Beyond Nuclear warns about safety risks of operating Palisades till 2022

Beyond Nuclear issued a press statement upon the news of Entergy Nuclear's decision to not close its Palisades atomic reactor in s.w. MI, as it previously had announced, by Oct. 1, 2018.

Entergy has now indicated it will run Palisades until at least 2022, till the end of its Power Purchase Agreement with Consumers Energy.

However, in 2007, the NRC rubber-stamped Palisades' operating license extension till 2031, so it's possible the reactor could continue to operate even after 2022.

This would be unlikely, given its inability to compete with much cheaper sources of electricity, including renewables.

However, as seen in IL and NY, massive subsidies at ratepayer expense, awarded by the nuclear power industry's friends in high places of government, have overcome such economic failures, and allowed dangerously age-degraded atomic reactors to keep operating.

In the case of Palisades on the Lake Michigan shoreline, the Davis-Besse and Fermi nuclear power plants on the Lake Erie shore in OH, and multiple reactors on the Lake Ontario shore in NY, this is putting the Great Lakes at increasing risk of a radioactive catastrophe.

The Great Lakes are the source of drinking water for 40 million people, in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations, in current generations alone. All future generations will also need safe, clean drinking water, of course, and the Great Lakes are one of the most significant single sources on the planet.

Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education (our expert witness at Palisades, Davis-Besse, and Fermi), wrote an essay entitled "Downstream," about the extreme radioactive risks faced by the Great Lakes. It seems Entergy intends to exacerbate such risks at Palisades, for at least another five years, if not for 14 more years!