NEIS: "SoCal Edison Pulls the Plug on Two Nuke Reactors -- Could Have Serious Implications for Illinois"

The 32-year old watchdog group Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) of Illinois, which hosted the Dec. 2012 "Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High" conference co-sponsored by Beyond Nuclear and Friends of the Earth, has published a press release about Illinois being at the top of the target list for "consolidated interim storage" of high-level radioactive waste, as advocated by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, as well as draft U.S. Senate legislation. 

NEIS cites a 2012 study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which states:

“…the consolidated ISFSI [independent spent fuel storage] site in Illinois is the single optimized site for an ISFSI solution when only [spent nuclear fuel] at orphaned reactors is considered relative to siting a consolidated ISFSI.”

NEIS points out that the high-level radioactive wastes currently stored at recently closed reactors at Crystal River, FL, Kewaunee, WI and San Onofre, CA, along with the on-site wastes at long-closed reactors such as Zion 30 miles north of Chicago, would be first in line to ship to "centralized interim storage" if the Senate bill is enacted. More.

Prohibitively expensive cost of safety repairs leads nuclear utilities to instead permanently close age-degraded atomic reactors

"Burning money" image by Gene Case, Avenging Angels2013's 4 atomic reactor closures are the most of any single year in U.S. history. Bloomberg has reported:

"The last wave of U.S. [atomic] plant closures was in the late 1990s, when falling gas prices helped tilt economics in favor of retiring rather than attempting large-scale repairs...

“The decision to shut down rather than retrofit the San Onofre nuclear plant shows the changing economics of the power market,” Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, a Chicago-based advocate of cleaner energy, said in a telephone interview. “We suspect other nuclear plant owners may start reaching the same decision.”

In fact, Dominion Nuclear made just such a decision, to permanently shutdown its Kewaunee atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline of Wisconsin last month. 

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on October 22, 2012 that Dominion, referring to its losing battle to remain competitive in a deregulated electricity market, could not afford the needed safety repairs at Kewaunee:

'We looked at all alternatives to keep the unit operating, but we could not make the reductions in the cost without it affecting safety,' [Dominion spokesman Richard] Zuercher said."

As Howard Learner stated above, such market realities begs the question, which reactors will close next? On Feb. 8th, Entergy's brand new CEO, Leo Denault, when asked why several reactors in his fleet were so financially strapped, admitted in an interveiw with Reuters that:

"...some plants are in the more challenging economic situations for a variety of reasons, including 'the market for both energy and capacity, their size, their contracting positions and the investment required to maintain the safety and integrity of the plants.'" (emphases added)

More.

San Onofre 2 & 3's closure raises doubts about nuclear power's future

Image by J. DeStefano, 2012As reported by Bloomberg, "Edison International (EIX)’s decision to abandon its San Onofre nuclear plant in California is the latest blow for an industry already facing questions about its long-term survival."

The article, entitled "San Onofre Seen as Latest Setback for U.S. Nuclear Power," reports:

“The decision to shut down San Onofre is another sign that the economics of nuclear are under pressure given the low cost of alternative sources,” Travis Miller, a Chicago-based analyst for Morningstar Inc. (MORN), said in a phone interview. “Just five years ago, nuclear power plants looked like a gold mine.”

The article also reported:

“The decision to shut down rather than retrofit the San Onofre nuclear plant shows the changing economics of the power market,” Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, a Chicago-based advocate of cleaner energy, said in a telephone interview. “We suspect other nuclear plant owners may start reaching the same decision.”

Davis-Besse's "San Onofre-like" shortcuts on safety with steam generator replacement focus of NRC public meeting

Terry Lodge speaks out against Davis-Besse in August 2012 at an NRC public meeting held at Oak Harbor High SchoolBeyond Nuclear set up an info. table at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "annual performance review" public meeting in Carroll Township, Ohio, just a few miles down the road from FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's (FENOC) problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor. Beyond Nuclear was there to let the public know about the ongoing resistance by an environmental coalition to Davis-Besse's 20-year license extension, and its recently filed intervention against FENOC's San Onofre-like shortcuts on safety regarding its proposed 2014 steam generator replacements.

Toledo attorney Terry Lodge (photo, left) represents the coalition, and Fairewinds Associates, Inc's Chief Engineer, Arnie Gundersen, serves as its expert witness. Gundersen also serves as Friends of the Earth's (FOE) expert, which just successfully forced Edison International to permanently shutdown the San Onofre 2 & 3 atomic reactors due to fatally flawed replacement steam generators.

WTOL's Jennifer Steck quoted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps (print article; television report):

'..."We want to prevent a Chernobyl or Fukishima on the shoreline of the Great Lakes," said Kevin Kamps, of Beyond Nuclear. "There is no reactor in this country that's come closer to that as many times as Davis-Besse has."

Davis-Besse is licensed for operation through 2017, and in the process of a 20-year license renewal. Delaying that renewal and preventing a steam generator replacement in 2014 are the main goals of Beyond Nuclear.

"We've long strived to shut down Davis-Besse, and we're not going to give up now," Kamps said. "We're just going to re-double our efforts."...'

The Toledo Blade's Roberta Gedert also quoted Kevin:

“They went way out of their way to avoid a license amendment on this major organ transplant,” said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste watchdog for Beyond Nuclear. “If they have made any mistakes, they have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars because we are going to challenge them at every turn.”

Palisades action needed

U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie StabenowBeyond Nuclear urges Michigan residents to contact U.S. Senators Stabenow and Levin (photo, left) to call for the Palisades atomic reactor's shutdown, before it melts down. Urge both Sens. to launch a General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into Palisades' reactor pressure vessel embrittlement risks, and call on Sen. Stabenow to hold hearings in the Agriculture Committee she chairs about the risks to Michigan's agriculture from catastrophic radioactivity release at Palisades. Click this link for more information and both Senators' full contact information.