Coalition presses case against Fermi atomic reactors in Michigan

Fermi 2, located on the Great Lakes shoreline in Monroe County, MIOn Dec. 15, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) finalized its rubber-stamp of Fermi Unit 2's 20-year license extension, despite years and decades of resistance by such grassroots groups as Citizens Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT) and Don't Waste MI. Most recently, CRAFT raised "Got KI?" contentions, building on work led by the Alliance to Halt Fermi 3. Fermi 2 is the largest Fukushima Daiichi General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor twin design in the world; but if Detroit Edison (DTE) gets its way, an even bigger boiling water reactor would be built immediately adjacent, Fermi 3. However, Beyond Nuclear and a coalition of environmental allies, represented by legal counsel Terry Lodge of Toledo, OH, has resisted the Fermi 3 combined Construction and Operating License Application at every turn, since 2008. Most recently, on Dec. 23, this included a legal filing at the second highest court in the land, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The appeal against Fermi 3's license includes an unprecedented challenge to a scandalous, Orwellian 2007 NRC rule change that fundamentally violates the National Environmental Policy Act -- excluding Fermi 3's transmission line corridor from NRC's Environmental Impact Statement. It also challenges DTE's violation of NRC's Quality Assurance regulations, a contention for which Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates, Inc. has served as Beyond Nuclear's expert witness.