Mayor, environmentalists declare victory of people power over nuclear power

Sarnia Mayor Mike BradleyAs reported by the Sarnia Observer, the Mayor of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, Mike Bradley (photo, left), has declared victory in a years-long campaign to block the shipment of radioactive steam generators, by boat on the Great Lakes, from Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario, across the Pacific, to Sweden. 

“It's a real testament to citizen power,” said Bradley, who has been a vocal critic of the move, along with a growing list of Ontario mayors, coalition groups, environmental activists, and U.S. Senators. “We're fighting a very large and powerful organization.”

First Nations, including the Mohawks, as well as hundreds of municipalities in Quebec representing millions of citizens along the targeted shipment route, made the difference for the resistance.

Kay Cumbow, the nuclear power watchdog in Michigan who first discovered the risky shipping scheme through her research, then warned and activated others, has said "Thanks to everyone who wrote letters, signed petitions and helped get the word out about the dangers of this scheme that would have put the Great Lakes at risk, endangered workers as well as communities enroute, and would have put radioactive materials into the global recycled metal supply."

Maude Barlow, national chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, was quoted by the Ottawa Citizen: "This is a huge victory for communities around the Great Lakes...The Great Lakes belong to everyone and communities have a right to say 'no' to any projects that will harm them."

As indicated by Mayor Bradley in a separate Sarnia Observer article, the next big fight against "nuclear madness" brewing at Bruce involves proposals by Ontario Power Generation, the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization, and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to bury all of Ontario's so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes -- from 20 atomic reactors across the province -- within a mile of the Lake Huron shoreline. Several communities near Bruce, largely populated by Bruce nuclear workers and in effect company towns, have also volunteered to be considered for a national Canadian high-level radioactive waste dump (for 22 reactors).

Fairewinds Energy Education: Forty Good Years and One Bad Day

Akio MatsumuraIn this video, Arnie Gundersen talks with international diplomat Akio Matsumura (photo left), the former special advisor to the United Nations Development program, the founder and Secretary General of the Global Forum of spiritual and parliamentary leaders for human survival, and the Secretary General of the 1992 Parliamentary Earth Summit Conference in Rio de Janeiro.  Arnie and Akio discuss the continuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi site, and come to the conclusion that Tokyo Electric must be removed from the clean-up process. Arnie also discusses his 40 years in the nuclear industry, and how the worst day of that career led him to conclude that a nuclear power plant can have “Forty Good Years and One Bad Day.”

Arnie, Fairewinds Associates, Inc.'s Chief Engineer, has responded to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) nonchalant attitude towards Entergy's announced impending reductions in staffing levels at its reactor fleet across the country, "What the NRC is saying is that AFTER a nuke breaks (negative trend) it will know that the layoff (human resource change) had gone too far!  This is what I discussed in the latest video-Forty Good Years and One Bad Day…http://fairewinds.org/media/fairewinds-videos/forty-good-years-and-one-bad-day…basically, the NRC will wait for that One Bad Day before they take any action."

Arnie was responding to an NRC spokesman's quote in a Rutland Herald/Barre Montpelier Times Argus article, “If we observe any negative trends via inspection findings and/or performance indicators, we could determine if there was any linkage to human resource changes...”.

Davis-Besse Hearing Docket

Toledo attorney Terry Lodge represents the environmental coalition. Here he speaks out against Davis-Besse's 20-year license extension at an NRC hearing held at Oak Harbor High School in August 2012May 20, 2013: EXPERT WITNESS REPORT OF ARNOLD GUNDERSEN TO SUPPORT THE PETITION FOR LEAVE TO INTERVENE AND REQUEST FOR HEARING BY BEYOND NUCLEAR (TAKOMA PARK, MD), CITIZENS ENVIRONMENT ALLIANCE SW ONTARIO CANADA, DON'T WASTE MICHIGAN (MI), AND SIERRA CLUB OHIO CHAPTER (OH)

May 20, 2013: PETITION TO INTERVENE AND FOR AN ADJUDICATORY PUBLIC HEARING OF FENOC LICENSE AMENDMENT REQUEST

May 22, 2013: [NRC Secretary to Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, docketing of] DAVIS-BESSE NUCLEAR POWER STATION, UNIT 1 PETITION TO INTERVENE AND FOR AN ADJUDICATORY HEARING OF FENOC LICENSE AMENDMENT REQUEST DOCKET NO. 50-346-LA

May 28, 2013: ESTABLISHMENT OF [NRC] ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD

May 29, 2013: NOTICE OF FILING OF INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATION DECLARATIONS IN SUPPORT OF STANDING OF CITIZENS ENVIRONMENTAL ALLIANCE OF SOUTHWEST ONTARIO

June 4, 2013: NOTICE OF APPEARANCE: MITZI A. YOUNG, NRC

June 11, 2013: NOTICE OF APPEARANCE: LLOYD B. SUBIN, NRC

June 14, 2013: NOTICE OF APPEARANCE: JEREMY L. WACHUTKA, NRC

June 14, 2013: NOTICE OF APPEARANCE OF DAVID W. JENKINS, FIRSTENERGY

June 14, 2013: FIRSTENERGY NUCLEAR OPERATING COMPANY’S ANSWER OPPOSING PETITION TO INTERVENE AND REQUEST FOR HEARING REGARDING TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION LICENSE AMENDMENT REQUEST

June 14, 2013: NRC STAFF ANSWER TO THE BEYOND NUCLEAR, CITIZENS ENVIRONMENT ALLIANCE OF SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO, DON’T WASTE MICHIGAN, AND OHIO SIERRA CLUB JOINT REQUEST FOR A HEARING AND PETITION FOR LEAVE TO INTERVENE

June 21, 2013: PETITIONERS’ REPLY IN SUPPORT OF ‘PETITION TO INTERVENE AND FOR AN ADJUDICATORY PUBLIC HEARING OF FENOC LICENSE AMENDMENT REQUEST’

June 28, 2013: FIRSTENERGY NUCLEAR OPERATING COMPANY’S MOTION TO STRIKE PORTIONS OF PETITIONERS’ REPLY

July 1, 2013: ASLB ORDER (Setting Telephonic Oral Argument)

July 1, 2013: NRC STAFF MOTION TO STRIKE PORTIONS OF JOINT PETITIONERS REPLY OR, IN THE ALTERNATIVE, FOR LEAVE TO REPLY

July 8, 2013: PETITIONERS' REPLY IN OPPOSITION TO 'FENOC MOTION TO STRIKE'

July 11, 2013: PETITIONERS' REPLY IN OPPOSITION TO 'NRC STAFF MOTION TO STRIKE'

July 24, 2013: TRANSCRIPT FROM THE ASLB ORAL ARGUMENT PRE-HEARING

August 12, 2013: ASLB DENIAL OF INTERVENTION.

Update on July 25, 2013 by admin

Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc., serves as the environmental coalition's expert witness.The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) conducted an oral argument pre-hearing on July 24th on FirstEnergy's risky proposed steam generator replacements. A coalition of environmental interveners, including Beyond Nuclear, issued a press release.

The Toledo Blade has reported on this story. The article quotes Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps: 

“We need for FirstEnergy to prove that these new steam generators are safe,” said Kevin Kamps, a radioactive-waste specialist for Beyond Nuclear, one of the environmental groups seeking to intervene.

Mr. Kamps, in an interview after the roughly 90-minute oral arguments, called for “an open, transparent process.”

Attorney Terry Lodge (photo, above left) represented the coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, and Arnie Gundersen (photo, left), Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc., serves as its expert witness. Gundersen also serves as Friends of the Earth's expert at San Onofre, where a botched replacement of steam generators put 8 million southern Californians at risk, and has led to a mutli-billion dollar boondoggle, and the permanent shutdown of two reactors. In addition, Gundersen was involved at Crystal River, Florida, where a botched steam generator replacement fatally cracked the concrete containment dome, leading to that reactor's permanent shutdown as well. Davis-Besse also has a severely cracked concrete containment.

The NRC ASLB has released the transcript from the July 24th oral argument pre-hearing.

Update on February 20, 2014 by admin

On August 12, 2013, the ASLB denied the intervention.

Palisades & Davis-Besse among most at risk reactors in U.S. for near-term shutdown

Palisades and Davis-Besse are amongst the oldest, most risky, and most likely to permanently shutdown in the near-term of the three dozen atomic reactors located on the U.S. and Canadian shores of the Great Lakes (link to a copy of this map in the text)Michigan Radio has reported on both Entergy's Pailsades (Covert, MI) and FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse (Oak Harbor, OH) being on the short list of most likely near-term reactor shutdowns. Beyond Nuclear works in coalition with grassroots environmental allies, pressuring for the shutdown of both of these problem-plagued Great Lakes reactors, perched on the shores of the drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations. Great Lakes United (GLU) and the International Institute for Concern on Public Health just updated the Great Lakes Region Nuclear Hot Spots map, showing the location for all atomic reactors and other nuclear facilities in the basin.

As reported by the Kalamazoo Gazette, "In the study, Cooper cited local opposition as a particularly intense challenge facing the Palisades reactor." Beyond Nuclear has worked closely with grassroots groups like Don't Waste Michigan and Michigan Safe Energy Future, as well as concerned local residents, to shutdown Palisades before it melts down.

Beyond Nuclear issued a press statement, naming the "multiple safety risks" and "impending repair(s)" contributing to the likelihood that Palisades will close in the near-term: "As Entergy's own CEO, Leo Denault, admitted last February, Palisades' long overdue, costly, major safety repairs are now finally catching up to it. The high costs of dealing with the most embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the country, of replacing the steam generators for the second time in the plant's history, of replacing the badly corroded reactor lid, of dealing with 41 years of control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) seal leaks and 12 years of CRDM through-wall leaks, of dealing with repeated service water system leaks and breakdowns -- the most recent on July 10th -- and of plugging Safety Injection Refueling Water Tank leaks and spills, means that Palisades' days are numbered. Palisades must be shutdown, before it melts down."

The public found out about that July 10th leak at Palisades on a July 16 NRC Webinar (see NRC's slide #14). Members of the public, including Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, asked NRC staff many questions, but only a few were even addressed at all in the arbitrarily short (one hour) Webinar, with no opportunity for cross examination or rebuttal to NRC's often woefully inadequate and even deceptive "answers." A local resident expressed the mistrust felt by many in a Michigan Radio commentary.  Michigan Radio also reported from the Webinar that it will take months to determine if Palisades' early May SIRWT leak represented a violation requiring enforcement action. (Enforcement action has not been taken about a July-August leak of primary coolant water which should have required reactor shutdown within 6 hours. Palisades continued to operate for an entire month. UCS's Dave Lochbaum points out that NRC could fine $140,000 per day for that month-long violation. So far, however, NRC has not fined Entergy a single penny.)

The Holland Sentinel, quoting NRC resident inspector Tom Taylor, reports that the service water system leak is ongoing, and also that radioactive tritium was detected on the beach at the Lake Michigan shoreline, on Palisades' property. (Although signs warn beachgoers at the adjacent Van Buren State Park to the immediate north that security guards at Palisades have authority to use deadly force, there are no physical barriers to prevent unsuspecting persons from walking onto the radioactive sand. And this was the fifth Webinar since October 2012, not the third.)

The Toledo Blade has reported on Cooper's inclusion of Davis-Besse in his list of 12 most likely reactors to shutdown in the near-term. So have the CentralOhio.com/Fremont News Messenger, as well as the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Beyond Nuclear, along with coalitions of environmental allies, has challenged Davis-Besse's proposed 20-year license extension from 2017 to 2037, and has challenged FirstEnergy's San Onofre-like shortcuts on safety regarding its proposed 2014 steam generator replacements.

Help hold NRC's feet to the fire -- please attend Palisades Webinar, Tues., July 16, 5:30 PM Eastern

MI Radio photo showing the location of the SIRWT, located on the roof directly above the control room; the reactor containment building towers to the leftAs announced by a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) meeting notice, the agency will hold yet another Webinar about Entergy's problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shore in Covert, Michigan. This one will focus on the May 5th spill of 82.1 gallons of radioactive water from the leaking Safety Injection Refueling Water Tank (SIRWT) into Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes represent 20% of the surface fresh water on the entire planet, and serve as the drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.

The Webinar will be held on Tuesday, July 16th (the 68th annual commemoration of the world's first atomic weapon blast, "Trinity," at Alamagordo, NM on July 16, 1945).

To register to attend the Webinar, do so by filling out the required information (your name and email address) by July 15th at the following website: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/431957345

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