Beyond Nuclear report reveals Peach Bottom leak is part of pattern

A groundwater monitoring well at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania that tested positive in April 2015 for significant levels of tritium contamination is just the latest example of a decades-long pattern of leaking nuclear reactors and a weak regulatory system that fails to openly address and fix the problem as required in licensing agreements.

These were the conclusions of a Beyond Nuclear investigative report – Leak First, Fix Later: Uncontrolled and Unmonitored Radioactive Releases from Nuclear Power Plants – released today. The 2015 version of the report updates the findings of the first edition, published in 2010. 

“Nuclear plant operators and their regulator consistently fail to address and enforce reactor performance requirements to protect the environment and public health,” said Paul Gunter, Director of Reactor Oversight at Beyond Nuclear and the author of the report. “Our research found that U.S. nuclear power plants continue to experience uncontrolled leaks and spills of radioactive water because the buried pipes and tanks that transport and store it remain inaccessible,” Gunter said.

Read the full press release

Read the full Leak First report

Read the Leak First executive summary

Battles against nuclear utility mega-money grabs intensify

"Burning Money" image by Gene Case and Avenging Angels.Beyond Nuclear is working with allies across the country to resist multi-billion dollar subsidies, at ratepayer expense, being sought by nuclear utility lobbyists in order to prop up dirty, dangerous, and uncompetitive atomic reactors. In IL, NEIS is leading the resistance against a $1.6 billion bailout; the 34-year-old grassroots group helped secure a big victory -- for now -- when the state legislature recessed till autumn, without enacting Exelon's wish list for five failing nukes. In the Mid-Atlantic, the PowerDC coalition is urging District of Columbia decision makers to block Exelon's takeover of Pepco, a merger that would undermine efficiency and renewables, and further subsidize the distant IL nukes, by gouging ratepayers 700 miles away. And in OH, Sierra Club and other allies have called for a rally and teach-in, to oppose FirstEnergy's attempted $3 billion ratepayer ripoff for its age-degraded Davis-Besse atomic reactor and Sammis coal burner. More.

Coalition cites catastrophic risk of Palisades RPV fracture, appeals ASLB ruling to full NRC Commission

A diagram describing pressurized thermal shock in a nuclear reactor. Credit: Japan Atomic Energy Agency. Japan's worst embrittled RPV, at Genkai 1, has been permanently closed in the aftermath of Fukushima.Citing the risks of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) fracture, core meltdown, and catastrophic release of hazardous radioactivity at Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor in southwest Michigan, an environmental coalition (Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste MI, MI Safe Energy Future, and Nuclear Energy Info. Service of IL) has appealed an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel's adverse ruling to the full U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The coalition's legal counsel, Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge, filed the appeal on June 2nd.

Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc. in Burlington, VT, serves as the coalition's expert witness on the risks of pressurized thermal shock (PTS) causing "brittle fracture" in the Palisades RPV. Gundersen and Fairewinds Energy Education have produced a short, humorous, educational video about PTS risks entitled "Nuclear Crack Down?"

NRC has admitted on numerous occassions that Palisades has the worst neutron radiation embrittled RPV in the country. Palisades first surpassed embrittlement safety standards in 1981, just ten short years into its operations. NRC, and/or the nuclear utilities owning and operating Palisades, have previously predicted various "End of Life" dates for the problem-plagued atomic reactor, the earliest being 1995. However, as reported by Jeff Donn of AP in 2011, NRC has weakened safety regulations time after time, to accommodate the age-degraded nuclear power plant, one of the oldest still operating in the U.S.

See updates on Beyond Nuclear et al.'s intervention against Entergy Palisades' License Amendment Request for regulatory relief dating back to Dec. 1, 2014 at the Reactor Safety website section.