No Nukes! at PowerShift 2013 in Pittsburgh

Kevin, Leona, and Yuko prepare for their workshop in between visitors to the Beyond Nuclear info. table at PowerShift 2013. The Japanese banner behind them reads "Stop Plutonium Thermal," or "Nix MOX." It was given to Kevin by anti-nuclear activists in Saga City, Japan in August 2010. Photo by Dave Kraft, NEIS.Beyond Nuclear was joined by Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) of Illinois, Friends of the Earth (FOE), Georgia Women's Action for New Directions (WAND), Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Campaign, Public Citizen, Energy Justice Network, Indigenous Environmental Network, and other anti-nuke groups at Energy Action Coalition's PowerShift youth activist gathering in Pittsburgh last weekend. An estimated 6,000 young climate and environmental justice activists attended the event, which also addressed such dirty, dangerous and expensive fossil fuel risks as mountain top removal coal mining, fracking, and tar sands crude oil.

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, joined by Leona Morgan of the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, Western Mining Action Network, and Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (MASE/WMAN/CARD), and Yuko Tonohira of Todos Somos Japon (photo, left), co-led a workshop entitled "Nuclear Power's Human Rights Violations." Kevin framed the discussion on the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Health, Anand Grover's, newly published final report on the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. Leona discussed the impacts of uranium mining on Navajo and Pueblo indigenous peoples in the Four Corners. And Yuko reported on the impacts of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe on evacuated residents, as well as workers at Tokyo Electric Power Company's devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

In addition to the workshop, Kevin, Leona, and Yuko ran a Beyond Nuclear info. table the entire weekend, which witnessed heavy traffic and great discussions with hundreds of visitors. Beyond Nuclear and NEIS were info. tabling neighbors.

Kevin also had the honor and privilege of being asked to moderate a workshop panel on nuclear power as a false solution to the climate crisis, featuring Katherine Fuchs of FOE, Courtney Hanson of Georgia WAND, and Leona.

Allison Fisher of Public Citizen's Energy Program conducted a workshop to teach activist skills building.

Kevin attended the break out session for his native Michigan, where he was able to announce to 200 high school and college students from the Great Lakes State the Fermi 3 proposed new reactor NRC Atomic Safety Licensing Board proceedings to take place next weekend, and to encourage their participation.

Kevin and Leona were also able to attend -- and fly the anti-nuke banner at -- the PowerShift rally on the riverside in downtown Pittsburgh, between the Roberto Clemente and Rachel Carson bridges, last Monday (Clemente was a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball star and humanitarian, who died tragically young, delivering earthquake relief supplies to Nicaragua; Carson, the matriarch of the U.S. environmental movement, author of the iconic Silent Spring in 1962, about the hazards of pesticides and radioactivity, also died too young, of breast cancer).

Beyond Nuclear has taken part in each of the PowerShift gatherings thus far: 2007 at University of Maryland, College Park; 2009 and 2011 at the Washington Convention Center in D.C.; and 2013 in Pittsburgh.

Interventions against proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor in Michigan to be heard at Halloween-time

Terry Lodge, Toledo-based attorney representing the environmental coalition opposed to the proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactorAt Halloween-time, an environmental coalition, represented by Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge, will finally get its day in court, after more than five years of resisting Detroit Edison's (DTE) proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor targeted at the Lake Erie shoreline of Monroe County, Michigan.

However, few, if any, nuclear license applications have ever been rejected by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), or the agency's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) over the past several decades.

Monroe has already "hosted" Fermi 1 (an experimental plutonium breeder reactor, permanently shutdown in 1972, but still undergoing decommissioning, which had a partial core meltdown on Oct. 5, 1966, as documented in John G. Fuller's classic book We Almost Lost Detroit). Monroe still "hosts" Fermi 2, at 1,122 Megawatts-electric (MW-e), the single-biggest General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor (GE BWR Mark I) in the world, almost as big as the identically-designed, exploded, and melted down Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 and 2 put together.

DTE submitted its combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA) for Fermi 3 in September 2008. The nuclear utility had raced to file its COLA, in order to be among the first in line for billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies for proposed new reactors enacted by George W. Bush in 2005.

But the ESBWR (General Electric-Hitachi so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor") design was so half-baked, NRC couldn't help but respond during the ESBWR design certification review with an astonishing several thousand Requests for Additional Information (RAIs). Not surprisingly, the dubious ESBWR design has been abandoned by several other U.S. nuclear utilities. But DTE is stubborn.

The environmental coalition, which includes Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (CACC), Citizen Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario (CEA), Don't Waste Michigan, and Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, filed intervention contentions and petitioned for hearings by NRC's arbitrarily short deadline on March 9, 2009.

Of some 30 contentions filed by the coalition, four have survived five years of NRC staff and DTE legal attacks. However, the environmental resistance has caused three and half years of delays in DTE's original Fermi 3 schedule.

One of the surviving contentions, regarding the NRC's court-ordered environmental impact statement (EIS) on the agency's high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) "confidence," has officially delayed finalization of NRC's rubberstamp of DTE's Fermi 3 COLA by at least two years, the time it will take to finalize the EIS.

Another contention demands that NRC include an assessment for 29 miles of transmission line corridor construction that would be needed to connect Fermi 3 to the electrical grid. Some of that construction would be through fragile forested wetlands, habitat for threatened and even endangered species, including the Eastern Fox Snake. This contention is being held in abeyance until the NRC Commission rules on the matter.

The other two remaining contentions are the subject matter to be litigated during the upcoming Halloween-time NRC ASLB hearings to be held in Monroe.

The first concerns the threatened Eastern Fox Snake species, an indigenous constrictor. A large area of the endangered habitat of the Eastern Fox Snake -- coastal Great Lakes wetlands -- would be destroyed by the construction and operation of Fermi 3. In fact, the State has admitted that Fermi 3 would involve the largest impact on Great Lakes coastal wetlands in the history of applicable state environmental protection laws.

The second contention regards the largely to entirely non-existent quality assurance (QA) on the entire Fermi 3 COLA. The environmental coalition is represented on this QA contention by Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc.

This QA contention interacts with the vital subject: Fermi 3's soil structures analysis. Under conventional soil structure analysis Fermi 3's foundations would require as much concrete as the rest of construction of Fermi 3, essentially doubling the concrete needed, at astronomical expense. DTE is attempting to take major short cuts to avoid that cost with alternative soil structure analysis, modified subtraction, and semi-modified subtraction.

Michael Keegan of Don't Waste Michigan, the intervening environmental coalition's coordinator, has written about the upcoming hearings:

"The culmination of 7 years of vigilance on the proposed Fermi 3 nuclear power plant will occur October 29 through November 1, in Monroe. Nuclear Engineer Arnold Gundersen will be serving as our Expert Witness and the lack of Quality Assurance should prove to be the death knell for this Fiasco 3.

Now that the government is going back to work the Hearings on the proposed Fermi 3 will be held.

Please see the Atomic Safety Licensing Board Order providing instruction for the Hearings to be held beginning October 29th. 

Limited Oral and Written comment will be taken but the public must pre-register. DTE is already lining up local community leaders and associations to come out and speak in support.  They are following the same Thanksgiving Dinner Template as they did on the FEIS process [Final Environmental Impact Statement, for which public comment meetings were held].

[Please click this link for] excerpts with Instruction. This Hearing is the culmination of having brought forward 30 Contentions before the Atomic Safety Licensing Board.  Please turn out to send the message that there is strong opposition to the proposed Fermi 3 nuclear power plant.

Thank you.

Michael J. Keegan, Don't Waste Michigan/Fermi 3 Intervenor 

Registration Required:  To be considered timely, a written request to make an oral statement must either be mailed, faxed, or sent by e-mail so as to be received by 5:00 PM EDT on Friday, October 18, 2013.  'How-to' info. [is provided at this link], but I am thinking that because of gov't shutdown, we'll be able to get a few [extra] days [added onto that deadline]."

State of MI legislators speak out against Great Lakes radioactive waste dump in Ontario

As reported by CTV, Michigan State Senator Hoon-Yung Hopgood and Representative Sarah Roberts spoke out today in Kincardine, Ontario against Ontario Power Generation's proposal to bury radioactive wastes along the Lake Huron shore.

Hopgood's resolution against the DGR (for Deep Geologic Repository, or DUD, for Deep Underground Dump) passed the Michigan State Senate unanimously. Roberts has introduced a companion resolution in the MI State House of Representatives.

Hopgood and Roberts testified today before Canada's federal Joint Review Panel hearing concerns about the DUD. The legislators issued a press advisory, as well as an endorsement of a call by 28 U.S. and Canadian environmental groups (including Beyond Nuclear) "Request for Ruling," that the JRP require OPG to come clean on whether or not it intends to double the capacity of the proposed DUD from 200,000 cubic meters of so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive waste from operations and refurbishment at 20 Ontario reactors, by adding another 200,000 tons of L&ILRWs from decommissioning activities over time.

Sen. Hopgood and Rep. Roberts also submitted written testimony. Attached to Sen. Hopgood's written testimony are statements of opposition to the Great Lakes radioactive waste dump provided by: Michigan United Conservation Clubs (with 42,000 members); Michigan Boating Industries Association (comprised of 300 marine businesses); Michigan Charter Boat Association; Michigan Steelhead & Salmon Fishermen's Association (the largest sport fishing organization in the Great Lakes Basin); Michigan Environmental Council (a coalition of more than 70 organizations); and Michigan Clean Water Action (boasting 200,000 members).

Update on October 1, 2013 by admin

The Owen Sun Times/Kincardine News has covered this story.

Momentum building of international opposition against OPG DUD

The Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump petition now has nearly 35,000 signatures! If you haven't already signed it yourself, please do. And please continue to circulate it to everyone you know! Beverly Fernandez, spokesperson for Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, gave powerful testimony last Saturday in opposition to the proposal to "bury poison next to the well" of 40 million people, the Great Lakes, drinking water supply for 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American/First Nations.

On September 23rd, Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, also testified against Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) proposal to bury all of Ontario's so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes (L&ILRWs), from 20 atomic reactors across the province, within a half-mile of the Lake Huron shoreline (see image, left).

OPG refers to its proposal as the DGR, for Deep Geologic Repository. But critics use DUD, for Deep Underground Dump, an apt appellation coined by Dave Martin of Greenpeace Canada.

Dave, along with Irene Koch of Nuclear Awareness Project, published a map of Nuclear Hotspots on the Great Lakes in 1990. It gave an overview of the vast number of uranium fuel chain activities taking place in the bio-region, including scores of atomic reactors on the shorelines. Anna Tilman of International Institute of Concern for Public Health recently updated the map, to include the proposed DUDs. Both maps helped frame Kevin's testimony to the JRP regarding the DUDs.

Kevin's testimony focused on the woeful inadequacy of OPG's environmental assessment of cumulative impacts, as well as synergistic effects, of radiological and toxic chemical hazards in the Great Lakes bio-region caused by nuclear power facilities, as well as other dirty, dangerous and expensive energy industries, such as fossil fuel burning power plants.

The Canadian federal Joint Review Panel, comprised of a majority of two members from the CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission), and one member from the CEAA (Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency), have posted the transcript of Kevin's testimony (beginning at Page 112, or 116 of 350 on the PDF counter). The JRP has also posted the video recording of Kevin's testimony (beginning at time code 2:26, for two hours 26 minutes into the segment). Kevin's Power Point presentation was based on his previously filed written submission.

More.

Update on September 28, 2013 by admin

Janet McNeill's blog, "Things That Matter," has provided links to much of the news coverage on the DUD hearings thus far. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps and Janet's testimony before the Joint Review Panel overlapped on Sept. 23 and 24 in Kincardine, Ontario.

And the Sarnia Observer has just reported that "Deep Geological Repository opponents getting leg up at hearings, Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley says." Sarnia is the largest city on Lake Huron. Mayor Bradley has long been a Bruce Nuclear watchdog, such as breaking the story on the proposed radioactive steam generator shipments on the Great Lakes, which were eventually cancelled due to public opposition.

Update on September 30, 2013 by admin

The number of resolutions -- in Ontario, Michigan, and Ohio -- opposing the DUD is also growing!

Environmental coalition challenges NRC on risk of HLRW pool fires yet again

IPS senior scholar Robert AlvarezIt's déjà vu all over again! After announcing a public meeting on August 22nd -- supposedly intended for technical dialogue -- the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) attemped to change the rules, and unabashedly refused to respond to watchdogs' challenges to its biased analysis regarding high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) storage pool fire risks. The strong backlash by representatives of an environmental coalition, inlcuding Beyond Nuclear, has forced NRC to try again. NRC has issued a public notice, as well as slides, for its Sept. 18th public meeting.

The coalition's attorney, Diane Curran, has re-issued talking points first developed for public use in the lead up to the previous meeting. They are more relevant than ever. Curran urges concerned members of the public to register to speak by emailing kevin.witt@nrc.gov. You can phone into the meeting at (888) 324-8193 [enter passcode 4345562], and can watch the webcast at http://video.nrc.gov or https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/984626536.

On August 1st, Curran, and one of the environmental coalition's expert witnesses, Dr. Gordon Thompson of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies (IRSS), submitted a "devastating critique" regarding NRC's "Draft Consequence Study" on the risks of fire in HLRW storage pools. Curran and Thompson called for the study to be withdraw, due to its lack of basic scientific integrity and credibility.

Now Robert Alvarez (photo, above left), senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), has weighed in on the coalition's behalf. Alvarez previously served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy during the Clintion administration. After the 3/11/11 nuclear catastrophe began in Japan, he published a report on the potentially catastrophic risks in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant HLRW storage pools--the largest concentrations of hazardous artificial radioactivity in the entire country.

As U.S. Senator Ed Markey has pointed out in a letter to NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane, a 2003 study written by none other than Macfarlane herself (along with co-authors Alvarez, Thompson, and several others) starkly contradicts NRC's current "Draft Consequence Study" regarding pool fire risks. Astoundingly, and at catastrophic risk, NRC staff is relying on the "Draft Consequence Study" as the basis to recommend that no expedited transfer of irradiated nuclear fuel should be required as a "lesson learned" in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe. Beyond Nuclear and hundreds of environmental groups representing all 50 states have called for pools to be emptied into "Hardened On-Site Storage" (HOSS) for well over a decade, but their calls have fallen on deaf ears at NRC.