NRC licensing board blocks State of Massachusetts bid to challenge Pilgrim license extension

NRC file photo of Pilgrim, 38 miles southeast of Boston; its original 40 year operating license expires June 8, 2012The New York Times reports that a panel of three administrative law judges at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has rejected a bid by the State of Massachusetts to challenge the Pilgrim nuclear power plant's license extension by requiring "lessons learned" from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe to be applied. Both Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 and Pilgrim share the same reactor design, the General Electric Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor. Beyond Nuclear's "Freeze Our Fukushimas" emergency enforcement petition to NRC calls for the immediate shut down of Pilgrim and 22 additional Mark 1s operating across the U.S. NRC has rubberstamped 71 reactor license extensions in the past 12 years. Mary Lampert at Pilgrim Watch has led the grassroots effort challenging the 20 year license extension at Pilgrim, keeping the proceeding alive for 6 years, a record.

Beyond Nuclear's "Freeze Our Fukushimas" emergency enforcement petition, joined by over 8,000 groups and individuals, also pointed out that Mark 1 pools are vulnerable to gradual boil downs or sudden drain downs which could result in catastrophic high-level radioactive waste fires, which very well may have occurred at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4, prompting NRC to order Americans to flee at least 50 miles away in the earliest days of the catastrophe. Pilgrim's pool contains all the high-level radioactive waste ever generated there over the past several decades, more than Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 to 4's pools combined.

NRDC challenges Exelon's application to NRC for 20 year license extensions at Limerick reactors

NRC does not indicate whether or not the flowers in its file photo of Limerick are spiderwort mutated by radioactivityNatural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has filed a petition, backed up by technical declarations, to intervene with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), challenging the 20 year license extension sought by Exelon, the largest U.S. nuclear utility, for its twin-reactor Limerick Nuclear Power Plant near Pottstown, PA. Limerick is just 21 miles northwest of Philadelphia, with 8 million people living within 50 miles. NRDC argues that after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Limerick's two decade old severe accident mitigation alternatives analysis is obsolete and far from sufficient. The Philadelphia Enquirer, Associated Press, WHYY (Philly NPR), and Pennsylvania NPR, among others, covered the story.  States News Service carried NRDC's media statement. NRC has rubberstamped 71 license extensions in the past dozen years. In 1982, an NRC sponsored study (which the agency unsuccessfully tried to cover up) reported that a major accident at Limerick could cause 74,000 "peak early fatalities" (second worst in the U.S. after Salem in New Jersey), 610,000 "peak early injuries" (by far the worst in the country), 34,000 "peak cancer deaths," and around $200 billion in property damage ($450 billion when adjusted for inflation). The population downwind of Limerick has grown by over a million since that study was produced. Both Limerick units are General Electric boiling water reactors with Mark 2 containment designs, similar in many ways to the catastrophically failed Fukushima Daiichi GE Mark 1s.

Fire latest emergency at problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has reported that a fire, cutting power to ventilation in the reactor control room at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Toledo, prompted owner/operator FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) to notify federal and state officials of an emergency alert status for several hours last week. The fire was caused by a faulty valve in a pipe carrying purified water to the reactor core, which leaked onto an electrical switchbox, causing an electrical arc and fire. Luckily, the reactor has been shut down since October 1st for major repairs, including the removal of the plant's 82 ton, corroded, second reactor lid. Severe corrosion on the reactor's original lid in 2002 represented the most infamous close call to a disaster at a U.S. atomic reactor since the 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island. A giant hole cut in radiological containment structures for the reactor lid "transplant operation" revealed a 30 foot long crack in the reinforced concrete shield building, as well as additional cracks in the shield building. Despite this, FENOC hopes to persuade the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow it to restart Davis-Besse by the end of November. Beyond Nuclear has joined forces with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio in an intervention opposing FENOC's proposed 2017 to 2037 license extension at the now 35 year old reactor. On Halloween, while Beyond Nuclear performed an "I Have a Scream!" protest against radioactive waste at Energy Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., our environmental coalition allies performed a solidarity action in Toledo against Davis-Besse. A week earlier, they held a press conference about the cracks, calling on the Toledo City Council to pass a resolution urging Davis-Besse's permanent closure, which the Cleveland Plain Dealer covered.

UCS questions NRC on status of Davis-Besse shield building prior to restart

NRC inspector examines cracking in Davis-Besse atomic reactor shield building wallDavid Lochbaum, Director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists, has written the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission questioning whether or not NRC has adequately inspected cracking in the Davis-Besse atomic reactor's exterior shield building, and whether this aspect of the design can still fulfill its radiologically protective function against external threats, such as tornado missiles. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has reported upon this story, as has Canada's Windsor Star. On October 20th, NRC issued a Preliminary Notification of Occurrence (PNO). Beyond Nuclear, along with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario (quoted extensively in the Windsor Star article), Don't Waste Michigan, and the Ohio Green Party, have won standing and the admission for hearing of several contentions against the 20 year license extension sought by FirstEnergy nuclear utility at its problem plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor.