/12 on Palisades!

Kendra Ulrich with "No Nuke Business As Usual" banner at "Occupy Entergy" non-violent civil disobedience action at Entergy Nuclear HQ in New Orleans on 3/22/12, in solidarity with Shutdown Vermont Yankee actions on the first day of extended operations there "Entergy Watch" and "Occupy Entergy" advocates of the world, unite! The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is holding two meetings next week, regarding half of Entergy Nuclear's "dirty dozen" atomic reactors across the country. If you can attend in person, great! If not, you can still call-in toll-free.

Beginning at 8 AM Central time on Monday, September 10th, at NRC's Region IV headquarters in Arlington, Texas, NRC Staff will "discuss topics of mutual interest including performance" with Entergy officials about four atomic reactors: Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO), Units 1 and 2, in Russellville, Arkansas; Grand Gulf Nuclear Station Unit 1 near Port Gibson, Mississippi; River Bend Station, Unit 1 near Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Waterford Steam Electric Station, Unit 3, west of New Orleans, Louisiana. The public will have an opportunity to ask questions at various times during the meeting, according to NRC, including NRC Staff availability after the business portion of the meeting (NRC's interaction with Entergy) for questions from the public. The call-in number to take part in the meeting by phone is toll-free, 1-888-989-6482, followed by passcode 69328. Note that while ANO, River Bend, and Waterford fall in NRC's Region IV, Grand Gulf is located in NRC's Region II.

From 6-8:30 PM Eastern on Wednesday, September 12th, NRC Region III Staff will hold a meeting in South Haven, Michigan on the complete collapse of "safety culture" at Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor in southwest Michigan, which NRC considers to be one of the four worst-run reactors in the country. U.S. Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) revealed the safety culture collapse at Palisades after a tip off by courageous Palisades whistleblowers, and their D.C.-based attorney, Billie Pirner Garde. The call-in number is toll-free, 1-800-621-9524, followed by passcode 5591733.

Combined with ongoing protest rallies and non-violent civil disobedience actions against Vermont Yankee, grassroots-led legal actions against Pilgrim, etc., Entergy is learning what "The Power of People" (the nuclear utility's ironic slogan) really means! Please join the effort, by "occupying" the meetings above and showing NRC and Entergy they are being "watched"!