Major court victory against NRC's Nuclear Waste "Con Game"!

Today, a coalition of several states, environmental groups, and a Native American nation have scored a major federal court victory against the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision," more accurately described as a "con game" (a "confidence game" is defined as "any swindle in which the swindler, after gaining the confidence of the victim, robs the victim by cheating at gambling, appropriating funds entrusted for investment, or the like.") NRC has used its "Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision" for decades, to block states, Native American nations, and environmental groups from challenging NRC licenses for new reactors, or license extensions for old reactors, which inevitably lead to the generation of massive amounts of deadly high-level radioactive waste, for which there is no solution.

The Offices of Attorneys General for the States of Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont, the Prairie Island Indian Community of Minnesota (on irradiated nuclear fuel storage issues), and an environmental coalition (on irradiated nuclear fuel disposal issues) represented by Natural Resource Defense Council's (NRDC) nuclear attorney Geoff Fettus and D.C.-based attorney Diane Curran, backed by expert witness Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of Institutue for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), have thus successfully challenged NRC's assertion that high-level radioactive wastes can be safely, securely, and soundly stored at reactor sites for 120 years (60 years of licensed operations, and 60 years post-operations). NRC has since undertaken a study about storing high-level radioactive waste at reactor sites for 200-300 years. Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL), NRDC, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), and Riverkeeper comprised the coalition of environmental plaintiffs.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Chief Judge Sentelle (a Republican appointee) wrote the unanimous ruling on behalf of Circuit Judges Griffith (also a Republican appointee) and Tatel (a Democratic appointee), including a summation.

The State of New York Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman, a lead plaintiff, issued a press release, including this statement:

“This is a landmark victory for New Yorkers, and people across the country living in the shadows of nuclear power plants. We fought back against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's rubber stamp decision to allow radioactive waste at our nation’s nuclear power plants to be stored for decades after they’re shut down - and we won. The Court was clear in agreeing with my office that this type of NRC 'business as usual' is simply unacceptable. The NRC cannot turn its back on federal law and ignore its obligation to thoroughly review the environmental, public health, and safety risks related to the creation of long-term nuclear waste storage sites within our communities. Whether you're for or against re-licensing Indian Point and our nation’s aging nuclear power plants, the security of our residents who live in the areas that surround these facilities is paramount. I am committed to continuing to use the full force of my office to push the NRC to fully evaluate -- and ensure -- the safety of Indian Point and our other nuclear plants.”

Co-plaintiff William Sorrell, Attorney General of the State of Vermont, issued a press release, stating: “This outcome illustrates how important it is for states to work together on environmental matters of national importance. Today’s decision is a major victory for New York, Vermont, and all other states that host nuclear power plants. The court confirmed what Vermont and other states have said for many years now—that the NRC has a duty to inform the public about the environmental effects of long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel, particularly when it is occurring at nuclear power plants that were never designed to be long-term storage facilities."

Co-plaintiff George Jepsen, Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, issued a press release, stating:

"This is a critical decision for Connecticut and other states with nuclear power plants. It means the federal regulators must make a full and comprehensive analysis of the potential environmental impact before allowing additional decades of storage of high-level nuclear waste at reactor sites."

Update on June 8, 2012 by admin

U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), a long-time watchdog on both the nuclear power industry and NRC, issued the following statement in response to the court ruling:

“It comes as no surprise that the court has no confidence in NRC’s waste confidence decision. The NRC relied on what seemed to be a faith-based methodology to conclude that highly radioactive nuclear waste can be left simply sitting in the giant swimming pools and parking lots in which it is currently stored for an additional 60 years. There was a collective failure on the part of both Congress and the Department of Energy to enable a credible, science-based search for a permanent nuclear waste repository.”

Update on June 8, 2012 by admin

Bloomberg has reported on this story. However, its assertion that Yucca Mountain has been built is incorrect. Although $11 billion was spent at Yucca ($8 billion from the ratepayer funded Nuclear Waste Fund, and $3 from taxpayers via Dept. of Energy coffers), and a five mile long "Exploratory Studies Facilty" driveway tunnel drilled, the Yucca Mountain dumpsite was not built. DOE's last prediction, made several years ago, for the price tag of fully building and operating the Yucca dump approached $100 billion.

Update on June 8, 2012 by admin

MSNBC reported on this story: 

"In a blow to the nuclear energy industry, a federal appeals court on Friday threw out a rule allowing plants to store spent nuclear fuel onsite for decades after they've closed, and ordered regulators to study the risks involved with that storage -- 65,000 tons now spread across the country, and growing at 2,000 tons a year.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission 'apparently has no long-term plan other than hoping for a geologic repository,' the unanimous ruling stated. 'If the government continues to fail in its quest to establish one, then SNF (spent nuclear fuel) will seemingly be stored on site at nuclear plants on a permanent basis. The Commission can and must assess the potential environmental effects of such a failure.'"

AP has also reported on this story.

Update on June 8, 2012 by admin

The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, the Waterford Patch, the Vermont Today, the IEEE Spectrum, energybiz.com, and the Rochester, MN Post Bulletin have also reported on this story.

Re-release of Karl Grossman's interview with environmental giant David Brower to mark his 100th birthday

Beyond Nuclear board member and investigative journalist Karl Grossman has written:

"In honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of David Brower [July 1, 1912 – November 5, 2000], founder and chair of Earth Island Institute, founder and chair of  Friends of the Earth and long-time executive director of the Sierra  Club, EnviroVideo has re-issued a 1996 Enviro Close-Up interview I  did with Mr. Brower. It is being aired nationally this month on Free Speech TV. And it can be viewed online at -- http://blip.tv/envirovideo/david-brower-ecu-617-6181648

Among other things, he tells of how his opposition to nuclear power led to losing his position at the Sierra Club."

The Sierra Club has since taken an anti-nuclear position. The Sierra Club grassroots held a No Nukes summit in Takoma Park, Maryland in early May, at which Beyond Nuclear board member Dr. Judith Johnsrud was honored for her 50 years of anti-nuclear leadership.

Kenneth Brower, David Brower's eldest son, has recently written The Wildness Within: Remembering David Brower (see cover photo).

San Onofre down for the summer! Let's keep it shutdown for good!

NRC file photo of San Onofre nuclear power plantIn some very welcome news, the Los Angeles Times reports that Southern California Edison today announced it will not re-start the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant this summer. As the article reports, "When running at full capacity, San Onofre supplies about 2,200 megawatts of power and makes up 19% of the power provided to Edison customers. With contingency plans in place, officials said Southern California should be able to get through the summer without power shortages under all but the most extreme circumstances." Which begs the question, why run these reactors in this earthquake and tsunami zone, when they are not even needed during the highest peak electricity demand season of the year?!

Brand new steam generators, costings many hundreds of millions of dollars, have suffered unexplained tube failure just a year or two into operations. A cascading steam generator tube failure can lead to a Loss of Coolant Accident in the reactor cores, and meltdowns. Groups such as Nuclear Free California (a coalition of grassroots and national organizations, including Beyond Nuclear) and Friends of the Earth, however, are calling for San Onofre's permanent shut down. 

Davis-Besse kept from re-starting due to reactor coolant system leak

Bathtub Curve for Nuclear Accidents provided by David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned ScientistsThe long-troubled Davis-Besse atomic reactor in Oak Harbor, Ohio on the Lake Erie shoreline near Toledo was prevented from re-starting after a re-fueling outage because of a "pinhole leak" in the reactor cooling system at a rate of 1 gallon of water per ten minutes. FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) issued an "event notification," now posted at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) website. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has reported on this incident, as has Bloomberg, Business Week, and the Toledo Blade.

This latest corrosion incident must now be added to a very long list of Davis-Besse woes dating back more than 35 years, from perhaps more near-misses with disaster than any other single U.S. reactor, to a recently revealed cracked concrete containment building. FENOC blames the cracking on the Blizzard of 1978, a claim critics mock as a "Snow Job."

Beyond Nuclear, in coalition with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, has officially intervened before the NRC Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board to block FENOC's application for a 20 year license extension. The environmental coalition is represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge.

Davis-Besse is deep into its "break down phase" for increased risk of disaster. In fact, it has already suffered the most infamous "break down phase" accident yet in U.S. history -- the 2002 Hole-in-the-Head Fiasco, where its reactor lid was almost entirely eaten through by boric acid corrosion due to leakage from the core. (See the "Bathtub Curve," so named for its shape, above left.) This risked a Loss of Coolant Accident and meltdown. At the 2006 environmental conference commemorating 20 years since the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe began in Kiev, a Ukrainian nuclear whistleblower cautioned that it's not just Russian reactor designs we have to worry about -- he pointed to Davis-Besse as a case in point. 

Update on June 9, 2012 by admin

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has issued a press release entitled "Following Leak of Radioactive Coolant at Davis-Besse, NRC Officials Parrot False Claims from Corporate Flaks." He has demanded an investigation, and stated:

“The Plain Dealer reported yesterday that engineers at the Davis-Besse nuclear reactor had discovered ‘a pinhole coolant leak in a pipe weld Wednesday evening while doing a walk-down inspection of the plant…while the reactor was in ‘hot standby’ mode.’  I intend to monitor this situation carefully as the facts are revealed in the days or weeks to come, but I am concerned about … statements, made by NRC spokespeople and reported in news articles on the subject.

I am concerned because this is not the first time that the NRC Region III spokespeople have made misleading and inaccurate statements about problems at Davis-Besse…

FirstEnergy has consistently misled the public about the nature and extent of problems at Davis-Besse.  We need a Nuclear Regulatory Commission that tells the public the truth, not one that merely repeats the soothing, but misleading, statements of the reactor’s operator.  I have full confidence in Chairman Jaczko’s leadership and I support his efforts to make NRC more independent, efficient, open, clear and reliable.  I am therefore asking for an independent investigation of the reasons behind the disparity between the public statements made by the NRC and the full truth will prevent further degradation of NRC’s credibility as a regulator capable of objectivity.”

Kucinich has fired off a letter to NRC's Office of Inspector General, demanding an investigation of NRC wrong doing.

Two new Beyond Nuclear pamphlets!

Feel free to download our newly revised Freeze our Fukushimas pamphlet and join the campaign today to shut down US nuclear reactors, beginning with the GE Mark I and II boiling water reactors that are twins to the four destroyed reactors at Fukishima Daiichi. The pamphlet includes a list of all US Mark I and II reactors, details on their flaws and action items.

And please also download our revised and upated introductory pamphlet, that introduces you to on overview of our work. This pamphlet now incorporates our old Ten Reasons palm card, listing ten of the most serious nuclear risks and ten brighter energy alternatives.

If you would prefer to order hard copies of these or any other of our publications, please contact Beyond Nuclear by email - info@beyondnuclear.org - or by phone - 301.270.2209 - to place your order.