Fermi 3 Nuclear Reactor Atomic Safety Licensing Board Hearings in Monroe, MI
October 23, 2013 Press Advisory: Fermi 3 Nuclear Reactor Atomic Safety Licensing Board Hearings, October 29th through November 1st
Formal hearings begin Wednesday October 30th at 9:30 am at Monroe County Board Chambers
Contact: Michael J. Keegan, Don’t Waste Michigan (734) 770-1441
Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear (240) 462-3216
Halloween in Monroe, MI - - An environmental coalition 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. The coalition 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. The coalition is represented by Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge who filed intervention contentions and petitioned for hearings by NRC's 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. Two will be heard over Halloween, two are deferred. The proposed Fermi 3 project is behind schedule by three and one third years from DTE's original plan.
The first contention relates to the threatened Eastern Fox Snake species, an indigenous constrictor. The State of Michigan has identified that Fermi 3 would be the largest impact on Great Lakes coastal wetlands in the history of applicable state environmental protection laws.
The second contention examines the adequacy, and in fact, the very existence, of quality assurance (QA) on the entire Fermi 3 Combined Operating License Application (COLA). DTE's failure to have a quality assurance program undermines any guarantee of safe operation if Fermi 3 is ever constructed. Chief nuclear engineer Arnold Gundersen with Fairewinds Associates, Inc. will serve as the expert witness on behalf of the Interveners.
These evidentiary hearings will commence at 9:30 AM, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on Wednesday, October 30, 2013, and continue through Friday, November 1, 2013, if necessary, in the Monroe County Courthouse’s Board Meeting Room, 125 East Second Street, Monroe, MI. Monroe County Courthouse Directions ASLB Order Notice of Hearing issued May 15, 2013.
Related ASLB proceedings will be held Tuesday, October 29th with "limited appearance statements" being taken -- essentially a public comment opportunity -- by non-parties to the formal proceeding. The limited appearance statement opportunities will be held from 1-3 p.m. and from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Meyer Theater at the Monroe County Community College’s La-Z-Boy Center, 1555 S. Raisinville Road in Monroe.
More at Beyond Nuclear: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-power/2013/10/16/interventions-against-proposed-new-fermi-3-atomic-reactor-in.html
ASLB Hearing Notification link: Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Going Forward With Hearing Oct. 30 on Proposed Fermi New Reactor