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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)

Tuesday
Feb052013

"Endangered Snakes Prompt Hearing Over Fermi 3 Nuclear Plant"

The Monroe Evening News has reported on an environmental coalition's successful bid for hearing before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) in opposition to Detroit Edison's proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor on the Lake Erie shore of southeast Michigan.

The coalition is comprised of Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.

It contends that the nuclear utility, federal government, and State of Michigan are failing to protect the endangered Eastern Fox Snake species (see photo, left) from extinction due to habitat destruction caused by the construction and operation of a 1,550 Megawatt-electric General Electric Hiticahi so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR), as well as an associated 11-mile long, 300-foot wide transmission line corridor.

The State of Michigan has admitted the reactor construction will involve the largest impact on Great Lakes coastal wetlands in the history of state environmental protection law. Combined with the transmission line's destruction of more than 1,000 acres of undeveloped land, including forests and wetlands, the coalition contends the habitat loss could extirpate the endangered Eastern Fox Snake species in the region. More. 

Wednesday
Jan302013

Eastern Fox Snake contention against Fermi 3 moves to evidentiary hearing stage

Tuesday
Jan222013

The nuclear relapse has derailed -- literally!

Photo by Tom Clements, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA)Tom Clements of Alliance for Nuclear Accountability in South Carolina has documented, in photo and blog, a most remarkable development: the AP1000 nuclear reactor vessel targeted at Vogtle, Georgia has been discovered unprotected, stranded in Savannah Port since a December 15 shipment failure. Tom's remarkable blog is posted at the Aiken Leader. Connect Savannah has also reported on the "Nuclear Train Wreck."

As Tom has described it: the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for the chronically delayed Vogtle AP1000 reactor construction project near Waynesboro, Georgia sits stranded and seemingly unprotected in the port of Savannah. The special railroad car carrying the 300-ton vessel had unknown mechanical problems on December 15 on exiting the port.  The NRC has said that the vessel only got one-quarter mile before a sound was heard and the car stopped.  Plans by Westinghouse and Southern Company to move the vessel are unknown. It is also unknown if the railroad car can be repaired and used or if the railroad company which owns the line is concerned that the rail car might break down again on its line in an in accessible place.  Meanwhile, the apparently unguarded reactor might be subject to sabotage and sits in apparent violation of NRC quality assurance and "administrative control" regulations.

Thursday
Jan172013

Forbes: "the nuclear renaissance may be largely over before it started,"

"Burning Money" image by Gene Case, Avenging AngelsPeter Kelly-Detwiler, Contributor to Forbes, has published an op-ed entitled "New Centralized Nuclear Plants: Still an Investment Worth Making?" 

The Forbes contributor concludes that "the nuclear renaissance may be largely over before it started," with not only the vast majority of proposed new reactors in the U.S. being cancelled, but even paid-off old reactors like Kewaunee in Wisconsin being permanently shutdown due to crushing economics -- such as the expense of major, vitally needed safety repairs at the 40-year old reactor.

Kelly-Detwiler cites the "takes too long," "costs too much," and "bet-the-farm" nature of nuclear power for the "failure to launch" of the nuclear relapse.

If the op-ed's title is meant to imply that so-called small modular reactors might still save the day for the retreating nuclear power industry, it must be pointed out that the supposed justification for giant-sized proposed new reactors (such as the AP1000, at 1,100 MWe; the ESBWR at 1,500 MWe; the EPR at 1,600 MWe; etc.) was "economies of scale." Since small modular reactors represent the opposite end of the spectrum, it stands to reason these would be even more expensive than their super-sized, failed siblings.

In a classic February 14, 1985 piece entitled “Nuclear Follies,” Forbes wrote: 

"The failure of the U.S. nuclear power program ranks as the largest managerial disaster in business history, a disaster on a monumental scale. The utility industry has already invested $125 billion in nuclear power, with an additional $140 billion to come before the decade is out, and only the blind, or the biased, can now think that the money has been well spent. It is a defeat for the U.S. consumer and for the competitiveness of U.S. industry, for the utilities that undertook the program and for the private enterprise system that made it possible.” More.

Tuesday
Jan082013

NRC's Final Environmental Impact Statement for Fermi 3

The following link at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission website will take you to the full documentation for the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Detroit Edison's proposed new Fermi 3 reactor:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr2105

In addition, it can be accessed at the links below.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has posted its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Detroit Edison's proposed new Fermi 3 reactor targeted at the Lake Erie shoreline near Monroe, MI.

The full, official title of the document is: NUREG-2105, Vol. 1; Environmental Impact Statement for the Combined License (COL) for Enrico Fermi Unit 3, Final Report; Manuscript Completed: November 2012; Date Published: January 2013; U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of New Reactors, Washington, D.C.; Regulatory Office, Permit Evaluation, Eastern Branch; U.S. Army Engineer District, Detroit, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit Michigan.

You can find links to the voluminous document below.

Volume 1, Chapters 1 to 6:

Part 1 (155 pages, Front Cover to Page 2-87); Part 2 (155 pages, Page 2-88 to Page 2-242); Part 3 (155 pages, Page 2-243 to Page 4-81); Part 4 (155 pages, Page 4-82 to Page 5-92); Part 5 (133 pages, Page 5-93 to Back Cover).

Volume 2, Chapter 7 to Appendix D:

Part 1 (140 pages, Front Cover Page to Page 9-4); Part 2 (140 pages, Page 9-5 to Page 9-144); Part 3 (140 pages, Page 9-145 to 9-284); Part 4 (140 pages, Page 9-285 to Page D-24); Part 5 (80 pages, Page D-25 to Page D-104); Part 6 (57 pages, Page D-105 to Back Cover Page).

Volume 3, Appendix E (549 pages)

Volume 4, Appendixes F to M:

Part 1 (80 pages, Front Cover Page to Page F-25); Part 2 (80 pages, Page F-27 to Page G-10); Part 3 (80 pages, Page G-11 to Page K-20); Part 4 (40 pages, Page K-21 to Page K-60); Part 5 (41 pages, Page K-61 to Back Cover Page).