U.S.-Canadian environmental coalition rebuts challenges against Fermi 3 proposed new reactor contention

Environmental coalition attorney Terry Lodge of ToledoAttorney Terry Lodge of Toledo (photo, left), and expert witness Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc, have filed a rebuttal against challenges brought by Detroit Edison and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff (NRC) regarding Quality Assurance (QA) contentions in opposition to the proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor.

The rebuttal includes expert witness testimony by Gundersen, and an"Intervenor's Rebuttal Statement of Position" legal filing by Lodge.

Lodge and Gundersen filed their rebuttal on behalf of an environmental coalition comprised of Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club's Michigan Chapter.

Fermi 3 is a proposed new General Electric-Hitachi so-called "ESBWR" ("Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor"), targeted at the Lake Erie shoreline in Monroe County, Michigan, 8 miles as the crow flies (or the radioactivity blows) from Ontario, Canada.

NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hearings are set for Halloween on not only this QA contention, but also an Eastern Fox Snake threatened species contention. In addition, Fermi 3's combined Construction and Operation License Application (COLA) cannot be finalized until NRC completes its court-ordered Environmental Impact Statement on its so-called [High-Level] Nuclear Waste Confidence Rule, a proceeding that could take years.

Statements of opposition needed now to prevent national Canadian radioactive waste dump(s) on Great Lakes shore

Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump billboard, seen by hundreds of thousands of commuters per day in the Toronto area

[Send your hand-written comments and questions about this insane proposal to:

Debra Myles; Joint Review Panel Secretariat; 160 Elgin St.; 22nd Floor; Ottawa, ON; K1A 0H3; Canada.

Or email them to:

DGR.Review@ceaa-acee.gc.ca.

You can also sign the online petition being circulated by the grassroots Bruce area environmental and residential group "Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump." (See their Toronto area billboard, left)]

The federal Joint Review Panel (JRP) conducting an environmental assessment of Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) proposal to bury all of the province's so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes (L&ILRWs, from 20 atomic reactors across Ontario) in a "Deep Geologic Repository" (DGR) at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, 400 meters from the waters of Lake Huron, has announced that May 24th will close the time window for asking questions. Next stop, full hearings.

Bruce Nuclear Generating Station is one of the world's single biggest nuclear power plants. It "hosts" a total of 9 reactors, as well as incineration for 20 reactors' LLRWs, and warehouses for the leftover ashes, as well as ILRWs of Ontario. It is located a mere 50 miles across Lake Huron from Michigan. 

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), comprised of Canada's nuclear utilities, has taken over the L&ILRW DGR process. This is an alarming development, as the NWMO was created to find a DGR for high-level radioactive waste (HLRW), irradiated nuclear fuel. In fact, NWMO is working with several municipalities near Bruce, largely populated by Bruce nuclear workers, which have "volunteered" (in exchange for large amounts of funding -- is that really "volunteering"?!) to be considered for becoming Canada's HLRW DGR location, for 22 reactors' irradiated nuclear fuel (outside Ontario, there was a single reactor in Quebec -- now permanently shutdown -- and a single reactor in New Brunswick). 

As DGRs would cost billions, or tens of billions, to construct and operate (the U.S. Department of Energy's most recent estimate for the price tag on the Yucca Mountain dumpsite proposal approached $100 billion), it is very likely that the L&ILRW and HLRW DGRs at/near Bruce would be merged into a single dumpsite, to save billions or tens of billions of dollars on a second, redundant DGR nearby.

The Great Lakes comprise 20% of the world's surface fresh water. They provide drinking water to 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.

As environmentalists, who instead refer to the DGRs as Deep Underground Dumps (that is, DUDs), have asked: would you bury poison beside your drinking water well?!

Please take this opportunity to help generate a flurry of concise statements of opposition aimed at preventing the Great Lakes shoreline from being turned into a permanent dumpsite for Ontario's L&ILRWs, and very likely all of Canada's HLRWs to follow.

Send your hand-written comments and questions about this insane proposal to:

Debra Myles; Joint Review Panel Secretariat; 160 Elgin St.; 22nd Floor; Ottawa, ON; K1A 0H3; Canada.

Or email them to:

DGR.Review@ceaa-acee.gc.ca.

You can also sign the online petition being circulated by the grassroots Bruce area environmental and residential group "Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump." (See their Toronto area billboard, above left)

Update on May 22, 2013 by admin

Michigan State Senator HopgoodMichigan State Senator Hoon-Yung Hopgood has issued a press release announcing this environmental victory. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps testified at the MI State Senate Energy and Technology hearing yesterday, alongside Sen. Hopgood's constituent Ed McArdle of Melvindale, MI (and the Sierra Club South East MI Group's Conservation chair). They rebutted pro-dump testimony by proponent Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) chief of government and regulatory affairs, Kevin Powers. OPG wants to bury all of Ontario's so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive waste (L&ILRW), from 20 reactors, in a "Deep Geologic Repository" (DGR) within 440 yards of the waters of Lake Huron. The proposed DGR would be located at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station (one of the largest in the world, with a total of 9 reactors), just 50 miles to the east of Michigan, across Lake Huron.

The resolution passed by an 8 to 0 unanimous, bipartisan vote in committee, and a 26 to 0 unanimous, bipartisan vote before the full Senate.

Here is a link to Sen. Hopgood's press release, released May 22nd. Sen. Hopgood can be contacted at (517) 373-7800.

Michigan State Representative Roberts is expected to introduce a similar resolution for consideration in the Michigan House of Representatives next week.

The Joint Review Panel, conducting the Canadian federal Environmental Assessement of OPG's proposed L&ILRW DGR, has announced that May 24th closes the public comment period regarding the sufficiency of documentation prior to moving into the full blown hearings. Kevin serves on Great Lakes United's (GLU) team in opposition to the DUD (critics' tongue-in-cheek acronym for the DGR). Kevin has been a member of the GLU Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force for over a decade.

Kevin emphasized during his testimony yesterday that the L&ILRW DUD could easily lead to a national Canadian high-level radioactive waste DUD in the same vicinity. Numerous municipalities, largely populated by Bruce Nuclear workers, have "volunteered" to be considered for this dubious distinction. Opposition is growing to these proposed DUDs, both locally, and regionally throughout the Great Lakes basin.

Update on May 24, 2013 by admin

The Toronto Star has reported on MI State Sen. Hopgood's resolution.

Entergy Watch: Environmental coalition challenges Entergy's financial qualifications to continue operating reactors, including near border with Canada

"Burning money" graphic by Gene Case, Avenging AngelsAs reported by E&E's Hannah Northey at Greenwire, an environmental coalition including such groups as Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE), Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Awareness Network (CAN), and Pilgrim Watch, has launched an emergency enforcement petition at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, challenging the financial qualifications of Entergy Nuclear to safely operate and decommission such reactors at FitzPatrick in New York, Pilgrim in Massachusetts, and Vermont Yankee. All three reactors happen to be twin designs to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4, that is, General Electric Mark I boiling water reactors. The coalition's petition cited financial analyses by UBS on Entergy's dire economic straits. Representatives from coalition groups, including Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter, testified today before an NRC Petition Review Board at the agency's headquarters in Rockville, MD. 

Vermont borders Quebec, and FitzPatrick is located on the Upstate NY shore of Lake Ontario, across the lake from Canada's biggest city, Toronto. Radiological risks to public health, safety and the environment do not respect state or international borders, after all.

FitzPatrick, Pilgrim, and Vermont Yankee have each already recieved 20-year license extension rubber-stamps from NRC. FitzPatrick, even though it never installed a hardened vent in the early 1990s, to deal with its too small, too weak containment -- the only one, of 23 Mark I in the U.S., to not do so. Pilgrim became the longest contested license extension -- a proceeding lasting over 6 years -- thanks to the efforts of Mary Lampert at Pilgrim Watch. And the Vermont Yankee license extension was actually blocked by the State of Vermont -- this court battle between and involving the state, Entergy, and NRC rages on in multiple federal and state venues.

In a Feb. 8, 2013 interview with Reuters, Entergy's brand new CEO, Leo Denault, admitted that one of the main financial challenges Entergy faces is the high cost of making vital safety repairs on its age-degraded reactors.