Environmental coalition defends contentions against Fermi 3 new reactor

NRC file graphic of ESBWRA coalition of environmental groups, represented by Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge and coordinated by Don't Waste Michigan board member Michael Keegan, yesterday filed rebuttals to attacks by Detroit Edison (DTE). DTE had filed a motion calling upon the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) to order summary dismissal of environmental and safety contentions opposed to a proposed new atomic reactor (Unit 3) at Fermi nuclear power plant near Monroe, Michigan. Fermi 3 would be a so-called General Electric-Hitachi "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR, see graphic at left). Fermi 3 is the last remaining ESBWR proposal in the U.S. -- several others have been abandoned by a number of other nuclear utilities.

The environmental coalition (which, in addition to Don't Waste Michigan, also includes Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, and Sierra Club Michigan Chapter), had won admission for hearing on an environmental contention alleging that Fermi 3 would worsen harmful toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie's shallow Western Basin (Contention #6), as well on a safety contention alleging that Fermi 3's quality assurance (QA) program has been woefully inadequate, or even at times nearly non-existent (Contention #15). Fairewinds Associates, Inc. of Vermont's nuclear engineer, Arnie Gundersen, serves as the environmental coalition's expert witness on quality assurance. Fairewinds' President and Founder, Margaret Gundersen, prepared a declaration stating that Fairewinds stands by its allegations that Fermi 3 violates basic quality assurances regulations, and that this licensing proceeding's deadlines for intervenor response are arbitrary and impossible to meet -- especially when DTE conceals vast amounts of QA information behind a cloak of "proprietary" secrecy.

The coalition's filings yesterday included: Intervenors' response in opposition to MSD (Motion for Summary Disposition) of Contention 15 (QA); Intervenors' statement of material facts in opposition to SD (Summary Disposition) of Contetion 15 (QA); Second Declaration of Arnold Gundersen (QA); Intervenors' response in opposition and statement of material facts in opposition to MSD of Contention 6 (toxic algae); Intervenors' motion for leave to supplement opposition to MSD of Contention 15 (QA), with attached affidavit of Margaret Gundersen.

Cesium Red Alert--Petition UN to intervene at Fukushima Unit 4

The United Nations is being called upon to intervene in an extremely critical situation still emerging at the damaged Unit 4 amidst the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe. Another earthquake is feared could topple the already damaged Unit 4 reactor building where more than one hundred tons of high-level nuclear waste sits precariously in a  open storage pool elevated ten stories (100 feet) above grade.  Should the reactor building topple and spill the contents of cooling water and nuclear waste onto the ground, a new and more potent radioactive catastrophe would commence beginning with a radioactive fire releasing 10 times the amount of Cesium-137 released into the atmosphere from Chernobyl. This enlarged catastrophe would then engulf the other five reactor units and a common nuclear waste pool potentially releasing 85 times the amount of radioactive cesium.

You are encouraged to sign the "Cesium Red Alert" petition to United Nation's Secretary Ban Ki-Moon and pass it along.

Watch NRC's annual review meeting at Indian Point near New York City tonight live on the internet

A year ago, not long after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe began, 500 to 600 concerned citizens took over the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's annual meeting to review performance at Entergy Nuclear's Indian Point nuclear power plant (see photo, left). A repeat of the citizen takeover may be at hand, with bus loads of concerned citizens from New York City, as well as large numbers of immediate neighbors to the twin reactors, planning to attend tonight, representing such groups as Shut Down Indian Point Now! and the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

This just in from longtime friend and colleague of Beyond Nuclear, Alfred Meyer in New York City:

LIVE STREAM - May 17, 2012 - 7-9 pm EDT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Public Meeting to discuss NRC's assessment of safety performance at Indian Point Units 2 & 3 for 2011:

Courtesy of Cinema Forum Fukushima (CFF):  http://cinemaforumfukushima.org/ 

People can watch live streaming on these websites:

CFF Ustream:
http://ustre.am/IhBe

CFF Blog (Eng):
http://wp.me/p2g2dl-7t

CFF Blog (JPN):
http://wp.me/p2g4rK-5D

CFF Twitter:
@ERFNYC

The meeting will take place at: DoubleTree Hotel, Westchester Ballroom, 455 South Broadway, Tarrytown NY.

Help block $150 million of taxpayer money for uranium enrichment bailout!

As they have for many years on nuclear loan guarantees, our allies at Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) are helping lead the effort to block a last second attempt to bail out the U.S. Enrichment Corporation (USEC) at Piketon, Ohio, to the tune of $150 million in taxpayer funding.

USEC has long sought to fund a new, dangerously designed "American Centrifuge Plant" for uranium enrichment, by obtaining a $2 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. federal government. This current bailout would keep that multi-billion dollar boondoggle on life support.

TCS has assembled a package of background information related to an amendment sponsored by U.S. Representatives Steve Pearce (R-NM) and Ed Markey (D-MA) which would block this nuclear bailout. This includes a TCS web post, a coalition letter of environmental and fiscal conservative groups supporting the Pearce-Markey Amendment, background information on uranium enrichment loan guarantees, including a fact sheet, and an article warning that these bailouts could turn into another Solyndra-like scandal for taxpayers.

Please urge your U.S. Representative to vote yes, in favor of the Pearce-Markey Amendement, Amendement No. 195 to the National Defense Authorization Act. Phone your U.S. Representative right away, as this vote could take place at any time now. Reach them via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121. If you don't know who your U.S. Representative is, look them up.

Urge your U.S. Senators to block "Mobile Chernobyls" and "dirty bombs on wheels"

A bill quietly winding its way to the U.S. Senate floor could launch high-level radioactive waste shipments much sooner rather than later, even though the destination "centralized storage sites" would only be "interim," and could well result in the wastes simply being "returned to sender" someday, doubling transport risks for no good reason whatsoever. The nuclear power industry's lobbyists love the idea, for liability would transfer to U.S. taxpayers as soon as the wastes started rolling away from reactor sites. But such a radioactive waste shell game on our nation's roads, rails, and waterways risks severe accidents ("Mobile Chernobyls") or even terrorist attacks ("dirty bombs on wheels") in metropolitan areas across the country, where little to no high-level radioactive waste currently resides. Depending on the targeted destinations for "consolidated interim storage" (Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah? Savannah River Site, SC? WIPP, NM? Dresden nuclear power plant, IL?), irradiated nuclear fuel could roll through most states in the Lower 48. In the Great Lakes region, for example, hundreds or thousands of high-level radioactive waste train cars could pass within a quarter-mile of the Chicago Art Institute, or on barges on Lake Michigan. Please contact U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), as well as your own two U.S. Senators, urging this risky bill be stopped dead in its tracks.