U.S. NRC violates its own environmental protection mandate: 5 Commissioners reject renewables alternative at Davis-Besse atomic reactor on Great Lakes border with Canada

U.S. NRC file photo of Davis-Besse, located in Oak Harbor, OH on the Lake Erie shore, across from Ontario, Canada On the eve of the 33rd annual commemoration of the Three Mile Island meltdown, the five NRC Commissioners voted unanimously yesterday to reject an environmental coalition's contention that wind power and solar power could readily replace the 908 Megawatts-electric from Davis-Besse, instead of FirstEnergy's proposed 20 year license extension at the problem-plagued atomic reactor with a cracked concrete containment. The environmental coalition put out a media release, and plans to appeal to the federal courts at the first opportunity.

NRC's Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) presiding over the Davis-Besse license extension proceeding has ordered pre-hearing oral arguments about the latest, cracked concrete containment contention. The oral arguments will take place on Friday, May 18th, beginning at 9 a.m. in the Common Pleas Courtroom at the Ottawa County Courthouse, 315 Madison Street, Port Clinton, Ohio -- about ten miles from Davis-Besse.

The Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario has made the intervening environmental coalition bi-national in nature.

Update on March 28, 2012 by admin

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat-Ohio, pictured left), a long-time watchdog on Davis-Besse, immediately rose to the defense of Beyond Nuclear and its environmental allies, in a media release which stated:

“All that the four public interest groups (Beyond Nuclear, Green Party of Ohio, Don’t Waste Michigan, and Citizen’s Environmental Alliance of Southwestern Ontario) asked for was an opportunity to present evidence to show that the power output of Davis-Besse could be replaced by other sources of energy such as wind energy and solar energy. 

“The NRC’s own Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled a year ago that these organizations should have an opportunity to present their evidence at a hearing. 

“Yesterday, the NRC’s five commissioners took a highly unusual action, overruling their own Board, and slamming the door shut on these four citizen groups, denying them an opportunity to present their evidence.

“It is critical to get this information in the public record so that the public is aware of existing alternatives. The nuclear industry knows that it can be replaced. I hope the NRC’s decision doesn’t indicate that the NRC denies transparency when it comes to examining the financial, design, construction or physical limitations of the nuclear industry.”

On March 3rd, Kucinich joined with Beyond Nuclear and its environmental allies on a media release questioning FirstEnergy's "snow job of convenience," its dubious claim that the Blizzard of 1978 caused the concrete containment cracking, and that the problem has not worsened in 35 years.

On Dec. 15th, Kucinich honored Beyond Nuclear by entering its backgrounder on the many close calls to catastrophe at Davis-Besse over the decades into the congressional record during a hearing with the five NRC Commissioners as witnesses. Kucinich said Beyond Nuclear was an organization that could be trusted and counted on for accurate and truthful information.

Activists tell Quebec premier to remember Fukushima and shut their nuke

Watch a video of a Greenpeace Canada action here.

Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, and Canadian co-chair of the Great Lakes United Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force, has written up a short backgrounder on how hugely expensive it would be to "refurbish" Gentilly, the atomic reactor in Quebec located on the St. Lawrence River, through which the waters of the Great Lakes ultimately flow into the Atlantic Ocean. A political cartoon in a Quebec newspaper jokes about the Greenpeace occupation of the Quebec premier's office. Dr. Edwards explains and translates: the premier says to the Greenpeace occupiers, "It's gonna be safe! Gentilly-2 will be rebuilt by Quebec engineers using Quebec concrete!" [But] his assistant, aware of all the scandalous infrastructure problems in Montreal, with bridges falling apart and concrete overpasses collapsing -- including a big chunk of concrete that just fell at the garage of the Olympic Stadium -- says "Psst! This might not be the best time...."

Update on defending Great Lakes against risky atomic reactors

Satellite photo of the Great Lakes: 20% of the planet's surface fresh water; drinking water supply for 40 million people in North America; and lifeblood of one of the world's biggest regional economiesThree weeks ago, we reported on Beyond Nuclear's efforts, in conjunction with environmental coalitions and concerned citizens, to shut down two especially risky atomic reactors on the Great Lakes shorelines that have been generating a lot of controversy recently: Palisades in southwest Michigan, and Davis-Besse in northwest Ohio.

A lot has happened since. NRC was forced to admit that Palisades has the most embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the U.S. NRC's repeated regulatory rollbacks have put it at risk of fracturing like a hot glass under cold water due to Pressurized Thermal Shock. And thanks to revelations by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, we've contended that Davis-Besse's containment cracking is so severe that its outer layer of steel reinforcement rebar is no longer performing its safety function. We joined Congressman Kucinich in challenging Davis-Besse's root cause report, which blames the cracking on the Blizzard of 1978, as a "snow job of convenience."

Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario is a coalition member in the intervention against Davis-Besse's license extension, as it is against the proposal to build a new reactor, Fermi 3, in Monroe, Michigan. A number of Canadian groups also joined the resistance to the Palisades' license extension several years ago. Great Lakes United, a coalition of 150 groups in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American/First Nations, has also passed a resolution against Fermi 3, and also opposed the license extension at Palisades. GLU's Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force helps coordinate anti-nuclear efforts across the border throughout the Great Lakes. Read more.

Radiation precautions are not child's play in Fukushima Prefecture

A heartbreaking BBC News Asia video focuses on Ayaka, a young girl who lost her grandfather and home to the tsunami in Fukushima Prefecture on March 11, 2011, and whose life is now circumscribed by radiation precautions that limit her freedom to play outdoors. This, despite now living beyond the arbitrarily small 12.4 mile (20 km) "Dead Zone" around the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Her father bought a Ukrainian radiation monitor on the internet, which he uses to check background levels before he lets Ayaka play on the parking lot for at most 30 minutes, only on weekends. She's not allowed to play on the grass, or near trees or surface water, because the radiation levels are higher there. Ayaka also wears a face mask on her way to school, and a personal radiation monitor to track her exposures. Ayaka reads from her diary entry from March 13, 2011, in which she expresses her fear of the invisible radioactivity around her. Writing helped her deal with her emotions -- she was afraid to express her fears directly to her father or grandmother.

Lessons from Fukushima: new Greenpeace report a warning on nuclear risks

Jan Beranek blogs on a new report just published by Greenpeace International on the "Lessons of Fukushima." He provides links to a 12 page executive summary, as well as the full 52 page report.