Environmental coalition urges Mayor and City Commission of Kalamazoo to take action on Entergy Nuclear's Palisades atomic reactor

NRC file photo of Entergy Nuclear's Palisades atomic reactor, located in Covert Township, Van Buren County, Michigan, on the Lake Michigan shorelineBelow are links to documents presented to the Kalamazoo City Commission on 10/19/15 by a coalition, including members of the Michigan Safe Energy Future--Kalamazoo Chapter (MSEF), the Sierra Club Southwest Michigan Chapter, and the Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Michigan Committee. 

They were included as part of the request for support of a Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Michigan Committee initiated draft resolution.

Mark Muhich of Jackson, MI serves as the Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Michigan Committee's chairman.

The initiative seeks support for an environmental coalition's hard won evidentiary hearings before a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP). The hearings are regarding reactor pressure vessel (RPV) age-related degradation risks at Entergy Nuclear's Palisades atomic reactor. Palisades is located on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Covert, MI (four miles south of South Haven, and less than 40 miles upwind of Kalamazoo; see photo, above left).

The environmental coalition also asked that the Mayor of Kalamazoo, Bobby Hopewell, write a letter to the NRC Commissioners, supporting the ASLBP hearings, similar to a letter sent by the Grand Rapids Mayor, George Heartwell, to the NRC Chairman, Steven Burns, on July 30, 2015.

Iris Potter, a coordinator for the MSEF--Kalamazoo Chapter, also presented a memo to the Mayor and City Commission of Kalamazoo, urging action.

The ASLBP granted a hearing to an environmental coalition on June 18, 2015, regarding technical contentions related to Palisades' admitted violation of NRC reactor pressure vessel safety screening criteria as early as Dec. 2016. Palisades' loss of RPV fracture toughness is due to neutron radiation embrittlement, thermal stresses, the decision not to install a thermal shield during construction nearly a half-century ago, and other factors. 

Entergy Nuclear immediately appealed the ASLBP's ruling granting the hearing.

In August, 2015 the Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Campaign filed a Friend of the Court brief in support of the hearings, opposing Entergy's appeal. Wally Taylor serves as Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Campaign legal counsel.

The environmental coalition (comprised of Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste MI, MSEF, and Nuclear Energy Information Service of Chicago) has also appealed a ruling to the NRC Commissioners--the ASLBP's earlier rejection of a related contention on Palisades' RPV neutron radiation embrittlement, acknowledged numerous times over past years and decades as the worst of any reactor in the U.S. Terry Lodge serves as the environmental coalition's legal counsel.

The dueling appeals are before the NRC Commissioners, awaiting their ruling. If the NRC Commissioners rule against Entergy's appeal, the hearings will proceed, with oral arguments currently set for early 2016.