Congressman Kucinich successfully demands NRC public meeting on cracked Davis-Besse shield building

U.S. Rep. Kucinich is closely monitoring the cracked Davis-Besse atomic reactor shield buildingU.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (Democrat-Ohio) has successfully demanded from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission a public meeting regarding the recently revealed, widespread cracking in FirstEnergy Nuclear's Davis-Besse atomic reactor shield building.

Kucinich stated in a press release on December 23rd: “The NRC is right to give the public the chance to ask questions of FirstEnergy about the questionable structural integrity of Davis-Besse.  I have already uncovered significant new information which has raised new questions about the cracks in the shield building through my own investigation.  I look forward to a frank discussion with FirstEnergy on January 5.”

As described in an NRC announcement, the meeting will take place on Thursday, January 5, from 6:30 to 9:30 pm Eastern, at Camp Perry, a military base near Davis-Besse in Port Clinton, Ohio. Beyond Nuclear, which is helping lead an environmental coalition intervention against the problem-plagued Davis-Besse's 20 year license extension, encourages all who can attend the meeting in person to do so. For others around the country, NRC is providing a toll-free phone line for calling in: "Members of the public interested in participating in the meeting can attend in person or by calling the toll-free teleconference number 800-369-1122 and entering passcode 7687149."

Congressman Kucinich has taken a lead role in questioning the safety significance of Davis-Besse's shield building cracks, and NRC's rash decision to allow the reactor to re-start before the cause and extent of the problem is even understood.

As revealed by an NRC-commissioned, Sandia National Lab-conducted study from 1982, a major radioactivity release at Davis-Besse could cause 1,400 "peak early fatalities," 73,000 "peak early injuries," 10,000 "peak cancer deaths," $84 billion in property damages. Those property damages would top $185 billion when adjusted for inflation; population increases in the past 40 years have not been accounted for in NRC's 1982 casualty figures, as they were based on 1970 U.S. Census data.

Is Palisades the Upper Big Branch Coal Mine of the nuclear power industry?!

Michael Keegan, Alice Hirt, and Kevin Kamps of Don't Waste Michigan call for Palisades' shut down at the 2000 Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camp, with the reactor's cooling tower steam and Lake Michigan visible in the background.Blogger Mike Mulligan of Hinsdale, NH recently made this comparison in his "The Entergy-Palisades Upper Branch Coal Mine" post at the Brattleboro Reformer. Mulligan, who lives all too near Entergy's Vermont Yankee atomic reactor in the Vermont/New Hampshire/Massachusetts tri-state area, argues that the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) -- on whose watch 25 miners perished in an explosion at Massey Energy's West Virginia coal mine owned by Don Blankenship in April 2010 -- so obviously weak and woefully inadequate, is, frighteningly, actually a stronger regulator than the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission: at least MSHA exacts monetary fines against industry offenders to reflect the seriousness of the safety violations, while NRC usually just "throws colors" at them (green, white, yellow, or red "findings") but all too rarely punishes with fines.

As shown by an NRC-commissioned report, however, a large-scale radioactivity release at Palisades could kill a lot more than 25 workers: the 1982 Sandia National Lab-conducted CRAC-2 study predicted 1,000 "peak early fatalities," 7,000 "peak early injuries," 10,000 "peak cancer deaths," and $116 billion in property damages (when adjusted for inflation) downwind and downstream from a major accident at Palisades.

Watchdogs on Entergy's Palisades in southwest Michigan do fear that the more than four decade old atomic reactor is an accident waiting to happen. In 2011, Palisades suffered five "unplanned shutdowns," most recently on December 14, 2011 due to "MANUAL REACTOR TRIP DUE TO LOSS OF BOTH MAIN FEEDPUMPS." Watchdogs are concerned that the resultant "atmospheric steam dump" may have included radioactivity. However, NRC allowed Palisades to immediately re-start its problem-plagued reactor and return to 100% uprated power levels, even though the cause of the problem had not yet been determined.

On Jan. 11, 2012, NRC Region III in Lisle, IL will meet with Entergy about not one, but two, significant safety violations: a "yellow finding" (NRC's second most severe, below only "red") regarding "the loss of the left train of direct current power on September 25, 2011"; and a "white finding" of "moderate safety significance" regarding "the failure of a safety-related service water pump (P-7C) on August 9, 2011."

The environmental movement of Michigan was united in its opposition to the 20 year license extension at Palisades, but NRC rubberstamped it anyway in 2007.

NRC approves AP1000 design for new reactors proposed in Georgia and South Carolina

As reported by the New York Times, the five Commissioners of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today approved the design certification for Toshiba-Westinghouse's so-called "Advanced Passive 1000" (AP1000, which is actually an 1,100 Megawatt-electric reactor) reactor design. This would allow construction of two new reactors at Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, and two new reactors at Summer nuclear power plant in South Carolina, to accelerate. The approval comes despite a major design flaw identified by nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, working on behalf of an environmental coalition opposing new AP1000s proposed across the Southeast. Both the Vogtle and Summer new reactor projects enjoyed ratepayer subsidies in the form of current "Construction Work in Progress" charges on electricity bills, something that is illegal in most states. In addition, the Vogtle project received an $8.3 billion nuclear loan guarantee, announced by President Obama himself in February, 2010. If actually built, this would be the first new reactor order actually constructed in the U.S. since October 1973. All other orders after that point were either cancelled outright, or abandoned midway.

Update on December 22, 2011 by admin

U.S. Energy Secretary Chu praised NRC's design certification of the AP1000. Not only did the Energy Department award the two proposed new Vogtle AP1000s an $8.33 billion nuclear loan guarantee, at taxpayer financial risk -- DOE also chose the AP1000 as a "Nuclear Power 2010" program design, subsidizing its engineering design as well as regulatory licensing costs in a 50-50 cost-share with industry, another taxpayer giveaway to an already heavily subsidized, filthy rich industry.

Erin Brockovich warns about radioactive "Hot Water" discharged by U.S. atomic reactors

CNN interviewed famous environmentalist Erin Brockovich (pictured, left) about her new novel, Hot Water, on the health risks of radioactivity leaks into the environment from nuclear power plants across the U.S. Brockovich warns that radioactivity ingestion by children, as evidenced through such projects as the "Tooth Fairy," could begin to explain cancer epidemics in certain locales nationwide. Beyond Nuclear has long warned its not just accidental ("unmonitored, uncontrolled") leaks of hazardous radioactivity, but also "routine releases" (supposedly "controlled and monitored") allowed and permitted by government regulators as a daily part of atomic reactors' operations, that need to stopped. Children are significantly more vulnerable to radiation's hazards, as revealed by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research's "Healthy from the Start" campaign.

Beyond Nuclear launches investigation into fire protection at US nuclear power plants to determine if industry misled federal government on compliance

The NRC is looking into allegations made by Beyond Nuclear that the nuclear industry misled federal nuclear safety officials regarding industry compliance with agency Orders for reactors to protect control room electrical circuits vital to shutting down reactors following a serious fire.

Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear Reactor Oversight Director, called for the investigation in testimony before the Commission as part of a December 13^th briefing by industry officials and NRC staff on the status of fire protection at nuclear power plants in the US.   

The Beyond Nuclear investigation documents that operators like Exelon’s Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township, NJ were found in violation of federal fire code for safe shutdown equipment and ordered to protect the electric circuit from potential fire damage by installing approved fire barriers.  Beyond Nuclear is alleging that the Oyster Creek operators later replied to the federal agency that the corrective actions were completed per Orders when in fact they had instead substituted illegal and unauthorized actions.

In the end, NRC exempted many operators from the very law that the nuclear power plants were originally under Orders to comply with.

However, if there is a finding that nuclear power plant operators willfully misled the government, this would constitute a felony offense.  

Read the Beyond Nuclear press release.