Another victory: ASLB denies Entergy request for document disclosure delay on brittle vessel fracture risk at Palisades!
NRC file photo of Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor, located on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Covert, MIThe U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP) that granted an environmental coalition's hearing on June 18th, has now denied Entergy Nuclear's request for a long delay in mandatory disclosure of documents in the proceeding. NRC staff has also been ordered to publish a hearing file sooner, rather than later.
The environmental coalition includes Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste MI, MI Safe Energy Future--Shoreline Chapter, and Nuclear Energy Information Service of Chicago. Terry Lodge, a Toledo-based attorney, serves as its legal counsel. Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc. in Burlington, VT, serves as its expert witness.
The coalition's intervention concerns age-related degradation of Palisades' reactor pressure vessel (RPV), the worst embrittled in the U.S. Not only is Palisades' RPV at risk of colder temperature brittle fracture, but also to hotter temperature ductile fracture, or tearing. A through-wall fracture of the RPV would lead to a Loss-of-Coolant-Accident (LOCA), core meltdown, potential containment failure, and catastrophic release of hazardous radioactivity.
The environmental coalition has issued a press release about today's legal victory.
The ASLBP's July 9th ORDER is posted here.
The full docket of documents from this proceeding follows below, in chronological order:
(Entergy applied for regulatory relief under an "Equivalent Margins Analysis" under 10CFR50, Appendix G, because certain parts of its reactor pressure vessel at Palisades will fall below the Charpy V-Notch Upper Shelf Energy 50 foot-pounds screening criteria for metal degradation, as early as December, 2016. The risk is of through-wall ductile fracture, or tearing, at hotter temperatures):
On March 9, 2015 the coalition opened a second front in the safety regulation battle, filing an intervention petition and hearing request regarding the parallel issues of Entergy Palisades' "Equivalent Margins Analysis." (The first front, re: colder temperature brittle fracture risk, is discussed in the final paragraph in this post, below.) This attempt by Entergy at yet another weakening of regulations is due to the "Charpy V-Notch Upper-Shelf Energy" of RPV plates and welds at Palisades falling below NRC's 50 ft.-lb. safety screening criteria. In addition to refiling Gundersen's December 1, 2014 expert witness declaration, Lodge also cited a recent Greenpeace International report, warning that extensive micro-cracking of RPVs in Belgium raises a red flag for similar cracking occurring worldwide. Greenpeace Belgium also issued a press release.
Beyond Nuclear posted a March 10 web entry about the March 9 filing.
On April 3, 2015 the NRC staff and Entergy filed oppositional responses to the environmental coalition's March 9 intervention petition.
Beyond Nuclear et al. filed a rebuttal to NRC's and Entergy's responses on April 10, 2015.
On June 18th, by a 2-1 split decision, the NRC ASLBP ruled in favor of environmental intervenors, granting an evidentiary hearing on the merits of its technical safety concerns. See the ASLBP ORDER AND MEMORANDUM, here.
On June 26th, the ASLBP published an ORDER Identifying Hearing Procedures and Scheduling Conference Call, posted here.
On June 29th, Entergy Nuclear filed a MOTION TO DEFER INITIAL DISCLOSURES, posted here.
On July 7th, on behalf of itself, as well as NRC staff and environmental intervenors, Entergy Nuclear filed a JOINT PROPOSAL ON MANDATORY DISCLOSURES AND SCHEDULE, posted here.
On July 8th, environmental intervenors filed a POSITION STATEMENT ON MANDATORY DISCLOSURES AND SCHEDULE, posted here.
On July 9th, the ASLBP issued its ORDER, denying Entergy's request for deferred mandatory disclosures, posted here.
The environmental coalition has also launched a separate and distinct, but parallel and overlapping, intervention proceeding regarding Palisades' colder temperature brittle fracture risk, due to neutron radiation bombardment embrittlement of the RPV, making it vulnerable to pressurized thermal shock. The Dec. 1, 2014 intervention petition was ruled against by the same ASLBP on May 8, 2015. The coalition appealed this ruling to the full NRC Commission on June 2, 2015. Links to the full docket of documents in this previous, ongoing proceeding are posted here.
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Environmental intervenors have 25 days to rebut Entergy's appeal, that is, by August 7th.
On July 14th, the ASLBP issued its Initial Scheduling Order, laying out the deadlines and due dates in the proceeding to come.