"Entergy Corp. to cut 800 jobs as second-quarter earnings drop by 55 percent"

Entergy Nuclear's "dirty dozen" atomic reactors across the U.S.As reported by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, for the second year in a row, Entergy has announced major job cuts across its nuclear fleet of a "dirty dozen" atomic reactors nationwide. The safety significance of operating age-degraded reactors with skeleton crews, after experienced personnel have been let go, is of growing concern at the nation's second biggest nuclear utility.

Meanwhile, as reported by the Barre Montpelier Times Argus, Entergy has announced that its highly controversial Vermont Yankee (VY) atomic reactor may be shut down for good on Dec. 29, 2014. Entergy announced in August 2013 that VY would be permamently shut down by the end of 2014. This marks the successful culmination of a grassroots anti-nuclear campaign stretching back over 40 years.

"No Need for Indian Point"

The following letter to the editor has just appeared in the New York Times:

To the Editor:

“Hearings on Water Permits for Indian Pt.” (news article, July 23) includes a suggestion that the Indian Point nuclear facility is critical to keeping the lights on in New York State.

New Yorkers don’t need Indian Point. Independent expert analysis commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council provides a road map for replacing the aging and risky facility with renewable power — like wind and solar — and increased energy efficiency.

A severe nuclear accident at Indian Point could result from plant operator error or natural causes like earthquakes or severe storms, or from an act of terrorism, potentially putting millions of people in the path of harmful radioactive fallout.

There’s just no need to live with this risk when clean, safe alternatives are ready and able to replace Indian Point.

KIT KENNEDY
New York, July 25, 2014

The writer is director of the Energy and Transportation Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Are radioactive Fukushima monkeys the canaries in the coal mine?

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps appeared on Thom Hartmann's "The Big Picture" television program on Thursday, July 31st. Thom asked Kevin about a recent scientific study documenting radioactive cesium contamination of the muscle tissue of monkeys who inhabit the forests of Fukushima City, nearly 50 miles northwest of the rubblized Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Whereas monkeys of the same species in northern Japan show no detectable cesium in their flesh, the Fukushima City monkeys -- which eat insects and mushrooms from the contaminated forests of Fukushima -- show hundreds to thousands of becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram of muscle tissue.

A becquerel (bq) is a radioactive disintegration per second. Japanese governmental regulations limit radioactive cesium in food to 100 bq/kg. U.S. standards allow for 12 times more hazardous radioactive cesium in food. Groups like Beyond Nuclear and the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network have petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to lower the permissible level for radioactive cesium in food to 5 bq/kg or less.

Radioactive cesium-137 has a half-life of around 30 years, and a hazardous persistence of 300 to 600 years.

Kevin spoke about lessons learned about the hazards of radioactive cesium in children, such as "Chernobyl Heart" (the title of a 2003 Oscar award winning short documentary about the work of the Irish Chernobyl Children's Project in Belarus), congenital heart defects caused by radioactive cesium contamination in children's heart tissue.

Environmental coalition urges NRC Commissioners to approve ASLB review of agency staff's NEPA violations at Fermi 3

An environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, has warned for two and a half years, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has been derelict in its NEPA duty at Fermi 3, a proposed new ESBWR atomic reactor on the Great Lakes shore in Monroe Co., MI. NRC has failed to analyze the environmental impacts of Fermi 3's nearly 30-mile long transmission line corridor, which would pass through various ecosystems, including forested wetlands, likely home to endangered and threatened plant and animal species.

On July 7th, the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel, overseeing the Fermi 3 Construction and Operating License Application (COLA) proceeding, essentially agreed with the coalition, sending a 60-page memo to the NRC Commissioners requesting permission to review the matter. The ASLB cited U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), concurrence that NRC has not done its NEPA duty.

A short four days later, the four remaining NRC Commissioners (Commissioner Apostalakis left the agency on June 30th) ordered briefs from the parties engaged in this proceeding by July 28th.

The coalition's attorney, Terry Lodge of Toledo, met the challenge of that very short deadline, filing a motion supporting the ASLB's review of the NEPA violations.

The nuclear utility, DTE (formerly Detroit Edison), as well as the NRC staff, filed motions opposing the ASLB's requested NEPA review. The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the nuclear power industry's lobbying arm, also filed an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief, urging the NRC Commissioners to block the ASLB's NEPA review.

More.

ASLB rejects contention on multiple, worsening Shield Building problems at Davis-Besse

An NRC inspector visually examines severe cracking in the Davis-Besse Shield Building, Oct., 2011In a ruling on July 25th, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel at Davis-Besse, OH rejected an environmental coalition's latest contention.

The contention was filed by the coalition's Toledo-based attorney, Terry Lodge, on Earth Day (April 22), 2014. It regards worsening cracking, an air gap in the concrete wall, as well as rebar damage, in the age-degraded Shield Building (SB), essential to radioactivity containment. The contention alleges that FENOC's aging-management plans for the 2017-2037 license extension period are woefully inadequate, with significant safety and environmental risk implications.

The ASLB said it rejected the contention as being premature, but indicating that interveners have until early September to challenge a July 3rd FENOC License Renewal Application (LRA) amendment regarding aging-management plans.

Davis-Besse's original 40-year license expires on Earth Day, 2017. The coalition -- Beyond Nuclear, Citizen Environmental Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Ohio Green Party -- have been officially intervening against the LRA since Dec. 27, 2010, and focusing on SB degradation since cracking was first revealed in Oct. 2011 (photo, above).