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Relicensing

The U.S. nuclear reactor fleet is aging but owners are applying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for license extensions to operate reactors an additional 20 years beyond their licensed lifetimes. Beyond Nuclear is challenging and opposing relicensing efforts.

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Entries by admin (239)

Thursday
Aug192021

TROUBLED SCRAM AT PT. BEACH: Physicians' group requests NRC action

US NRC file photo of Point Beach nuclear power plant, on WI's Lake Michigan shorelinePoint Beach Unit 1 experienced a troubled manual shutdown on July 31st -- just two days after an NRC licensing board rejected all of Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin's expert-backed contentions, opposing 30 more years of high-risk operations at the half-century old nuclear power plant on the Lake Michigan shore.
PSR WI expert Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, analyzed the trip, identifying four separate problems, focusing on aging-related degradation aspects of the root cause. PSR WI has requested an NRC Augmented Inspection Team to examine the incident. At the same time, Nukewatch Wisconsin's John LaForge has documented that emergency sirens have been turned off at the plant. We are honored to advise PSR WI.
Monday
Aug162021

Point Beach Reactor Courts Disaster with Sirens Turned Off

As reported by John LaForge of Nukewatch Wisconsin, and published at Counterpunch.

The half-century old Point Beach Unit 1 and 2 atomic reactors have applied to NRC for a subsequent license renewal, which, if and when approved, would allow both already age-degraded units to operate for a grand total of 80 years.

Wednesday
Aug112021

Physicians Group Requests Evaluation of Point Beach Nuclear Reactor Shutdown

US NRC file photo of Point Beach Units 1 & 2 on WI's Lake Michigan shorelineAs announced by a PSR WI (Physicians for Social Responsibility Wiscosin) press release dated August 10, 2021.

See PSR WI's Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant information page, here.

See PSR WI's August 6th emailed request to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for an Augmented Inspection Team to be sent to Point Beach to investigate, posted below.

The PSR WI press release links to an expert analysis by Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates. Gundersen's analysis identified four separate problem areas associated with a July 31, 2021 scram at Point Beach, or "Manual Reactor Trip of Unit 1," as the NRC Event Report refers to it.

PSR WI's request further investigation of the events leading up to and after the scram by an NRC Augmented Inspection Team, dated August 6, 2021, happened to be sent on the 76th annual commemoration of the Hiroshima atomic bombing.

NRC's initial response to the request (see the August 12th NRC email, posted below) ignored Gundersen's focus on the age-related degradation aspects of the root cause of the scram.

The scram took place just two days after the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel -- although acknowledging PSR WI's legal standing to intervene against Point Beach's application for an 80-year operating license -- had all rejected four contentions, backed by three expert witnesses, which PSR WI had filed. PSR WI plans to appeal the ASLB ruling.

One of the witnesses, Gundersen, included contentions focused on age-related degradation safety risks at the half-century old reactors. NRC subsequent license renewal proceedings, for 80-year operating permits, are largely limited to considering a very narrow range of aging-related safety matters.

PSR WI's legal counsel in the proceeding is Terry Lodge of Toledo, OH.

Beyond Nuclear is honored and privileged to serve as a consultant in the vital PSR WI intervention.

Lake Michigan, on the shore of which Point Beach nuclear power plant is located, is the drinking water supply for 40 million people downstream, in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a very large number of Indigenous Nations. It is a primary headwaters of the Great Lakes, which comprise 21% of the entire world's surface fresh water, and 84% of North America's.

Gundersen has previously warned what a Fukushima-scale nuclear catastrophe taking place on the Great Lakes shorelines could look like. His essay, "Downstream," was published on July 16, 2015 -- which happened to be the 36th annual commemoration of one of the worst radiological releases into the environment in U.S. history. It happened near Church Rock, New Mexico, when a uranium mill tailings holding pond burst through an earthen dam. The radioactive and toxic wastewater flood flowed down the Puerco River, the sole source of drinking and irrigation water for Navajo/Diné shepherds downstream, at the Red Water Pond Road Community. The contamination was never cleaned up.

Even NRC, in a 1982 report it commissioned, acknowledged that 500 acute radiation poisoning deaths ("Peak Early Fatalities"), 9,000 radiation injuries ("Peak Early Injuries"), 7,000 latent cancer fatalities ("Latent Cancer Deaths"), and $41.4 to $43.8 billion in property damage (expressed as 1982 dollar figures) would result, if either one of the cores melted down, and released even a fraction of its ionizing radioactivity contents into the environment at Point Beach.

Presumably, a twin-meltdown at the site would at least double casualties and property damage, as reported by NRC's commissioned report in 1982.

At Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, a triple reactor meltdown began on March 11, 2011, domino-effect style.

A June 2011 AP investigative four-part series, "Aging Nukes," by Jeff Donn, pointed out that populations have soared around nuclear power plants like Point Beach, since the 1982 NRC commissioned report. So casualty figures would be much worse now. And adjusted for inflation alone -- not even considering further economic development in surrounding areas since 1982 -- property damages would now exceed $112.55 to $119.07 billion dollars for a single core meltdown, as expressed as Year 2020 dollar figures.

The series also cited neutron-embrittlement of pressurized water reactor (PWR) reactor pressure vessels (RPV) as its top example of NRC regulatory retreat in the U.S. In 2013, NRC acknolwedged that Point Beach Unit 2 is the single worst example of RPV embrittlement in the U.S. (see Page 5 of 15 on the PDF counter in this NRC document, Point #4).

Although tied as worst with Palisades in MI -- also on the Lake Michigan shoreline -- that reactor has announced permanent closure by May 31, 2022. However, Point Beach has applied to NRC for permission to operate 30 more years -- an application NRC appears poised to rubberstamp, despite the already high, and worsening, age-related degradation risks.

Thursday
Jul292021

NRC REJECTS SAFETY AT WI NUKE: Dangerously age-degraded nuke may get license extension

NRC file photo of Point Beach Units 1 & 2 on the Lake Michigan shoreline in WIA U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel has rejected numerous contentions brought by Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin (PSR WI), while it acknowledged the group's legal standing. PSR raised objection to a "subsequent license renewal" at the two-reactor Point Beach nuclear power plant on the Lake Michigan shore (pictured). Point Beach is already 51 years old, but is seeking approval to operate for 80 years. It has the worst embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the U.S. -- a pathway to core meltdown, and an issue raised by PSR WI's expert witness, nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates. Experts Al Compaan and Mark Cooper raised contentions about safe, clean, and affordable renewable alternatives.

Monday
Jul262021

ASLB rejects all PSR WI contentions opposing 80-year operating license at Point Beach

See the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) ruling, here.

Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin (PSR WI) is considering an appeal to the NRC's three sitting commissioners.