Beyond Nuclear et al take NRC to court to oppose Seabrook relicensing

Beyond Nuclear, Seacoast AntiPollution League and the New Hampshire Chapter of the Sierra Club have filed an appeal to Federal Court challenging the NRC Commissioners (5-0) ruling to overturn the federal agency's own Atomic Safety Licensing Board Order to admit the groups for a  hearing in the proposed 20-year license extension of the Seabrook nuclear generating station. The groups had filed a October 2010 request to hold a hearing under the National Environmental Policy Act in support of an environmentally-friendly deepwater wind energy alternative project as opposed to twenty more years of dirty, dangerous and expensive nuclear power.

NextEra (aka "Next Error") submitted an application to extend their current 40-year license by 20 years, 20 years before the nuke license expires and argued that the future of renewable energy alternatives is "too speculative" to consider for the license extension period of 2030 to 2050.  The groups argue that the company's environmental review failed to even consider a 5 Gigawatts of deep water offshore wind project under development as an environmental friendly alternative already in the works for the Gulf of Maine and scheduled to come on-line in the Seabrook region-of-service at the same time the nuke is requesting its extension by 2030.

You can view the May 14, 2012 joint press statement here.  A copy of  the October 20, 2010 petition and links to supporting documents on the deepwater wind alternative can be viewed here.