The area of the control room at Palisades where, on Sept. 25, 2011, a short circuit nearly electrocuted a worker, cutting off 50% of control room power, which plunged Palisades into near-disaster, testing age-degraded systems, structures, and components to the breaking point. Photo taken by Mark Bugnaski, Kalamazoo GazetteA coalition of concerned local residents, as well as representatives of environmental groups, has responded to a letter sent to them on September 4th by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairwoman, Allison Macfarlane. The exchange centers on a leak of radioactive and acidic water above, around, and even into the control room at the problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, Michigan on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Chairwoman Macfarlane stated that the NRC Staff had determined that the leak was not significant enough for the NRC Chair and Commissioners, as well as the general public, to be notified about it. The coalition begged to differ.
Chairwoman Macfarlane also stated that NRC's approval of Palisades' 20 year license extension requires Entergy to manage aging of safety significant systems, structures, and components. The coalition, which includes groups like Don't Waste Michigan that actively intervened against Palisades' license extension, responded that Entergy is utterly failing at that, as are NRC's own oversight and inspections, for Palisades has suffered a large number of sudden, age-related break downs, some of "substantial significance to safety," in NRC's own words (see photo, above left).
25 members of the coalition had met with former NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko on May 25th, immediately after his tour of Palisades, and a press conference he held, in nearby South Haven, Michigan. Neither NRC Chairman Jaczko, nor any of the NRC Staff in attendance -- including NRC Region 3 Administrator Chuck Casto, director of NRC's Office of Public Affairs Elliot Brenner, NRC resident inspectors at Palisades, and others, said one word about the leak during the meeting or press conference.
On June 12th, just over two weeks after the May 25th meeting, Palisades suddenly shutdown to investigate the leak. Press statements by Palisades' spokesman Mark Savage quickly made it clear the leak had been ongoing since before the May 25th meeting. The coalition immediately wrote Chairman Jaczko on June 14th, asking whether or not he had himself known about the leak, and why the concerned public and media had been kept in the dark.
On June 22nd, U.S. Congressman Markey (D-MA), acting on tips from Palisades whistleblowers who had confided in D.C. attorney Billie Pirner Garde, revealed that the leak was actually into the control room. Markey also revealed that Palisades' safety culture was in complete collapse. NRC had known about the safety culture problems for months, it turned out. And NRC had also known about the control room leak for a year. However, neither scandal had been revealed publicly.
On August 14th, HuffPost Hill then broke the story that NRC Chairman Jaczko had himself been kept in the dark by his own Staff about the leak, and had ordered an investigation to find out why. NRC Commissioner Ostendorff has been accused of attempting to interfere with that investigation, including yelling at the lead investigator, who happens to be a woman. If the allegation is true, it is most ironic, and hypocritical. In a letter to the White House as well as at congressional hearings, Ostendorff joined NRC Commissioners Svinicki, Magwood, and Apostalakis in seeking Jaczko's ouster from NRC for allegedly bullying female staffers, a charge never substantiated.
On August 15th, Chairwoman Macfarlane answered Markey's June 24th letter. Of note, in Macfarlane's "Response to Information Requests," she states "the licensee cannot exclude the possibility that the tank is leaking from a structural defect," and that Entergy justifies continued use of the leaking and potentially structurally defective Safety Injection Refueling Water (SIRW) storage tank under standards for the "Temporary Acceptance of Degradation." However, temporary appears to be indefinite, for no further repair or replacement is spelled out. In addition, the safety culture assessment executive summary noted a "repeated emphasis of production over safety" at Palisades. ("Production over safety" was a key factor in FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse Hole-in-the-Head fiasco in 2002, according to a Dec. 2002 NRC Office of Inspector General Investigation into NRC wrongdoing associated with the scandalous near-disaster. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Davis-Besse's 2002 Hole in the Head Fiasco was the most infamous nuclear safely lapse in the U.S. since the 1979 Three Mile Island meltdown.)
However, on August 30th, Markey was compelled to write Macfarlane again, after Palisades sprung yet another, unrelated leak -- this time, a safety-critical primary coolant leak, through-wall from a control rod drive mechanism (CRDM). Unique in the nuclear power industry, Palisades has suffered chronic CRDM seal leaks for 40 years, as documented by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
On Mon., Sept. 17th, and continuing through Fri., Sept. 28th, a team of NRC inspectors will descend on Palisades for a "IP95002 supplemental inspection." Last Valentine's Day, when NRC designated Palisades as one of the four worst-run atomic reactors in the U.S., it generously allowed Entergy as long as it needed to get back to it as to when it would be ready for a supplemental inspection. Thus, it took Entergy seven months to "clean house." This is but the latest amongst multiple probes, investigations, and inspections taking place at the problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor.