Opponents to Entergy's IP license extensions granted 30 extra days to comment/submit contentions on FSEIS

As reported by the MidHudsonNews:

Indian Point critics have time extension to comment on FSEIS

BUCHANAN – The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given parties wanting to comment on the final supplemental environmental impact statement pertaining to the Indian Point power plant relicensing 30 additional days to file comments on the document.

The FSEIS Supplement was published and made available on June 21. On July 1, the state and Riverkeeper, Inc. informed the board that 30 days was not an adequate amount of time to prepare new or amended contentions. New York requested 90 days and Riverkeeper sought 45 days. Entergy, Indian Point’s owner, suggested that 30 days was adequate.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board announced on Wednesday it will allow 30 extra days, citing as a key reason the fact that the new information contained in the supplement is very fixed in scope to potential aquatic impacts. The deadline was moved from July 20 to August 20.

Beyond Nuclear on Thom Hartmann radio show regarding worsening radioactivity releases at Fukushima Daiichi

On July 11th, Thom Hartmann (photo, left) interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on his radio show about the cancer death of Masao Yoshida, Tokyo Electric Power Company's (Tepco) general manager of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and leader of the "Fukushima 50" who tried, at great personal risk, but unsuccessfully, to prevent the three reactor meltdowns of March 2011. Thom also asked Kevin about reports that radioactivity releases from Fukushima Daiichi have increased nearly 100-fold in recent weeks and months, and what this means in terms of radioactivity hazard for Japanese seafood, rice, and other exports to the United States.

A day earlier, Sam Sachs on RT interviewed Kevin about the same issues.

Riverkeeper contests NRC's conclusion that IP's aquatic impacts on Hudson "small"

As reported by POWERnews, in response to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's FSEIS (Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement) finding that aquatic impacts from 20-year license extensions at Entergy's Indian Point Unit 2 and 3 atomic reactors would be "small":

'...One environmental group, Riverkeeper, has alleged that Indian Point violates the Clean Water Act and has devastating effects on the ecology of the Hudson River. "It leaks radioactive water, discharges heated water that damages river life, and its ineffective cooling water-intake screens do too little to stop the slaughter of more than a billion fish and other river organisms every year," the group says on its website...".

VT PSB rules it can and will hear issues surrounding Entergy VY's impacts on Connecticut River

NRC file photo of VY on the Connecticut River border of VT and NH, 8 miles north of the MA state lineAs reported by John Dillon at Vermont Public Radio, the State of Vermont has yet again asserted its right and authority to oversee operations at Entergy's controversial Vermont Yankee (VY) atomic reactor in Vernon near Brattleboro. VY is a Fukushima Daiichi twin design -- a General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor.

This time, the State of Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) has ruled it does have the authority to hear issues involving VY's impacts, such as thermal hot water releases, on the Connecticut River. The PSB is currently holding hearings on whether or not to grant Entergy a renewed Certificate of Public Good (CPG), needed in order to conduct business in the State of Vermont. VY is operating under an expired CPG, which expired on March 22, 2012 -- the first day of VY's U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rubber-stamped 20-year license extension. VY is also operating with an expired surface water discharge permit, which expired in 2006. The PSB has ruled that Entergy cannot rely on that expired discharge permit as supposed proof that its impacts on the Connecticut are acceptable.

Radiation Expert Exposes Danger to Ohioans from Fracking Waste

Dr. Marvin Resnikoff of RWMADr. Marvin Resnikoff of Radioactive Waste Management Associates has authored a report, Hydraulic Fracturing Radiological Concerns for Ohio, on behalf of the FreshWater Accountability Project Ohio. FWAPOH also put out a press release, "Radiation Expert Exposes Danger to Ohioans from Fracking Waste," which calls for better public protections from the State of Ohio and the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District [MWCD]. 

Resnikoff points out that much of the highly-radioactive solids such as rocks and soils pulled up during drilling, and contaminated muds and sands are cheaply disposed of in municipal landfills in Ohio, irrespective of actual radioactivity content, for 1/100th of the cost of disposal of comparable low-level radioactive waste from nuclear weapons and nuclear power generation in the nation's three facilities for that purpose. In Ohio, he stated, "It is evident that environmental concerns are trumped by the economics beneficial to the unconventional shale drilling industry." Similarly, Dr. Resnikoff identified evidence that the Patriot water treatment facility in Warren, Ohio, which delivers pretreated water to the Warren public water treatment plant, is likely sending radium-laden water into the Mahoning River watershed. "On a daily basis, Patriot does not test for gamma emitting radionuclides and for radium-226," he observed. 

"Dr. Resnikoff's work illustrates that Ohioans, from common citizens to truck drivers to landfill workers, are daily being exposed to radiation exposure or poisoning because the Governor, General Assembly and even a large conservancy district, the MWCD, are sacrificing public protections to prop up frackers' profitability," asserted Terry Lodge, attorney for SEOSOW. "Under the guise of 'austerity,' the state government is destroying protective regulations for everyone, while creating a business environment where those who threaten public health and the environment pay little to nothing. And even huge corporate welfare breaks aren't saving this dirty, low-productivity con game."

Lodge also serves as the attorney for environmental coalitions, including Beyond Nuclear, opposing the proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor in southeast MI, as well as the 20-year license extension, and the proposed steam generator replacement, at Davis-Besse in northwest OH.

Fracking was exempted from such federal laws as the Safe Drinking Water Act by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the same law which automatically subsidized nuclear power to the tune of $13 billion, while additionally leading to the approval of $22.5 billion in nuclear loan guarantees thus far.

On May 22nd, Beyond Nuclear joined with 67 other groups to chastise Environmental Defense Fund for joining into a greenwashing alliance with the fracking industry.