Mobile Chernobyl bill revs its engines on Capitol Hill

The Mobile Chernobyl mock nuke waste cask, a full size replica of a truck shipping container, shown in front of the State Capitol in Jefferson City, MO during a cross-country educational tourAt 2:30 PM Eastern on Tuesday, July 30th, in room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (ENR) will hold a hearing on Senate Bill 1240 (S. 1240), the Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2013.

The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony on S. 1240, the Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2013. Among those who will testify are David Lochbaum, Director, Nuclear Safety Project, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Geoff Fettus, Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council. 

The hearing will be webcast live on the committee's website, and an archived video will be available shortly after the hearing is complete. Witness testimony will be available on the website at the start of the hearing.

As previously reported by Beyond Nuclear in late June when S. 1240 was introducted, if enacted, this bill would unleash unprecedented numbers of risky "Mobile Chernobyls," "dirty bombs on wheels," and "Floating Fukushimas" onto our country's roads, rails, and waterways. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites (the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in NM, the Savannah River Site in SC, and Idaho National Lab) are being targeted for "consolidated interim storage," de facto permanent parking lot dumps for high-level radioactive waste (HLRW). So too are Native American reservations, as well as nuclear power plants, such as Dresden in Illinois. 

The recent rail disaster in Quebec, which killed scores, serves as a cautionary tale against playing a radioactive waste shell game with some of the deadliest materials ever generated, HLRW. A train tunnel fire in Baltimore in July, 2001 could have caused tens of thousands of latent cancer fatalities, had HLRW been aboard. 

A national coalition of environmental groups has been raising such warnings for years, for example throughout the 2010-2012 Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future proceedings. See, as but one example, a group sign on letter spearheaded by Physicians for Social Responsibility in Feb. 2011, signed by scores of organizations nationwide. However, the BRC ignored these good faith efforts. So too has the Senate ENR's S. 1240 development process, thus far.

Please contact your U.S. Senators, as via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121), and urge that they block this dangerous bill, S. 1240. Urge that they instead enact legislation requiring Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS). You can also work with friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, and groups in your area to request a meeting with your U.S. Senators during their upcoming August recess, as they travel back home, to discuss your concerns with S. 1240 face to face. To do so, contact your U.S. Senators' schedulers. Don't hesitate to contact Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps for any guidance needed (kevin@beyondnuclear.org or 301-270-2209 ext. 1).

NRC ASLB to hear oral arguments Wed., July 24th on risky Davis-Besse steam generator replacements

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 2012DAVIS-BESSE HEARING DOCKET: Click here to link to all the official documents filed in the environmental coalition intervention against FirstEnergy's risky steam generator replacements at Davis-Besse

Davis-Besse Steam Generator Replacement Hearing before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board

“Telephonic Oral Hearing” will begin at 1:30 pm EST Wed., July 24, 2013.  Please phone into Hearing @ 800-779-1642  passcode is 8093521

Contact: Michael J. Keegan, Don’t Waste Michigan (734) 770-1441; Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear (240) 462-3216; Patricia Marida, Sierra Club Ohio (614) 890-7865

ASLB Hearing Notification link 

ASLB TO HEAR ORAL ARGUMENTS WED., JULY 24^th ON DAVIS-BESSE STEAM GENERATOR REPLACEMENTS

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will hear oral arguments Wed., July 24, 2013 on the Davis-Besse nuclear plant steam generator replacements. The contention alleges that at least nine major nuclear plant modifications have not been scrutinized and must do so, in a full license amendment proceeding.  A very similar contention led to the permanent shutdown of two reactors at San Onofre nuclear plant in CA on June 7th.

The contention was filed May 20^th by Interveners including Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don’t Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club of Ohio. The oral arguments will discuss standing and whether the ASLB should admit the contention on the merits.  The (ASLB) Board intends to ask questions regarding the Joint Petitioners’ standing and the admissibility of the proffered contention.

The steam generator replacement concerns at Davis-Besse are nearly identical to the engineering shortcomings at the San Onofre reactors which led to their failure and ultimate closing of those reactors.  Fairewinds Associates,Inc's Chief Engineer Arnold Gundersen provided expert testimony, on behalf of Friends of the Earth, which led to the closing of the two San Onofre reactors.  Arnold Gundersen is now expert for the environmental interveners on the Davis-Besse steam generator replacements.

Background narratives with updates are posted at Beyond Nuclear at the following links: 

May 21, 2013, Environmental coalition challenges experimental steam generator replacements; 

June 22, 2013, Coalition defends its challenge against risky steam generator replacements; 

July 9, 2013, Coalition defends intervention against risky steam generator replacements by rebutting FirstEnergy "Motions to Strike";

July 12, 2013, Coalition defends intervention against risky steam generator replacements by rebutting NRC "Motions to Strike".

The entire ASLB docket, including environmental interveners' testimony and petition, is posted online. Documents will also be sent upon request (see contacts above).

Interveners are seeking to prevent the unregulated installation of replacement steam generators which are not “like-for-like”, “same-for-same”, “fit-form-function”.  FirstEnergy’s attempts to install steam generators without adequate oversight put the entire Great Lakes basin at risk of a catastrophic cascading steam generator failure leading to Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) resulting in meltdown and potentially catastrophic radioactivity releases.

Post hearing individual interviews can be arranged by contacts listed above.

Update on July 25, 2013 by admin

Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc., serves as the environmental coalition's expert witnessThe 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.

Vermont Yankee owner: ‘Expect workforce reductions’

Vermont Yankee cooling tower collapse, 2007As reported by Andrew Stein at the Vermont Digger, Entergy Nuclear is forcing its Vermont Yankee workforce of 650 to essentially re-apply for their own jobs, with indications to up to 10% could be let go as a cost-saving measure.

VY was just named by nuclear economist Mark Cooper as one of the dozen atomic reactors in the U.S. most at risk of "early retirement." Earlier this year, the Swiss financial analysis firm UBS even warned that VY's permanent shutdown could yet occur in 2013. On Feb. 8th, Entergy's brand new CEO, Leo Denault, admitted in a Reuters interview that major needed safety repairs were contributing to the company's financial challenges across its fleet of 12 atomic reactors. 

Raymond Shadis, New England Coalition's Technical Advisor, had this comment regarding the news of VY's workforce reduction: "Asking fewer people to do more work will inevitably impact both reliability and safety. Vermont Yankee is already hurting because revenue from electricity sales barely meet O&M. It is clear that Entergy is desperately seeking a way to make its older, smaller nuclear plants pay but devoting fewer resources to inspection and maintenance is exactly what brought down and ultimately closed VY's sister plants -- Connecticut Yankee and Maine Yankee. Workforce reduction, by-the-way, is not something Entergy brought to the attention of the Vermont Public Service Board in recent hearings on a company proposal to extend operation of Vermont Yankee another twenty years. Really the right, graceful thing to do, would be to shutdown now before they break something and ruin both a lot of people's lives and the tri-state area environment."

Update on July 22, 2013 by admin

The Rutland Herald/Barre Montpelier Times Argus, as well as the Associated Press, have reported that Entergy's impending workforce reductions are not confined to Vermont Yankee, but could well take place nationwide, at Entergy's entire dozen-reactor fleet. The Kalamazoo Gazette has reported on expected layoffs at Entergy's problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in southwest Michigan.

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. More, including area media coverage on both troubled reactors.

New report documents reactors most at risk of "early retirement"

Mark Cooper, Vermont Law SchoolIn a new report, Renaissance in Reverse: Competition Pushes Aging U.S. Nuclear Reactors to the Brink of Economic Abandonment, Vermont Law School energy economist Mark Cooper (photo, left) of Vermont Law School has identified 11 economic, operational, and safety factors contributing to the likelihood that reactors at 38 nuclear power plants in the U.S. could join Crystal River, FL, Kewaunee, WI, and San Onofre, CA in permanently shutting down sooner rather than later. As listed in a press release, Cooper identifies a dozen reactors most at risk of permanent shutdown in the near-term, including half of Entergy's own fleet of a dirty dozen atomic reactors nationwide. Several of the reactors identified as most at risk of sudden closure are identical or similar in design to Fukushima Daiichi (General Electric Mark I and II boiling water reactors): FitzPatrick, NY; Nine Mile Point Unit 2, NY; Oyster Creek, NJ; Pilgrim, MA; Vermont Yankee, VT. The audio recording of yesterday's press conference, which also featured former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford, has been posted online.