Environmental coalition "speaks for the snakes" against proposed Fermi 3 new reactor

Toledo attorney Terry Lodge represents an environmental coalition including Beyond Nuclear, Citizen Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Don't Waste Michigan, and Sierra Club, Michigan Chapter, in its struggle against the proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactorAn environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, has yet again defended its threatened Eastern Fox Snake species contention against challenges by Detroit Edison and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff. The coalition's legal counsel, Toledo attorney Terry J. Lodge (photo, left), filed "Intervenor's Reply in Opposition to DTE and NRC Staff Motions In Limine on Contention 8 (Eastern Fox Snake)" today.

The coalition's intervention against Fermi 3, the proposed new GE-Hitachi ESBWR (so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor") targeted at the Lake Erie shore of Monroe County, Michigan, began on March 9, 2009. The NRC's Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) has scheduled adjudicatory hearings around Halloween.

At the same time, the coalition has continued to challenge NRC staff's failure to perform an adequate National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis on the proposed 11-mile long electrical transmission line corridor through forested wetlands.