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New Reactors

The U.S. nuclear industry is trumpeting a comeback - but only if U.S. taxpayers will foot the bill. Beyond Nuclear is watchdogging nuclear industry efforts to embark on new reactor construction which is too expensive, too dangerous and not needed.

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Entries by admin (119)

Wednesday
Jan282015

Environmental coalition demands NEPA & AEA compliance re: Nuclear Waste Confidence in reactor licensing proceedings

In a legal filing today, a coalition of environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear, has demanded that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) fulfill its legally required obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), regarding its Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) and Rule in various atomic reactor licensing proceedings around the country. The coalition is represented by attorneys Diane Curran of Washington, D.C., and Mindy Goldstein of Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University in Atlanta.

In several reactor licensing proceedings where Final EISs came out prior to court victories negating NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence policy (or "Nuke Waste Con Game," for short!) for violating NEPA and AEA in 2012, NRC has neither included the full 2014 Continued Storage GEIS and Rule in new reactor combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA) proceeding FEISs, nor old reactor license extension proceeding FEISs. To not do so violates NEPA, and portions of AEA, and their implementing regulations at NRC, as well as the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

On Dec. 8, 2014, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, represented by Curran (as well as Henry Robertson of Great Rivers Environmental Law Center in St. Louis), filed a Nuclear Waste Confidence-related, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) "placeholder" contention in the Callaway atomic reactor license extension proceeding. That contention has, thus far, succeeded in staving off NRC's imminent rubberstamp of Callaway's 20-year extension.

Attorney Terry Lodge of Toledo represents Beyond Nuclear in the intervention against NRC approval of the proposed new Fermi Unit 3 reactor COLA in southeast Michigan, on the Great Lakes shoreline. Today's filing by Lodge  in that proceeding seeks to preserve Beyond Nuclear's opportunity to file a Nuclear Waste Confidence contention against Fermi 3, like was done at Callaway several weeks ago.

Tuesday
Jan132015

NRC Commissioners bless NRC staff's violation of NEPA!

On Jan. 13th, the NRC Commission, by a unanimous 4-0 vote, rejected a request from the ASLBP overseeing the Fermi 3 COLA proceeding. The ASLBP had requested permission to review NRC staff's apparent violation of NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act), for not having included Fermi 3's proposed new transmission lines in its Environmental Impact Statement. The environmental coalition called this NEPA violation to the attention of the ASLBP in Jan., 2012. The coalition plans to appeal this NEPA violation, and perhaps other violations of law and regulation (such as the gutting of QA, Quality Assurance, requirements), to the federal courts at the earliest opportunity. The coalition also has submitted a Nuclear Waste Confidence contention, which is growing ever more ripe for judicial review.

On October 7, 2014, the environmental coalition had asserted that Fermi 3's transmission corridor violated NEPA.

On November 10, 2014, the coalition's legal counsel, Terry Lodge, also filed support for the ASLBP's review of the obvious NRC NEPA violations.

Tuesday
Dec162014

NRC Commissioners deny appeal on QA at Fermi 3, but environmental intervenors vow to fight on

An artist's rendition of the GEH ESBWR, proposed by DTE to be built as "Fermi 3" at its nuclear power plant in Monroe Co., MIOn Dec. 16th, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) five Commissioners, in a unanimous ruling, denied an environmental coalition's appeal in the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) proceeding on Detroit Edison's (DTE) proposed new Fermi 3 reactor in southeast MI on the Lake Erie shore. The coalition requested reconsideration of the ASLB's June 2014 ruling that DTE's Fermi 3 quality assurance (QA) program was adequate, reasserting its preponderence of evidence -- including the testimony of Fairewinds Associates, Inc.'s Chief Engineer, Arnie Gundersen -- that DTE's QA program was at best in disarray, and at times non-existent.

The coalition became aware of DTE's QA chaos through an NRC staff Notice of Violation in 2009. But DTE argued it need not have had a QA program in place before September 2008, as it had not yet filed its COLA (combined Construction and Operating License Application), so it was not yet an "applicant" under NRC regulations. NRC staff then reversed itself, and likewise opposed the coalition's QA contention.

Fortunately, the ASLB didn't fall for DTE's and NRC staff's Orwellian "definition of the word 'applicant'" switcheroo. But the ASLB nonetheless ruled, in June 2014, that what little QA oversight DTE had in place was sufficient to fulfill NRC requirements. The coalition contended that geological borings, as but one example, with little to no QA authentication, mean that Fermi 3 could be a "house of cards," vulnerable to poorly understood seismic risks.

The coalition intends to appeal these NRC rulings to the federal courts, if need be.

One last coalition contention is still in play before the NRC Commission. In a very rare move, the ASLB panel itself has requested sua sponte permission from the NRC Commissioners to review NRC staff's stubborn refusal, despite repeated warnings, to not include the new transmission line corridor in the Fermi 3 Environmental Impact Statement. The environmental coalition objected in Jan. 2012 that its exclusion appears to be a violation of NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act) on its face. NEPA requires NRC to take a "hard look" at all environmental impacts caused by a major federal action, such as NRC's allowing DTE to construct and operate Fermi 3 (and its inextricably interlinked transmission corridor). The NRC Commission indicated in its Dec. 16th denial of the QA appeal that it would rule on the transmission corridor contention in a separate order.

If the NRC Commissioners deny the ASLB's request for permission to review the apparent NRC staff NEPA violation, the environmental coalition intends to appeal that issue to the federal courts, as well.

As announced in the Federal Register on Dec. 5th, the NRC Commission has scheduled its "mandatory hearing" on Fermi 3 for Feb. 4th. As described by a Feb. 16, 2011 NRC press release (less than a month before the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe began), and as shown in a flow chart in a May 22, 2014 internal NRC email, this means that the NRC is moving ever closer to final approval of the Fermi 3 COLA.

This would be the first proposed new reactor license approval by NRC since Vogtle 3 & 4 in GA, and Summer 2 & 3 in SC, were approved by split decisions at the NRC Commission in early 2012. NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko was the sole dissenting "no" vote, stating the new reactor license approvals were taking place "as if Fukushima hadn't even happened." The last order for a new reactor in the U.S., that actually got built and operated, was placed in October 1973.

All this comes as the U.S. Department of Energy announced another round of solicitations for the $12.5 billion of federal taxpayer-funded nuclear loan guarantees available. An $8.3 billion nuclear loan guarantee was finalized for Vogtle 3 and 4 some time ago. Intervenors are concerned that DTE may well apply for a high-risk federal loan guarantee, putting American taxpayers on the hook if Fermi 3 defaults on its loan repayment. Being a different design than was awarded at Vogtle 3 and 4 -- an ESBWR instead of an AP1000 -- only increases the risk that DOE will award DTE the loan guarantee, given the "diversity" sought by the loan guarantee program. (In an egregious example of the revolving door between government and industry, a primary author of the nuclear loan guarantee program, Alex Flint, a senior staffer for Energy Policy Act of 2005 sponsor U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), shortly after the bill's enactment went to work as top lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute. In a very real sense, Flint wrote his own paycheck.)

However, the environmental coalition opposing Fermi 3 also has a Nuclear Waste Confidence contention pending in the proceeding. If, and when, NRC moves to finalize COLA approval, the intervenors -- part of a larger coalition of three dozen groups nationwide, challenging NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence policy -- will very likely move for a federal court injunction to block NRC's Fermi 3 COLA approval, until the Nuclear Waste Confidence dispute is resolved.

The environmental coalition opposing Fermi 3's COLA includes Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (CACC), Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario (CEA), Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, as well as numerous concerned local residents. Terry Lodge of Toledo serves as their legal counsel. The coalition first intervened against the COLA on March 9, 2009, after DTE made application to construct and operate Fermi 3 in September 2008. The largely volunteer coalition has filed around three dozen contentions over the past six years, more than in any other proposed new reactor ASLB proceeding.

Fermi 3 would be a General Electric-Hitachi (GEH) so-called "Economic, Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR)." DTE's Fermi 3 ESBWR is the "Reference COLA," or flagship, in the U.S. In late 2008 and early 2009, several proposed new ESBWRs were canceled, as in Texas, as well as at North Anna, VA. However, more recently, Dominion Nuclear returned to the ESBWR design for its proposed new North Anna Unit 3 reactor. Another dozen or more ESBWRs are proposed to be built overseas, as in India and China.

The ESBWR DCD (design control document) recently won final "design certification," or approval, by NRC. This, after NRC staff asked an astounding 6,000 (yes, six thousand) RAIs (requests for additional information) on the half-baked design. NRC also approved the ESBWR design despite a lingering concern about the design of the massive steam dryer system. The U.S. Department of Justice made an out of court settlement with General Electric-Hitachi (GEH), fining the company a mere $2.7 million, for apparent false and fraudulent statements made by GEH to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). GEH has been a beneficiary of taxpayer-funded "Nuclear Power 2010" support from DOE, a 50/50 cost-share between nuclear reactor vendors and the Energy Dept. for proposed new reactor R&D. The ESBWR is one of only two proposed new reactor designs so funded. The other is the Toshiba-Westinghouse AP1000, currently under problem-plagued construction at Vogtle 3 & 4 in GA, and Summer 2 & 3 in SC.

NRC has made the troubled steam dryer design a licensing condition at Fermi 3. A mere ten days prior to start up, DTE supposedly will be required to show that any lingering concerns have been resolved.

Beyond Nuclear, CEA, and Don't Waste MI, again represented by Terry Lodge, have also intervened against the license extension sought by DTE at its adjacent Fermi 2 reactor, a twin design to the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan that melted down and exploded in March 2011. In an independent, parallel intervention, the Citizens Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT) has also challenged the 20-year license extension.

Fermi 2 is a scaled-up version of the GE BWR Mark I, with the fatally-flawed containment (too small, too weak). At 1,122 Megawatts-electric (MWe), Fermi 2 is nearly as big as Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 and 2 put together (460 + 784 = 1,244 MWe). In addition, Fermi 2's high-level radioactive waste storage pool contains significantly more irradiated nuclear fuel than all four destroyed units at Fukushima Daiichi put together (around 600 metric tons).

The co-location of Fermi 2 and Fermi 3 represents the worst of both worlds in terms of risk. As depicted by "The Bathtub Curve" of David Lochbaum, Director, Nuclear Safety Project at Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the "breakdown phase" risks at the age-degraded Fermi 2 reactor would be compounded by the "break-in phase" risks at the untested Fermi 3 reactor. As demonstrated so tragically at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan, a reactor and/or high-level radioactive waste storage pool disaster at one unit can lead to, or exacerbate, a reactor and/or storage pool disaster at adjacent units.

Ominously, DTE intends to build Fermi 3 on the very same spot that its Fermi 1 experimental plutonium breeder reactor had a partial core meltdown on Oct. 5, 1966. The Fermi 1 disaster was documented in John G. Fuller's iconic book We Almost Lost Detroit (Reader's Digest Press, 1975), and in the song by Gil Scott-Heron of the same title.

Thursday
Nov132014

Coalition presses case against reactors on Great Lakes

An environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, is working at fever pitch against degraded old, and proposed new, reactors on the Great Lakes shoreline in southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio.

Davis-Besse, OH

At U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, the groups Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario (CEA), Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio pressed their case against a 20-year license extension at FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor east of Toledo. An oral argument pre-hearing was ordered to take place on Nov. 12th by the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP) overseeing the License Renewal Application (LRA) proceeding. The coalition first intervented against the license extension nearly four years ago.

Attorney Terry Lodge, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, and Don't Waste MI's Michael Keegan represented the coalition before NRC ASLBP. The coalition was joined by expert witness Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer of Fairewinds Associates, Inc. The focus of the day-long hearing was the severe, and worsening, cracking of Davis-Besse's concrete containment Shield Building. The dangerously deteriorating Shield Building is the last line of defense against a catastrophic release of hazardous radioactivity, as from a reactor core meltdown and Inner Steel Containment Vessel failure due to a reactor disaster, earthquake, tornado missile, etc. The coalition has filed numerous contentions about the cracking since it was first revealed on October 10, 2011.

The coalition issued a press advisory about the Nov. 12th oral hearing. The Toledo Blade has reported on this story.

Fermi 2, MI

Beyond Nuclear, CEA, and Don't Waste MI, again represented by Toledo-attorney Terry Lodge, will appear at oral argument pre-hearings before an NRC ASLB on November 20th in Monroe, Michigan. The coalition is opposing the 20-year license extension proposed at Detroit Edison's Fermi 2 atomic reactor in nearby Frenchtown Township, on the Lake Erie shore. Fermi 2 is the single biggest G.E. Mark I Boiling Water Reactor in the world -- the same design as melted down and exploded, times three, at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan.

Beyond Nuclear's Reactor Oversight Director, Paul Gunter, will argue a contention calling for radiological filters on hardened vents, an obviously needed safety upgrade actively ignored by a majority of the NRC Commissioners, despite the lessons that should have been learned from the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. Beyond Nuclear's Freeze Our Fukushimas campaign calls for the shutdown of all U.S. Mark I and II reactors. (See Beyond Nuclear's Freeze Our Fukushimas pamphlet.)

Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, will argue a contention regarding serious safety risks associated with the Fermi nuclear power plant's off-site transmission line corridor, as well as radioactive waste contentions.

Another group, Citizens Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT), has launched another 15 contentions against the license extension.

Fermi 3, MI

The coalition comprised of Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (CACC), CEA, Don't Waste MI, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter -- again represented by attorney Terry Lodge -- continues to press its case against the proposed new Fermi 3 reactor, to be built on the very site that the Fermi 1 "We Almost Lost Detroit"  reactor partially melted down on October 5, 1966.

The coalition intervened against Fermi 3 on March 9, 2009, and has since filed dozens of contentions against the proposal.

Its transmission line corridor NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) contention is still before the NRC Commissioners, thanks to a sua sponte motion by the NRC ASLBP itself. On behalf of the coalition, Lodge just filed a motion with the NRC Commissioners, supporting the ASLBP's request to the Commissioners for permission to carry out its own independent review of what appears to be NRC staff violations of NEPA, for not including the required "hard look" at the environmental impacts of Fermi 3's transmission line corridor in the FEIS (Final Environmental Impact Statement).

In addition, the coalition has appealed the ASLBP's rejection of its quality assurance (QA) contention to the full NRC Commission. Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds serves as the coalition's Fermi 3 QA expert witness. The NRC Commissioners will likely rule on the QA and transmission corridor contentions in the near future.

Friday
Nov072014

Environmental coalition cites lack of Nuclear Waste Confidence, calls for suspension of reactor licensing proceedings

An environmental coalition embroiled in numerous old, degraded reactor license extension -- as well as proposed new reactor construction and operation license -- proceedings has filed its "CONSOLIDATED REPLY TO ANSWERS TO PETITIONS TO SUSPEND FINAL REACTOR LICENSING DECISIONS, MOTIONS TO ADMIT A NEW CONTENTION, AND MOTIONS TO REOPEN THE RECORD" before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The filing is a response to "Answers" filed a week ago by NRC staff and the nuclear utilities, as well as to an amicus curiae filing made by the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobbying arm in Washington, D.C. The environmental coalition's "Consolidated Reply" was prepared by Diane Curran of the Washington, D.C. law firm Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisenberg, LLP, as well as Mindy Goldstein, Director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta.

Terry Lodge, a Toledo-based attorney who represents Beyond Nuclear and other environmental groups in their interventions against the Davis-Besse, OH and Fermi 2, MI license extensions, and the Fermi 3, MI Construction and Operating Licence Application (COLA), filed the "Consolidated Reply" in these proceedings.

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