NRC licensing board rejects State of Massachusetts challenge against Pilgrim license extension

The New York Times reports that a panel of three administrative law judges at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has rejected a bid by the State of Massachusetts to challenge the Pilgrim nuclear power plant's license extension by requiring "lessons learned" from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe to be applied. Both Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 and Pilgrim share the same reactor design, the General Electric Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor. Beyond Nuclear's "Freeze Our Fukushimas" emergency enforcement petition to NRC calls for the immediate shut down of Pilgrim and 22 additional Mark 1s operating across the U.S. NRC has rubberstamped 71 reactor license extensions in the past 12 years. Mary Lampert at Pilgrim Watch has led the grassroots effort challenging the 20 year license extension at Pilgrim, keeping the proceeding alive for 6 years, a record.

Beyond Nuclear's "Freeze Our Fukushimas" emergency enforcement petition, joined by over 8,000 groups and individuals, also pointed out that Mark 1 pools are vulnerable to gradual boil downs or sudden drain downs which could result in catastrophic high-level radioactive waste fires, which very well may have occurred at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4, prompting NRC to order Americans to flee at least 50 miles away in the earliest days of the catastrophe. Pilgrim's pool contains all the high-level radioactive waste ever generated there over the past several decades, more than Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 to 4's pools combined.

NRDC challenges Limerick license extension

NRC file photo of Limerick (which does not indicate if the flowers are spiderwort mutated by radioactivity)Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has filed a petition, backed up by technical declarations, to intervene with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), challenging the 20 year license extension sought by Exelon, the largest U.S. nuclear utility, for its twin-reactor Limerick Nuclear Power Plant near Pottstown, PA. Limerick is just 21 miles northwest of Philadelphia, with 8 million people living within 50 miles. NRDC argues that after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Limerick's two decade old severe accident mitigation alternatives analysis is obsolete and far from sufficient. The Philadelphia Enquirer, Associated Press, WHYY (Philly NPR), and Pennsylvania NPR, among others, covered the story.  States News Service carried NRDC's media statement. NRC has rubberstamped 71 license extensions in the past dozen years. In 1982, an NRC sponsored study (which the agency unsuccessfully tried to cover up) reported that a major accident at Limerick could cause 74,000 "peak early fatalities" (second worst in the U.S. after Salem in New Jersey), 610,000 "peak early injuries" (by far the worst in the country), 34,000 "peak cancer deaths," and around $200 billion in property damage ($450 billion when adjusted for inflation). The population downwind of Limerick has grown by over a million since that study was produced. Both Limerick units are General Electric boiling water reactors with Mark 2 containment designs, similar in many ways to the catastrophically failed Fukushima Daiichi GE Mark 1s.

"The Lessons of Nuclear Power and the Media," San Francisco State University, Dec. 3

No Nukes Action invites people to its first educational conference "THE LESSONS OF NUCLEAR POWER AND THE MEDIA" on Saturday, December 3rd at San Francisco State University in California! Since the nuclear reactor accident on March 11th, 2011 in Fukushima, Japan, the world became more alert on issues of radioactive contamination due to the accidents. While mainstream media, governments, corporations, and military institutions are working to cover up the harms of the nuclear military-industrial-complex, people became media by sharing their skills, knowledge, and wisdom to protect themselves. Our speakers will discuss the history of nukes, industry, resistance, and make global pipelines of resistance against nukes among Japan, Korea, Mongolia, California, and New York. The event will be broadcasted on ustream, and will be webcast live, as well as archived, on the conference website (http://nukeinfo.wordpress.com/). Speakers include Professor Anthony Hall (Globalization Studies, University of Lethbridge), Andrew Philipps, Barbara George (Women's Energy Matters), Donna Gilmore and Marion Pack (San Onofre anti-nukes activists), Kei Sugaoka (former Tepco engineer), Steve Zeltzer (Labor Video Project), Choi Seungkoo (Nuclear-Free Asia, Christian Network for Nuke-Free Earth), and Yuko Tonohira (Todos Somos Japon), with music provided by the Okinawan sanshin band. Beyond Nuclear is a proud endorser of this event. For more information, see the event flyer.

Japan at less than 20% nuclear capacity

With the shutdown for maintenance at the Takahama nuclear reactor, Japan is now operating at under 20% of its nuclear capacity. Takahama will be shut for four months but it is up to the local authorities whether or not it is then allowed to restart. If all local authorities refuse restarts, there will be no nuclear reactors operating in Japan by April 2012. Only 10 of Japan's 58 reactors are currently running. There is growing public opposition to the continued use of nuclear energy in Japan. A group of women (pictured) recently protested with a sit-in at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Tokyo.

Ballot Initiative to Close Nuclear Plants Gets Go Ahead for Signature Collection

California's Secretary of State approved a ballot initiative November 18 that seeks the closure of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and the Diablo Canyon plant.

As drafted, the latest initiative parallels existing state law prohibiting the creation of new nuclear plants until the federal government finds a solution to dispose of radioactive nuclear waste and reprocess spent fuel rods. If enacted, the initiative would essentially shut down the state's two remaining nuclear plants by stopping them from creating additional waste until a federal solution arrives. San Clemente Times