Decommissioning

Although it is imperative that we shut down nuclear plants, they remain dangerous, and expensive even when closed. Radioactive inventories remain present on the site and decommissioning costs have been skyrocketing, presenting the real danger that utilities will not be able to afford to properly shut down and clean up non-operating reactor sites.

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Friday
Jul262019

Radioactive and Other Skeletons in SNC-Lavalin's closet...

Articles, and other posts, listed in backwards chronological order:

Posted February, 2020 --

Nancy Vann, a watchdog on the Indian Point nuclear power plant, has published "rap sheets" on Holtec International and SNC-Lavalin, as well: 2/16/20 Holtec & SNC-Lavalin Profiles and "Rap Sheet"

 

Posted January 10, 2020:

Former SNC-Lavalin executive Sami Bebawi sentenced to 8½ years in prison for fraud, corruption

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin has partnered with U.S.-based Holtec International to form the consortium Comprehensive Decommissioning International.

Holtec itself also has bribery conviction, and additional bribery allegation, skeletons in its closet.

Despite this, Holtec has already secured the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's rubber-stamp, to take ownership of the shutdown atomic reactors at Oyster Creek, New Jersey and Pilgrim, Massachusetts, for decommissioning and high-level radioactive waste management.

Holtec is also scheming to take over the Indian Point, New York reactors, as well as Palisades, Michigan, once those nuclear power plants shut down in the years ahead (Big Rock Point, an already decommissioned but still contaminated site also in Michigan, along with its irradiated nuclear fuel, would be lumped in the deal along with Palisades).

Holtec has also applied for a construction and operating permit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to transport 173,600 metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel to New Mexico for so-called consolidated interim storage.

Posted December 19, 2019:

SNC-Lavalin, Holtec's partner in reactor decommissioning and high-level radioactive waste management, has pleaded guilty to fraud, will pay $280 million fine

SNC-Lavalin pleads guilty to fraud for past work in Libya, will pay $280M fine

Company will pay a $280M penalty over 5 years and be placed on probation

As reported by CBC:
This is the Canadian company Holtec International has partnered with to do nuclear power plant decommissioning, and irradiated nuclear fuel management, in the U.S.
Update:

Posted December 13, 2019:

No verdict after second day of deliberations in trial of Sami Bebawi, ex-SNC exec

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Posted December 10, 2019:

Bebawi’s defence argues that millions in accounts were bonuses authorized by SNC bosses

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Posted December 9, 2019:

Greed drove former SNC exec’s alleged fraud, corruption scheme: Crown

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Posted December 3, 2019:

Ex-SNC-Lavalin executive on trial for fraud, corruption won’t present defence

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Posted November 29, 2019:

Jurors in Bebawi trial hear ex-SNC president approved yacht for Gadhafi’s son

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Posted November 28, 2019:

Former SNC executive proposed $4-million bribe in form of loan for witness to change testimony

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Posted November 27, 2019:

Former SNC-Lavalin executive’s trial hears from undercover agent who dug into $10-million bribe offer

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Posted November 5, 2019:

Ex-SNC-Lavalin exec’s trial hears of $10-million offer to witness for testimony

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Posted November 1, 2019:

Trial of former SNC-Lavalin executive hears how son of Libyan dictator helped company

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Posted October 31, 2019:

Fraud, corruption trial underway for former SNC-Lavalin executive Sami Bebawi

As reported by the Canadian Press.


Posted July 16, 2019:

Pilgrim Watch Motion to File a New Contention, re: SNC-Lavalin trustworthiness, reliability, and character (vis-a-vis allegation of bribery attempts, and more)

See the July 16, 2019 Motion filed by environmental watch-dog organization Pilgrim Watch, in the context of Holtec International/SNC-Lavalin's takeover of the permanently shutdown Pilgrim atomic reactor license for decommissioning and irradiated nuclear fuel management purposes.

 

Posted on April 29, 2019:

'Simpsons' Canada-Based Episode Pokes Fun At SNC-Lavalin Affair

As reported by Huffington Post Canada.

Meanwhile, in the theater-of-the-absurd-esque non-fiction realm...

Scandal-ridden SNC-Lavalin, of Montreal, has merged with Holtec International, to form a nuclear power plant decommissioning consortium.

Holtec, for its part, hopes to send the irradiated nuclear fuel (high-level radioactive waste) from the decommissioning project contracts it secures to New Mexico, for "interim storage."

 

Posted on April 8, 2019:

Justin Trudeau just can’t quit the SNC-Lavalin scandal

As reported by the Washington Post:

Instead of closing the door on the controversy that has dogged his government for months, the Canadian prime minister threw it back open as his top critic said he was threatened with a lawsuit. The critic’s response? Bring it on.

However, not reported is the fact that Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin has partnered with Holtec International to form a leading U.S. nuclear power plant decommissioning consortium. Already, Holtec and SNC-Lavalin have taken over the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant site in New Jersey, including the highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel stored on-site there. (Holtec is itself NJ based.)

Holtec hopes to open a CISF (consolidated interim storage facility) in New Mexico, to "temporarily" store Osyter Creek's -- and the rest of the country's -- commercial high-level radioactive wastes there.

Next on SNC-Lavalin and Holtec International's target list is Pilgrim near Boston, scheduled to permanently shut by June 2019. Palisades in MI, and Indian Point in NY, are also in the consortium's sights.

And some of the major federal contracts in Canada mentioned in the article? Those would also include nuclear facility decommissioning and radioactive waste management contracts, worth billions of dollars.

 

Posted on March 7, 2019:

"An unapologetic Trudeau speaks up on polictical crisis rattling Canada." New York Times.

 

Posted on March 5, 2019:

"Justin Trudeau's rise to power seemed charmed. Now he faces a fight for his political life." Washington Post.

 

Posted on February 28, 2019:

JUSTIN TRUDEAU FACES CALLS TO RESIGN RE: SNC-LAVALIN SCANDAL

As reported by Newsweek.

Liberal Party Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now faces calls from his Conservative Party challenger in this autumn's election to resign over a scandal involving SNC-Lavalin, a giant engineering firm based in Montreal, Quebec. SNC-Lavalin has been accused of bribery, fraud, and other corruption over its practices in Libya. If convicted of such wrongdoing, SNC-Lavalin could be barred from Canadian federal contracts for a decade. (SNC-Lavalin has been previously barred for a decade from World Bank contracts.)

Holtec International has teamed with SNC-Lavalin to form a nuclear power plant decommissioning consortium. Already, the Holtec/SNC-Lavalin consortium has taken over ownership of the permanently shutdown Oyster Creek atomic reactor in NJ. This includes on-site irradiated nuclear fuel management.

Holtec & SNC-Lavalin are also vying for taking over the ownership of such other soon-to-be decommissioning nuclear power plants as Pilgrim in MA, and Palisades in MI.

Holtec is also the proponent for a national centralized interim storage facility for irradiated nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico.

Its partnership with a corrupt company like SNC-Lavalin calls into question Holtec's own judgment.

However, Holtec itself has engaged in bribery, at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry nuclear power plant; in addition, Holtec CEO Krishna Singh has been accused by whistleblowers Oscar Shirani (Commonwealth Edison/Exelon) and Dr. Ross Landsman (NRC Region 3) of attempting to bribe them into silence, re: QA violations (see below).

And Holtec CEO Krishna Singh has also made racist remarks re: his own African American and Puerto Rican American workers in Camden, NJ.

Holtec is also infamous for QA (Quality Assurance) violations in the manufacture of its irradiated nuclear fuel canisters, brought to light by whistleblowers.


Posted September 20, 2018:

Oyster Creek closure should mark the end of an “error”; prompt more GE shutdowns

The nation’s oldest atomic power plant at Oyster Creek in Lacey Township, New Jersey permanently shut down on September 17, 2018 due to its poor economics and costly post-Fukushima safety retrofits. The 49-year old nuclear plant was the first General Electric Mark I boiling water reactor to go critical in the United States and the world in October 1969. GE globally marketed this reactor design and its lighter “pressure-suppression containment system” as cheaper and quicker to build than its competitors at Westinghouse, Combustion Engineering and Babcock & Wilcox. Japan was one of those countries to buy the GE design and construct its first units at Fukushima Daiichi---where multiple units would later explode and meltdown following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.  For the sake of public safety, Oyster Creek’s closure would well mark the beginning of the end of an “error” first identified in a 1972 controversial memo by a top reactor safety official at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Stephen Hanuaer. Hanauer pointed out a design flaw to colleagues, the GE containment design is volumetrically too small to contain the force of a severe accident. He warned, “I recommend that AEC adopt a policy of discouraging further use of pressure-suppression containments, and that such designs not be accepted for construction permits.” There are now 21 GE Mark I reactors still operating in the United States.

Exelon Generation’s termination of Oyster Creek’s “operating license” starts the decommissioning process. The Chicago-based nuclear utility giant has submitted an application for approval by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to sell and transfer the Oyster Creek “possession only” license to Holtec International, headquartered in Camden, NJ to take over the decommissioning of this facility. Holtec has merged with a Canadian energy corporation, SNC Lavalin, to form Comprehensive Decommissioning Incorporated (CDI) in a bid to corner a growing market to decommission more closing reactors.  The Holtec/Lavalin merger is offering a “proto-prompt” decommissioning strategy to rapidly dismantle the reactors within eight years and containerize the dangerous high-level nuclear waste in dry storage casks onsite.   

However, controversy is already stalking the corporate merger and potentially the reliability of accelerated decommissioning and nuclear waste storage. Holtec International CEO, Krishna Singh, is quoted talking down the ramping up of his Camden headquarters workforce. “‘They don’t show up to work,’ he said. ‘They can’t stand getting up in the morning and coming to work every single day. They haven’t done it, and they didn’t see their parents do it. Of course, some of them get into drugs and things. So, it’s difficult,’” said Singh. In fact, Singh’s disparaging remarks about the workforce sparked public protest at the Camden headquarters.

As reported earlier, SNC Lavalin, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, is embroiled in a global corruption scandal and criminal charges.  SNC Lavalin and 100 of its subsidiaries have been debarred from contract work with the World Bank for ten years. Former-Lavalin executive are scheduled to go to trial in Canada later this year on fraud and bribery charges.

Exelon Generation has declined to disclose the amount for the proposed sale of Oyster Creek to Holtec International. The transaction will be decided by NRC by the end of 2019. Nearly $1 billion in the reactor's decommissioning trust fund would then be transferred to Holtec.

 

Posted August 21, 2018:

[Canadian] First Nations, NGOs condemn federal plans for defunct nuclear reactors

Press release, circulated by Dr. Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR):

 

First Nations, NGOs condemn federal plans for defunct nuclear reactors

 

 

Ottawa, August 21, 2018 — Forty First Nations, citizen groups and NGOs have asked Canada’s Auditor General to hold an inquiry into spending by Natural Resources Canada, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) on nuclear reactor decommissioning.

“The plan to entomb and abandon radioactive carcasses of nuclear reactors next to major rivers is an abomination,” says Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. “Billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent on plans that are clearly designed for the convenience of industry rather than the protection of human health and the environment for hundreds of thousands of years. The Government of Canada must consult First Nations and Canadian citizens to arrive at a meaningful and enforceable policy on how to manage these wastes in the very long term. There is no such policy now."

“Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) wants to turn reactor sites in Pinawa, Manitoba and Rolphton, Ontario into permanent nuclear disposal facilities that don’t meet international guidelines,” says Theresa McClenaghan, Executive Director of the Canadian Environmental Law Association.  

The groups are worried those plans will set a precedent for other federal reactor sites in Ontario and Quebec. 

CNL is owned by a consortium of multinational corporations that was contracted in 2015 by the previous Conservative government to quickly and cheaply reduce Canada’s $10 billion worth of federal nuclear legacy liabilities. The clean-up costs for Canada's 70 years’ worth of nuclear waste exceed those for all of Canada’s 2,500 other federal environmental liabilities combined.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is meeting on August 22, 2018 in Ottawa to review progress on CNL’s nuclear waste plans at the Gentilly-1 reactor on the St. Lawrence River, the Douglas Point reactor on Lake Huron, the NPD reactor on the Ottawa River, Whiteshell Laboratories on the Winnipeg River in Manitoba, and in the Port Hope Area, among other topics. Groups will be demonstrating outside the meeting.

“Several federal reactors are located on unceded aboriginal traditional territory,” noted Chief April Adams-Phillips of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne. “Now we hear that these defunct reactors may be turned into giant radioactive hulks, covered in cement as a monument to folly. We cannot stand by and let this happen.”

"For decades, the Government of Canada and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission have promised that all Canadian nuclear reactors will be dismantled at the end of their useful life and that the land will be returned to its natural state," says Gilles Provost, spokesperson for the Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive"They must live up to their commitments rather than turn our reactors into perpetual radioactive waste repositories!”

Federal funding for ‘nuclear decommissioning and radioactive waste management’ has increased 400% in the last three years, since these functions were handed to the consortium of multinational corporations that includes SNC Lavalin.

In the first three fiscal years of the GoCo (government owned – contractor operated) arrangement (2016/17 to 2018/19), Parliamentary appropriations to AECL for “nuclear decommissioning and radioactive waste management” averaged $547,577,479 per year. This represented a four-fold increase over the $137,800,000 per year appropriated during the 2006/07 to 2015/16 period when decommissioning and waste management was funded by Natural Resources Canada through the Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program. 

Canada has no policies restricting how nuclear reactors can be decommissioned or nuclear waste managed. It is up to proponents to suggest how they will decommission or manage wastes and then defend their chosen method to the CNSC.

The groups are asking the Auditor General to investigate whether the federal government is handling nuclear waste and reactor decommissioning in ways that are compatible with sustainable development principles.  

- 30 -

Contact:  Eva Schacherl, Media Liaison, Concerned Citizens ~ 613-316-9450

Posted August 5, 2018:

Company to decommission US reactors has corruption history

The New Jersey-based company Holtec International has agreed to purchase three soon-to-close U.S. nuclear power stations to try out its new rapid decommissioning strategy. Pending U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approval, Chicago-based Exelon and New Orleans-based Entergy announced sale agreements for the Oyster Creek (NJ), Pilgrim (MA) and Palisades (MI) nuclear power stations to a fledgling company, Comprehensive Decommissioning International (CDI), formed by the 2018 merger of parent companies Holtec International and SNC-Lavalin (SNCL). CDI is offering that its prompt decommissioning strategy for commercial power reactors and site restoration can be completed inside of eight years. But Lavalin is embroiled Canadian Crown federal charges for fraud, embezzelment and bribery and blacklisted from doing business with the World Bank's global contracts.

However, closer scrutiny of these companies raises some serious red flags. While every effort needs to be made to decommission nuclear plants promptly, close attention needs to be paid to exactly who is doing it and where the money stream -- along with the radioactive waste stream -- is going.

When Oyster Creek shuts down, Exelon has set up Plan A to sell the 47-year reactor site and its high-level nuclear waste to Holtec International, headquartered in Camden. Pending approval by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the sale of the “possession only” license, Exelon will transfer the power plant’s estimated $982 million decommissioning trust fund to Holtec, which will in turn contract the job out to CDI. CDI is a limited liability corporation formed in a 2018 merger of Holtec International and the Canadian engineering giant SNC Lavalin based in Montreal, Quebec.

SNC Lavalin is a long-established global energy development corporation spanning the oil, gas, nuclear and renewable power industry. But that history to date arrives with serious allegations and findings of corruption and fraud in the corporation’s business dealings that now need airing with regard to the pending Oyster Creek nuclear decommissioning deal and several others also on CDI’s new agenda.  

According to Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper, SNC Lavalin Group Inc. is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Canada in September or October over federal corruption and fraud charges. The Crown prosecutor has combined two cases against SNC that focus on the embezzlement of funds, bribery and wrongdoing for lucrative contracts in Libya between 2001 and 2011. A former senior executive is named in one case and SNC and several subsidiaries are named in the other.

SNC has acknowledged wrongdoing with assurances that sweeping ethics changes are now in place. The SNC former executive has already been found guilty of bribery in a Swiss federal criminal court. In a separate criminal case and pending trial, another former SNC chief executive officer faces charges of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and using forged documents for a SNC contract to build new $1.3-billion super-hospital in Montreal.

In ongoing findings of SNC Lavalin corruption, the World Bank debarred the corporation and 100 of its affiliates in 2013 for 10 years from further Bank contracts. This followed misconduct involving conspiracy to pay bribes and bidding misrepresentations involving Bank-financed contracts in Bangladesh and Cambodia in violation of procurement guidelines. The SNC Lavalin sanction from 2013 to 2023 is the longest-running financially punitive action taken by the World Bank. According to the Bank’s related press release, “This case is testimony to collective action against global corruption.” 

Given the still uncertain cost and a limited trust fund to do the Oyster Creek decommissioning right, every effort needs to be made to take precaution with financial safeguards from the very beginning. The State of New Jersey would be wise to authorize the establishment of a Nuclear Decommissioning Citizen Advisory Panel, as was legislated in Vermont and Massachusetts, to watchdog their nuclear power stations, to focus squarely on making the business of decommissioning and site restoration more transparent and accountable. 

 

Posted on August 3, 2018:

Oyster Creek decommissioning plan needs close scrutiny: Gunter

Op-ed in the Asbury Park Press, by Paul Gunter, Reactor Oversight Project Director, Beyond Nuclear.

 

Posted on August 1, 2018:

Holtec expands n-waste and new build business model with rapid decommissioning 

Relevant to SNC-Lavalin's background.

 

Posted on April 17, 2013:

SNC-Lavalin Inc. 2013. World Bank Debars SNC-Lavalin and its Affiliates for 10 years, World Bank press release (Apr 17, 2013)

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/17/world-bank-debars-snc-lavalin-inc-and-its-affiliates-for-ten-years.

[“The World Bank Group today announced the debarment of SNC-Lavalin Inc. - in addition to over 100 affiliates - for a period of 10 years following the company’s misconduct in relation to the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project in Bangladesh, as well as misconduct under another Bank-financed project.”  SNC-Lavalin Inc. is a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Group.]

 

Posted on January 26, 2013:

"Former executive accused of $160 million in Gaddafi kickbacks a 'scapegoat' for SNC-Lavalin, brother says"

 

Posted on January 25, 2013:

"Millions in SNC-Lavalin bribes bought Gaddafi's playboy son luxury yachts, unsealed RCMP documents allege"

 

Posted May 31, 2012:

Gordon Edwards: "SNC-Lavalin and the Demise of CANDU Competence"

Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR), has written this essay, "SNC-Lavalin and the Demise of CANDU Competence." SNC-Lavalin, a Quebec-based multi-national corporation, recently took over Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd.'s (AECL) CANDU reactor division for the bargain basement price of just $15 million. Its situation since can only be described as in meltdown. Its stock value has plummeted, with $1.5 billion in losses, prompting a shareholder class action lawsuit. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided its Montreal headquarters, related to $56 million in "untraceable and un-accounted for payments, presumed to be bribes." And a former SNC-Lavalin vice president, with close ties to the Gadhafi family in Libya, which he used to land a controversial Libyan prison contract, is now in a Swiss prison himself, charged with "fraud, money-laundering, and corruption of officials." Another SNC-Lavalin consultant is now in a Mexican jail, charged with "consorting with organized crime, falsifying documents, and human trafficking." Meanwhile, CANDU nuclear engineers are leaving the company in droves, and remaining nuclear engineers are threatening a major strike, due to deep cuts in pay and pensions threatened by SNC-Lavalin. Dr. Edwards warns this dangerously undermines CANDU competence -- and an attached news article shows how the strike and departures could well impact CANDU operations in New Brunswick and Ontario, Canada, as well as a number of overseas countries with CANDUs.

 

[See a similarly long list of skeletons in the closet re: Holtec International, posted at Beyond Nuclear's CENTRALIZED INTERIM STORAGE website section. Holtec and SNC-Lavalin have formed a consortium named Comprehensive Decommissioning International, CDI.]

Thursday
May302019

Pilgrim Is Closing. So Then What Happens To The Radioactive Waste?

Monday
Apr082019

Justin Trudeau just can’t quit the SNC-Lavalin scandal

As reported by the Washington Post:

Instead of closing the door on the controversy that has dogged his government for months, the Canadian prime minister threw it back open as his top critic said he was threatened with a lawsuit. The critic’s response? Bring it on.

However, not reported is the fact that Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin has partnered with Holtec International to form a leading U.S. nuclear power plant decommissioning consortium. Already, Holtec and SNC-Lavalin have taken over the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant site in New Jersey, including the highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel stored on-site there. (Holtec is itself NJ based.)

Holtec hopes to open a CISF (consolidated interim storage facility) in New Mexico, to "temporarily" store Osyter Creek's -- and the rest of the country's -- commercial high-level radioactive wastes there.

Next on SNC-Lavalin and Holtec International's target list is Pilgrim near Boston, scheduled to permanently shut by June 2019. Palisades in MI, and Indian Point in NY, are also in the consortium's sights.

And some of the major federal contracts in Canada mentioned in the article? Those would also include nuclear facility decommissioning and radioactive waste management contracts, worth billions of dollars.

Thursday
Feb282019

Beyond Nuclear opposes risks of waste generation, pool storage, Yucca, & CIS, while advocating HOSS at Diablo Canyon

On Feb. 22 & 23, 2019, Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste watchdog, Kevin Kamps, testified before the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Diablo Canyon Nuclear Decommissioning Engagement Panel (DCNDEP) in San Luis Obispo (SLO), California. The meeting was focused on highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel risks at the twin-reactor atomic power plant on the central CA Pacific coast.

You can view a copy of Kevin's power point presentation, here.

A video recording of Kevin's 30-minute oral presentation accompanying his power point, followed by a Q&A session, is posted on-line, here.A video recording of Kevin's 30-minute oral presentation accompanying his power point, followed by a Q&A session, is posted on-line, here.

More.

Friday
Jan112019

Decommissioning and the opportunity to inform safety in license renewal

LINK TO FULL REPORT 

Decommissioning nuclear power stations need an “autopsy” to verify and validate safety margins projected for operating reactor license extensions  

                                                     Summary

The Issue

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the lead organization for the U.S. commercial nuclear power industry, envisions the industry’s “Bridge to the Future” through a series of reactor license renewals from the original 40-year operating license; first by a 40 to 60-year extension and then a subsequent 60 to 80-year extension. Most U.S. reactors are already operating in their first 20-year license extension and the first application for the second 20-year extension (known as the “Subsequent License Renewal”) is before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for review and approval. NEI claims that there are no technical “show stoppers” to these license extensions. However, as aging nuclear power stations seek to extend their operations longer and longer, there are still many identified knowledge gaps for at least 16 known age-related material degradation mechanisms (embrittlement, cracking, corrosion, fatigue, etc.) attacking irreplaceable safety-related systems including miles of electrical cable, structures such as the concrete containment and components like the reactor pressure vessel. For example, the national labs have identified that it is not known how radiation damage will interact with thermal aging. Material deterioration has already been responsible for near miss nuclear accidents.  As such, permanently closed and decommissioning nuclear power stations have a unique and increasingly vital role to play in providing access to still missing data on the impacts and potential hazards of aging for the future safety of dramatic operating license extensions.

The NRC and national laboratories document that a post-shutdown autopsy of sorts to harvest, archive and test actual aged material samples (metal, concrete, electrical insulation and jacketing, etc.) during decommissioning provides unique and critical access to obtain the scientific data for safety reviews of the requested license extensions. A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) 2017 report concludes, post-shutdown autopsies are necessary for “reasonable assurance that systems, structures, and components (SSCs) are able to meet their safety functions. Many of the remaining questions regarding degradation of materials will likely require[emphasis added]a combination of laboratory studies as well as other research conducted on materials sampled from plants (decommissioned or operating).” PNNL reiterates, “Where available, benchmarking can be performed using surveillance specimens. In most cases, however, benchmarking of laboratory tests will require(emphasis added)harvesting materials from reactors.” In the absence of “reasonable assurance,” it is premature for licensees to complete applications without adequate verification and validation of projected safety margins for the 60 to 80-year extension period.  

Decommissioning is not just the process for dismantling nuclear reactors and remediating radioactive contamination for site restoration. Decommissioning has an increasingly important role at the end-of-reactor-life-cycle for the scientific scrutiny of projected safety margins and potential hazards at operating reactors seeking longer and longer license extensions.                       

The Problem

After decades of commercial power operation,the nuclear industry and the NRC have done surprisingly little to strategically harvest, archive and scientifically analyze actual aged materials. Relatively few samples of real time aged materials have been shared with the NRC.  The NRC attributes the present dearth of real time aged samples to “harvesting opportunities have been limited due to few decommissioning plants.” However, ten U.S. reactors have completed decommissioning operations to date and 20 units are in the decommissioning process. More closures are scheduled to begin in Fall 2018.  A closer look raises significant concern that the nuclear industry is reluctant to provide access to decommissioning units for sampling or collectively share this cost of doing business to extend their operating licenses. Key components including severely embrittled reactor pressure vessels were promptly dismantled by utilities and buried whole without autopsy. Many permanently closed reactors have been placed in “SAFSTOR,” defueled and mothballed “cold and dark” for up to 50 years without the material sampling to determine their extent of condition and the impacts of aging. Moreover, the NRC is shying away from taking reasonable regulatory and enforcement action to acquire the requested samples for laboratory analysis after prioritizing the need for a viable license extension safety review prior to approval. Meanwhile, the nuclear industry license extension process is pressing forward. 

David Lochbaum, a recognized nuclear safety engineer in the public interest with the Union of Concerned Scientists, identifies that nuclear research on the impacts and hazards of age degradation in nuclear power stations presently relies heavily on laboratory accelerated aging---often of fresh materials---and computer simulation to predict future aging performance and potential consequences during license extension.  Lochbaum explains that “Nuclear autopsies yield insights that cannot be obtained by other means.” Researchers need to compare the results from their time-compression studies with results from tests on materials actually aged for various time periods to calibrate their analytical models.According to Lochbaum, “Predicting aging effects is like a connect-the-dots drawing. Insights from materials harvested during reactor decommissioning provide many additional dots to the dots provided from accelerated aging studies. As the number of dots increases, the clearer the true picture can be seen. The fewer the dots, the harder it is to see the true picture.” 

The Path Forward

1) Congress, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the NRC need to determine the nuclear industry’s fair share of autopsy costs levied through collective licensing fees for strategic harvesting during decommissioning and laboratory analysis of real time aged material samples as intended to benefit the material performance and safety margins of operating reactors seeking license extensions, and;

2) As NRC and the national laboratories define the autopsy’s stated goal as providing “reasonable assurance that systems, structures, and components (SSCs) are able to meet their safety functions” for the relicensing of other reactors, the NRC approval process for Subsequent License Renewal extensions should be held in abeyance pending completion of comprehensive strategic harvesting and conclusive analysis as requested by the agency and national laboratories, and;

3) Civil society can play a more active role in the independent oversight and public transparency of autopsies at decommissioning reactor sites such as through state legislated and authorized nuclear decommissioning citizen advisory panels.