NRC file photo of Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, MI on the Lake Michigan shoreline
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced its next very important public meeting regarding Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor's very troubled performance in 2011. Palisades (pictured left) is located in Covert, MI, less than 5 miles south of South Haven, on the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Date and Time: Wed., March 21st, 6 to 8:30pm Eastern
The meeting location is: Beach Haven Event Center, 10420 M-140, South Haven, MI 49090. If you can make it in person, please do so; otherwise, please call-in:
Phone number: 1-800-621-9524
Passcode: 2133121.
NRC has put out a press release about the meeting. NRC has also posted a meeting announcement, with a link to a more detailed notice.
In 2011 alone, Palisades had five "un-planned shutdowns": some of the accidents amounted to close calls with catastrophe. The most risky accident of all was a Sept. 25, 2011 loss of electricity to half the control room, which threw the plant into chaos, and came precariously close to injecting cooling water from the Emergency Core Cooling System into the hot, brittle reactor pressure vessel. This could have fractured it like a hot glass under cold water, leading instantly to a Loss of Coolant Accident and potential meltdown. Even the NRC, infamous for its regulatory rollbacks, acknowledged the incident was of "substantial significance to safety."
The 3/21 meeting includes a public open house from 5:30 to 6pm, followed by a formal business meeting from 6 to 8:30pm. After NRC concludes its business portion of the meeting with Entergy Palisades executives, it will then take questions from the public.