As documented in a Memorandum and Order, the four U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Commissioners (there has been a vacancy for many months) today approved the Fermi 3 combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA) submitted by DTE (formerly Detroit Edison) in Sept. 2008. NRC issued a press release.
An environmental coalition (Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizen Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and Sierra Club Michigan Chapter) officially intervened against the COLA on March 9, 2009 and have vowed to continue to resist the proposed new atomic reactor. The intervention's three dozen filed contentions has likely delayed Fermi 3's groundbreaking by several years.
Fermi 3 is targeted at the Lake Erie shore near Monroe, MI, immediately adjacent to the Fukushima Daiichi twin design Fermi 2 reactor, and on the very spot where the Fermi 1 experimental plutonium breeder reactor had a partial core meltdown on Oct. 5, 1966.
As conveyed in Beyond Nuclear's press release, federal court appeals are being prepared on multiple fronts: Nuclear Waste Confidence; the transmission corridor; and Quality Assurance (QA). The coalition will work with allies to block DTE from obtaining any public subisidies with which to build Fermi 3, as well.
Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge serves as the environmental coalition's legal counsel. Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc. in Burlington, Vermont serves as the coalition's expert witness on QA.
Additional organizations, including the Alliance to Halt Fermi 3 and Citizens Resistance at Fermi 2 (CRAFT), have joined in the resistance to the proposed new General Electric-Hitachi "ESBWR" (so-called Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor).