Groups call for Oyster Creek reactor to be "autopsied" after closure

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2015 identified the need to "harvest" components for examination from closed reactors. Since then, nothing has happened. At a meeting tonight (April 10)in New Jersey, Beyond Nuclear will be asking the NRC why not. And with the country's oldest nuclear reactor -- New Jersey's Oyster Creek -- due to close permanently this October, Beyond Nuclear and its allies will be insisting that such examinations be put into play, rather than bury the evidence. Such autopsies would inform regulators of the potential hazards of continued operation at the country's remaining nuclear reactors, already showing serious signs of dangerous degradation impacting health and safety. 

Here are the opening paragraphs of our press release (read the full release here.)

TAKOMA PARK, MD --The Oyster Creek nuclear power station in Lacey Township, New Jersey should undergo an “autopsy” after it closes permanently in October 2018 and begins the decommissioning process, say three groups that closely watchdog the country’s oldest nuclear power plant.

Beyond Nuclear, based in Takoma Park, MD, New Jersey Clean Water Action and GRAMMES, a New Jersey nuclear watchdog group, are calling upon the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to oversee a strategic harvesting of aged reactor materials from safety-related components and structures to be used as samples for laboratory analyses or an “autopsy.”

Oyster Creek is presently the nation’s oldest operating power reactor and the world’s first Fukushima-style nuclear reactor, a GE Mark I boiling water design. In Japan, that design saw reactor safety systems and structures fail to prevent three reactor meltdowns nor contain massive releases of radioactivity following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The groups are asking the NRC, and Chicago-based Exelon Generation which owns Oyster Creek, to harvest a variety of material samples during decommissioning, including irradiated steel and concrete from safety structures and components from the 47-year old reactor for the scientific analysis of residual safety margins.

The groups say that an Oyster Creek autopsy can provide valuable information on safety margins and potential hazards for the 21 similarly designed and aging GE Mark I reactor units still operating in the country.

Read the full press release.

Plowshares action at Kings Bay Naval Base, GA

Seven Catholic plowshares activists calling themselves  Kings Bay Plowshares, were detained in the early hours of April 5 at the Kings Bay Naval Base St. Mary's Georgia. They entered on Wednesday night April 4 on the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Carrying hammers and baby bottles of their own blood, the seven attempted to convert weapons of mass destruction.

Kings Bay Naval base opened in 1979 as the Navy's Atlantic Ocean Trident port. It is the largest nuclear submarine base in the world. There are six ballistic missile subs and two guided missile subs based at Kings Bay.

The activists went to three sites on the base: The administration building, the D5 Missile monument installation and the nuclear weapons storage bunkers. The activists used crime scene tape, hammers and banners reading: The ultimate logic of racism is genocide, Dr. Martin Luther King; The ultimate logic of Trident is omnicide; Nuclear weapons: illegal - immoral. They also brought an indictment charging the U.S. government for crimes against peace.

The activists at the nuclear weapons storage bunkers were Elizabeth McAlister,78. Jonah House, Baltimore; Steve Kelly, S. J.,69 Bay Area CA; Carmen Trotta, 55, NY Catholic Worker. The activists at the Administration building were Clare Grady, 59, Ithaca Catholic Worker; Martha Hennessy, 62, NY Catholic Worker. The activists at the Trident D5 monuments were Mark Colville, 55, Amistad Catholic Worker New Haven CT; Patrick O'Neill, 61, Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker Garner NC.

All activists are being detained and as of 10:00 Thursday morning were acknowledged by the Camden County, Georgia jail as “on the way.” No one was injured.

This is the latest of 100 similar Plowshares actions around the world beginning in 1980 in King of Prussia PA.

Will FirstEnergy’s lavish lobbying dollars buy a bailout?

FirstEnergy, the Ohio-based utility that just announced premature closures of four of its nuclear reactors, has spent $2 million a year on lobbying over the past seven years. On April 4, the company’s chief lobbyist reportedly dined with President Trump, just as its subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), which filed for bankruptcy on March 31, is attempting to score a bailout to pre-empt the shutdowns which, it claimed, would cause a grid emergency, something the grid operator has exposed as nonsense. (More details here.) FES also played the jobs card while obfuscating its role in a fatally restrictive zoning provision passed by the Ohio legislature in 2014. The measure stifled $1.6 billion in wind power development in the state which would have created thousands of steady and secure renewable energy jobs. But FirstEnergy’s lobbying dollars, like those of the National Rifle Association, are an investment in Members of Congress and the White House for just such an instance as this, and it’s a well-used script. The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s trade group, has typically spent similar amounts in lobbying dollars each year. Exelon, the country’s biggest nuclear corporation, spent a whopping $9 million in 2011 alone and $4.5 million last year, only a fraction less than the NRA which spent just over $5 million in 2017. More

Takoma Park is first US city to declare compliance with Nuclear Ban Treaty

The City Council of Takoma Park, Maryland, last night (March 14^th) voted unanimously on a resolution that reaffirms the city’s support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or ‘Nuclear Ban Treaty.’ Beyond Nuclear is headquartered in Takoma Park.

The Nuclear Ban Treaty was adopted last year at the UN by 122 countries. The Treaty comprehensively prohibits everything to do with nuclear weapons and makes these weapons illegal under international law. Fifty-seven countries have signed it so far, and as many as 146 countries are expected to sign it in the coming months.

The United States is not one of them, but as with the Paris Climate Agreement, that does not stop cities, states, businesses, colleges and faith communities from complying with this Treaty.

Takoma Park was one of the first cities in the US to declare itself a ‘Nuclear-Free Zone’ back in 1983. Since then, through a city ordinance, Takoma Park has banned companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons from doing business in Takoma Park, or from or for bidding on City contracts, and has avoided investment in companies engaged in the production of nuclear weapons.

Since these prohibitions mean that Takoma Park already complies with the new Treaty, the March 14 resolution declaring the City ‘treaty compliant’ was more of a formality. As the first city in the US to do so, however, Takoma Park has led the way for many more to follow. Read the full press release.

Injustice at sea: the sailors of the USS Ronald Reagan and the Fukushima plume

American sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan were exposed to radiation from Fukushima. Many are sick. Some have died. Why can’t they get justice? Our latest article, on Counterpunch and on Beyond Nuclear International, looks at the two class action lawsuits brought by sailors aboard the Reagan during the Fukushima nuclear crisis and asks why it is taking so long for them to get justice. Nine of the plaintiffs have already died but the case has had to fight through procedural hurdles and is yet to be heard on its merits.

The USS Ronald Reagan arrived off the Japan coast before dawn on March 12, 2011 with a crew of 4,500. It had been on its way to South Korea but returned to join Operation Tomodachi.

But what actually happened to the Reagan after that is still clouded in confusion, or possibly cover-up. After it got doused in the radioactive plume, then drew in radioactively contaminated water through its desalination system — which the crew used for drinking, cooking and bathing — it turned into a pariah ship, just two and a half months into its aid mission.

Floating at sea, the USS Reagan was turned away by Japan, South Korea and Guam. For two and a half months it was the radioactive MS St. Louis, not welcome in any port until Thailand finally took the ship into harbor.

Read the article.