NRC Issues Notice of Violation to Entergy Nuclear Palisades for High-Level Radioactive Waste Risk

Beyond Nuclear, Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, and Don't Waste Michigan issued a media release upon learning of a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Notice of Violation issued to Entergy's Palisades Nuclear Power Plant on the Lake Michigan shoreline in southwest Michigan citing a nuclear criticality risk in the irradiated nuclear fuel storage pool that threated not only worker safety, but also public health. The coalition not only raised concerns about the waste storage pool, but also pointed out that the outdoor dry casks are defective and at risk of earthquakes.

Challenge to unsafe waste storage at Fermi 2

Beyond Nuclear has defended its intervention to petition the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing board which challenges safety, security, environmental, and civil liberties risks associated with the proposed dry cask storage of Fermi nuclear power plant's irradiated nuclear fuel on the Lake Erie shoreline. The Fermi 2 boiling water reactor's indoor high-level radioactive waste storage pool is now overflowing, leading Detroit Edison to seek indefinitely long-term "overflow parking" in concrete and steel silos on a concrete pad in the open air. Both the proposed Holtec International dry casks, and the storage pool, are vulnerable to accidents and attacks, which could lead to a waste fire and catastrophic radioactive releases. To mitigate the risks, Beyond Nuclear calls for hardened on-site storage. In recognition that the only solution to the radioactive waste dilemma is to stop making it, Beyond Nuclear also calls for the shutdown of Fermi 2, and the cancellation of the Fermi 3 new reactor proposal. Detroit Edisony Company and the NRC staff challenged Beyond Nuclear's standing, as well as the merits of its concerns relating to the proposed "Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation." See the May 7th Beyond Nuclear contentions, as well as our June 8th defense. And read the media release. If your group has not already done so, please consider signing on to the Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors. You can sign on by sending us an email.

Accumulated radioactive waste at the Calvert Cliffs reactors

A third reactor is proposed for the Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, nuclear power plant. But how much radioactive waste has already accumulated at the site? And what is planned for its safe, long-term storage. Read a breakdown of the Calvert Cliffs waste problem by Kevin Kamps.

Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS)

Statement of Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors. Endorsed by over 150 national and grassroots groups across the U.S., this statement calls for waste storage pools -- at catastrophic risk from attacks or accidents, especially at the nearly three dozen General Electric boiling water reactors across the country -- to be unloaded into hardened on-site storage. 

Beyond Nuclear, dozens of organizations, urge NRC to upgrade high-level radioactive waste storage casks, Nov. 24, 2008.

The C-10 Foundation (within the 10-mile radius of the Seabrook, NH nuclear power plant) has spearheaded a petition for rulemaking to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission calling for significant upgrades on the quality of the design, manufacture, and operation of dry storage casks. Dry casks are the concrete and steel silos used to contain irradiated nuclear fuel in the open air at increasing numbers of reactor sites across the country. Beyond Nuclear, along with national groups Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Public Citizen, SUN DAY Campaign, and numerous additional grassroots groups, co-signed the C-10 petition. Read the petition and the media release. Beyond Nuclear believes that while the only real solution for radioactive waste is to not make it in the first place, we must nevertheless permanently isolate what already exists from the environment. The requiring of quality assurance upgrades on high-level radioactive waste containers is an essential first step.