Kucinich on House floor: "How long before FirstEnergy's 34 year snow job is fully exposed?" at Davis-Besse

U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today took to the House floor to protest FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's claim that the Blizzard of 1978 caused the widespread, severe cracking in the Davis-Besse atomic reactor's concrete shield building. Kucinich asked "Can they be believed when they claim a snow storm 34 years ago created cracks that appear today? Are buildings all over northern Ohio falling apart today because of the blizzard of '78? Or is this just another in a series of desperate lies used keep a plant going that should either be shut down or massively repaired? How long before FirstEnergy's 34 year snow job is fully exposed?" Kucinich put out a media release, with links to the video of his House floor statement. 

The Toledo Blade reports that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has accepted FENOC's "Snow Job" as the root cause explanation for the cracking at Davis-Besse, despite its own staff's tough questioning of FENOC's original root cause analysis report on Feb. 28th.

Beyond Nuclear has issued a press release.

Update on July 9, 2012 by admin

The Toledo Blade has published an editorial breaking the story on what may yet prove to amount to a 36-year-old cover up at the Davis-Besse atomic reactor. On May 16th, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) admitted for the first time that cracking on the dome of the Davis-Besse concrete shield building, a part of the containment structure, was first documented not in October 2011, but rather 36 years earlier, in 1976.

Sweden on alert after explosives found near nuclear plant

Sweden raised the security alert for the country's three nuclear power plants Thursday after explosives were found on a truck at the southwestern Ringhals atomic power station. Police said they were investigating possible sabotage.

Bomb sniffer dogs detected the explosives during a routine check Wednesday afternoon by security staff while the truck was in the power plant's industrial area near its high security enclosure. Police declined to describe the amount or type of explosive material found. Associated Press and ABC News (video)

Beyond Nuclear files motion to block final NRC licensing decisions at Fermi 3, Davis-Besse and Grand Gulf units pending Nuke Waste Con Game resolution

Following on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's recent ruling nullifying the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's "Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision," Beyond Nuclear and its environmental allies have filed legal motions in the Fermi 3 proposed new reactor proceeding, as well as the Davis-Besse proposed 20 year license extension proceeding.  Identical motions were filed by Beyond Nuclear in proceedings for Mississippi's Grand Gulf. The motions call upon NRC to stay any final decisions on the Fermi 3 combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA), as well as the Davis-Besse License Renewal Application (LRA),  Grand Gulf unit 1 relicesning and Grand Gulf unit 3 COLA pending resolution of NRC's now court-mandated environmental assessment of safety and security risks with long-term storage of high-level radioactive waste at reactor sites. The environmental coalitions issued press releases regarding Fermi 3 and Davis-Besse. Toledo attorney Terry Lodge represents the environmental coalitions in both proceedings.

FOE blasts San Onofre for deceptive shortcuts on safety, NRC for turning blind eye; demands full public hearings on license amendment re: defective steam generators

NRC file photo of San Onofre Units 2 & 3 on the Pacific Coast in San Clemente, CAFriends of the Earth (FOE) today unveiled a legal challenge against any premature restart of the currently shut down San Onofre nuclear power plant. FOE has provided a summary of its legal intervention. Its full petition is also posted online. Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen has provided an expert declaration supporting FOE's petition. FOE's motion seeking a stay on San Onofre's restart is also posted.

As reported by the L.A. Times, FOE "...filed a legal petition with the NRC on Monday asking the agency to launch a full license amendment process, including a trial-like public hearing, to review the design changes in the new steam generators...Arnie Gundersen, a consultant for Friends of the Earth, has argued that Edison did not report all of the significant design changes to the NRC and that the NRC allowed the steam generator replacement to go through a streamlined review when it should have gotten more extensive scrutiny."

In a media release, Damon Moglen, FOE's climate and energy director stated: “The crisis at San Onofre is the result of a perfect storm of error. On the one hand, Edison made significant design changes without seeking an amendment to its license as required by NRC regulations; on the other hand, the NRC appears to have been asleep at the regulatory wheel. The result was the failure of critical equipment that could endanger the lives and livelihoods of millions of Southern Californians, and leaves California ratepayers stuck with the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defective technology.”

FOE has accused San Onofre's owners of misleadingly claiming the replacement of steam generators at its two reactors was "like for like," thereby sidestepping a detailed NRC oversight review, as well as public hearings on a license amendment. In truth, San Onofre's defective replacement steam generators are very unlike the old, degraded ones they replaced, even NRC's regional administrator Elmo Collins has now publicly admitted. 

AP has reported that NRC has now confirmed what FOE and Gundersen revealed months ago: design changes have led to the nearly brand new steam generator tube failures. North County Times has also reported on the anticipation amongst San Onofre watchdogs in the lead up to a meeting Monday night, at which an NRC "Augmented Inspection Team" will publicly report the status of its findings thus far.

Update on June 24, 2012 by admin

Nuclear Free California has posted videos of the speakers at Friends of the Earth's press conference, the day of launching their petition for an NRC adjudicatory hearing on the license amendment that SCE should have applied for, but never did. The speakers included FOE's Damon Moglen, Donna Gilmore (local grassroots watchdog on San Onofre), Dave Freeman (former head of the TVA, now senior advisor to FOE), Arnie Gundersen (Fairewinds Associates nuclear engineer), and Crystal Coleman, an area resident with three children who feels compelled to get involved and speak out to protect their future.

Remembering Dr. Rosalie Bertell

We mourn the passing of Dr. Rosalie Bertell, age 83, who died peacefully on June 14. Rosalie Bertell, scientist and Grey Nun of the Sacred Heart, was a tireless and compassionate advocate for those poisoned by chemical and radiological weapons and contamination.

Her book, "No Immediate Danger? Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth" published in 1985, was the first book to reveal the dangers of low-level radiation.

Rosalie received her Ph. D. degree in Biometrics with minors in Biology and Biochemistry from the Catholic University of America, in 1966. Since that time she has worked as a biometrician and environmental epidemiologist. By choice, Dr. Bertell worked for the victims or potential victims of industrial, technological and military pollution with a particular emphasis on assisting the struggles of third world and indigenous people to preserve their Human Right to life and health. Her major concerns were with the dangers associated with economic globalization, war and the proliferation of chemical and radioactive pollutants as the result of preparation for war and the toxic products and processes developed from weapons research and production.

The International Institute of Concern for Public Health (IICPH), of which she was Founder and Immediate Past President, opened its doors in 1984 in Toronto Canada and continues to serve as an institutional support for her work. She was also a founding member of the International Commission of Health Professionals, and the International Association of Humanitarian Medicine.

Among many projects she has headed, the most notable are: Director of the International Medical Commission Bhopal which investigated the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster in India; and organizer of the International Medical Commission on Chernobyl to present testimony to the Permanent People's Tribunal. She assisted the people of the Philippines with problems stemming from toxic waste left by the U.S. Military on their abandoned Subic and Clark military bases. She has worked with the government of Ireland to hold Britain responsible for the radioactive pollution of the Irish Sea, and assisted the Gulf War Veterans and the Iraqi citizens dealing with the illness called Gulf War Syndrome. She acted as Consultant to local, Provincial and Federal Governments, unions and citizen organizations.

She was the recipient of five honorary degrees. Among her many awards can be numbered the Alternative Nobel Prize, Right Livelihood Award; World Federalist Peace Award; Ontario Premier's Council on Health, Health Innovator Award; the United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 award and the Sean MacBride International Peace Prize. She was selected to be one of the 1,000 Peace Women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, 2005. Rosalie published numerous articles, reviewed articles for professional journals and was editor of the journal, "International Perspectives in Public Health".

Read a longer tribute to Rosalie, by Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri, here.