Celebrating Earth Day & John Muir's birthday by seeking to prevent a Chernobyl-like catastrophe on Lake Michigan at Entergy's Palisades

As reported by WWMT (Kalamazoo, MI's CBS t.v. affiliate), on April 21st, an environmental coalition marked the eve of Earth Day, and the birthday of Sierra Club founder John Muir, with a forum calling for the "shutdown before meltdown" of Entergy Nuclear's problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor.

The event was held at First Congregational UCC Church in downtown Kalamazoo, less than 40 miles (as the radioactive Iodine-131 flies) straight downwind from Palisades, well within the 50-mile radiological emergency planning zone (EPZ, see image below).

Beyond Nuclear, in coalition with Michigan Safe Energy Future-Kalamazoo Chapter (MSEF) and Sierra Club Southwest Michigan Group (SWMG) sponsored the event.

Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps -- a board member of Don't Waste Michigan, representing his native Kalamazoo chapter -- presented a power point entitled Fukushima, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island…Where Next?!

Beyond Nuclear congratulates the local organizers for a great event. Their press work garnered advance media coverage, which helped generate a good turn out. Folks came from as far away as metro Detroit (see the "Got KI?" campaign below), as well as from the shoreline (including MSEF-Shoreline Chairman Bette Pierman and other chapter members; Palisades Park residents, the atomic reactor's immediately adjacent neighbors); and Saugatuck's Dayle Harrison, long-time director of the Kalamazoo River Protection Association).

The program was creative and powerful.

Michael Keegan, Alice Hirt, and Kevin Kamps of Don't Waste Michigan speak out against Palisades in August 2000 at the Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camp. Palisades' cooling tower steam rises in the background (Lake Michigan is also visible). The crosses in the foreground bear the names of villages, towns, cities, and counties within the nearby region that could be turned into radioactive Dead Zones, if Palisades has a catastrophic radioactivity release. Photo by Gabriela Bulisova at Van Buren State Park.Tom Duffield welcomed arriving attendees with piano music, accompanied by vocals from Michael Hoag. Both are core organizing team members with MSEF-Kalamazoo Chapter (Tom also made sure the sound system worked for all the speakers).

Catherine Sugas, a long time anti-Palisades activist, then sang Earth Day-themed songs, to begin the program.

Roger Taylor, active with the Sierra Club SWMG, emceed the event (as well as providing essential technical assistance to make the power point presentations possible, as did Hoag).

Bruce Brown, coordinator of the Sierra Club SWMG and its webmaster, said a few words about the chapter and its activities, as did Iris Potter, a core team member with MSEF-Kalamazoo Chapter.

Michael Hoag read aloud a powerful letter sent by Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Steven Burns, not only expressing support for hearings won from NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) by a coalition of environmental groups (including Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste MI, MSEF, and Nuclear Energy Information Service of Chicago), but adding "the requested regulatory relief should be denied to ENTERGY."

Hopewell sent the letter on November 6, 2015. Shockingly, a mere three days later, the NRC Commissioners ruled in favor of Entergy's appeal nonetheless, overruling their own ASLB, and denying the environmental coalition its hard won hearing.

Then, a mere two weeks after that, the NRC staff added insult to injury, granting Palisades the regulatory relief (rubber-stamping the regulatory retreat, or rollbacks on safety standards) that Mayor Hopewell had protested. In short, NRC had granted Palisades permission to operate for an additional 16 years (2015-2031), despite having the worst embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the U.S., at risk of catastrophic radioactivity release due to a pressurized thermal shock fracture, Loss-of-Coolant-Accident, and core meltdown.

Kalamazoo's Vice Mayor, Don Cooney, attended the 4/21 event, as did the campaign manager for Democratic candidate for U.S. Representative, Paul Clements.

A delegation of co-chairs from the Alliance to Halt Fermi 3 (ATHF3) in metro Detroit came all the way across the state to take part in the event. Ethyl Rivera gave an enlightening presentation about ATHF3's "Got KI?" campaign, launched last year in partnership with Beyond Nuclear. The idea is to expand the "Got KI?" efforts to the Palisades region, in order to help protect residents' thyroid glands, in the event of a catastrophic release of radioactive Iodine-131 from the troubled, age-degraded reactor.

Bruce Brown and Roger Taylor with Sierra Club SWMG also prepared KI-related informational materials for the event. Brown related their experience paying a visit to the Palisades nuclear power plant, only to find that Entergy officials had no emergency preparedness materials handy -- including regarding protecting human thyroid glands from radioactive I-131 -- to share with them. This, despite the epidemic of thyroid pathology -- especially in children -- the took place in the aftermath of Chernobyl, and now appears to be happening in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear catatsrophe.

An extended question and answer period led to in depth discussions.

Brown from Sierra Club SWMG and Potter from MSEF-Kalamazoo Chapter wrapped up the event with "next steps" and "what you can do" announcements, including plans for a follow up organzing meeting in Kalamazoo in early May.

Update on April 23, 2016 by admin

Iris Potter with MSEF-Kalamazoo Chapter wrote the following in response to the post above:

Hello Everyone.  Thank you Kevin for taking the time to create this awesome detailed summary of the week's happenings including the "Palisades Forum" coverage. The news from UBS financial was definitely a boost to this week too--a day or so before the event. If folks get a chance to view the link to Kevin's Power Point please do as it is excellent. Folks in Kalamazoo loved it and all of the links give us the total information we need for this week!

We truly had an awesome event with about 60 attendees, many folks also picked-up our great yard signs and our information tables saw lots of action and conversations--it was great to see.  Let's Ban Fracking also was present to get even more signatures for the next ballot attempt.  The First Congregational Church is a local hub of community organizing as they open their doors to it--thank you thank you!  

We are very happy here in Kalamazoo with our newer Coalition now including Michigan Safe Energy Future and Sierra Club SW MI.  It just took the contact and connection Kevin made for us--thank you.  We will be going forth with more person-power/other resources, etc. The "Palisades Shutdown Team" is getting stronger everyday.  (Please note and we thank the other organizers and volunteers not listed above: Becky Mandrell, Karen Shuur and Ginger Miller--we all work so well together)!   

Thank you again to all who came from far and wide, referenced below. Also, John Brenneman from Goshen Indiana attended and he was an active Team member having created our original brochure which we love.  He is always with us in spirit until his return.

 

All of this and some pictures coming soon. Please view our Facebook Page "Palisades Shutdown Campaign--Michigan Safe Energy Future" which, in its 3-4 years of existence, is an increasing hub for posting and interactive comments.  You can easily "Like" us. Post, "Share," "Invite" and "Comment" if you desire.  Public education is such a key. 

Going forward and now, "Shutdown Before Meltdown 2016."   The Forum team in Kalamazoo

Update on April 23, 2016 by admin

There were some questions after the 4/21 event in Kalamazoo, re: what impact closing Palisades would have on: "keeping the lights on" (electric reliability), the future employment of the workforce there, and the area's economy.

An October 2015 report by Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and the Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE), regarding the strong arguments in favor of permanently shutting down Entergy's FitzPatrick atomic reactor on the Lake Ontario shore in Upstate NY, sheds important light on these issues at Palisades.

The report is entitled "Replacing FitzPatrick: How the Closure of a Nuclear Reactor can Reduce Greenhouse Gasses and Radioactive Waste, while Creating Jobs and Supporting the Local Economy."

It was written by AGREE Program Director, Jessica Azulay, and NIRS Executive Director, Tim Judson.

Thankfully, Entergy has recently announced the permanent closure date for FitzPatrick: Jan. 27, 2017.

While the details differ between FitzPatrick and Palisades, many of the same principles still apply.

Replacing Palisades' dirty, dangeorus, and expensive nuclear electricity, with dirty, dangerous, and expensive fossil fuel generated electricity, is not necessary. Energy efficiency, and renewables like wind and solar power, could provide more than enough electricity to replace Palisades. And they could do so more affordably, not to mention more safely and cleanly. And, considering major advances in energy storage technologies, they could do so equally reliably, if not more so (Palisades has suffered a large number of unplanned shutdowns in recent years; these not only showed Palisades' electricity is not needed -- the lights stayed on -- but also that the increasing safety risks are not necessary, nor acceptable, given that better alternatives exist).

The NIRS and AGREE report also sheds light on a just transition for workers at a closing nuclear power plant. For one thing, clean up of the site's radioactive contamination, and safeguarding of the high-level radioactive waste stored on site, are essential, and will provide employment for many years, and even decades, into the future.

And the report shows how reactor closure opens new opportunities for economic development in the host community and area, not only terms of expanding energy efficiency and renewable energy, but also growth in other sectors, including -- considering Palisades' Lake Michigan shoreline location -- increased tourism, recreation, property values, etc., as reactor safety concerns cease, upon permanent shutdown. (Although the ongoing risks of the high-level radioactive waste still stored on-site must be addressed, of course.)