Environmental coalition bolsters case against Davis-Besse's cracked concrete containment

An NRC inspector investigates cracks in Davis-Besse's concrete shield building, Oct. 2011The environmental coalition battling against the 20 year license extension proposed at the problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo, Ohio has filed a supplement to its cracked concrete containment contention.FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company first admitted its concrete shield building, an integral part of its radiological containment, was cracked in October 2011. This most recent filing cites FENOC's own May 16, 2012 revised root cause analysis report to highlight multiple forms of cracking and other degradation across the shield building, rather than the nuclear utility's preference to exclusively focus on sub-surface laminar cracking at the outer steel reinforcement layer. FENOC blames those cracks on the Blizzard of 1978, and the fact that the shield building, the most safety significant concrete structure on site, was never weather sealed, even though its own dome, and other less safety significant concrete buildings, were sealed. The coalition has revealed that FENOC's revised root cause analysis report admits for the first time in 36 years that cracking was observed on the shield building dome in August 1976, nearly a year and a half before the Blizzard of 1978. The intervening groups, including Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, is represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge.

Update on July 17, 2012 by admin

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH, photo at left) has written an op-ed, published at Huffington Post, entitled "If You Lived Downwind from this Power Plant, Would You Be Concerned?" about the problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor upwind of his congressional district in northern Ohio. In it, he cites Beyond Nuclear's cracked concrete containment contention against Davis-Besse's proposed 20 year license extension, as well as his own request to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that FENOC's downplaying of the cracking's significance to its own investors be investigated for improperly misrepresenting the facts.

Beyond Nuclear files contentions against 4 atomic reactors based on court ruling nullifying NRC's Nuke Waste Con Game

NRC's "Nuclear Waste Confidence" was formerly based on the "illusion of a solution" to the radioactive waste problem provided by the proposed Yucca Mtn., NV dump. But the Obama administration has wisely canceled it. In this photo by Gabriela Bulisova, a ceremonial Western Shoshone Indian sweat lodge frames their sacred Yucca Mtn.Beyond Nuclear has filed intervention contentions against a total of four atomic reactors (proposed new reactors at Grand Gulf Unit 3, MS and Fermi Unit 3, MI seeking construction and operating licenses, as well as degraded old reactors at Grand Gulf Unit 1, MS and Davis-Besse Unit 1, OH seeking 20 year license extensions) based on a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling gutting the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision."

That confidence game has been used against states, environmental groups, and concerned citizens for decades, blocking them from challening the generation of high-level radioactive waste in atomc reactor licensing proceedings, as the NRC has flippantly expressed "confidence" that storage on-site was safe for decades or even centuries, and that a geologic repository for permanently disposing of irradiated nuclear fuel was just over the horizon -- despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

More.

Kucinich on House floor: "How long before FirstEnergy's 34 year snow job is fully exposed?" at Davis-Besse

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today took to the House floor to protest FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's claim that the Blizzard of 1978 caused the widespread, severe cracking in the Davis-Besse atomic reactor's concrete shield building. Kucinich asked "Can they be believed when they claim a snow storm 34 years ago created cracks that appear today? Are buildings all over northern Ohio falling apart today because of the blizzard of '78? Or is this just another in a series of desperate lies used keep a plant going that should either be shut down or massively repaired? How long before FirstEnergy's 34 year snow job is fully exposed?" Kucinich put out a media release, with links to the video of his House floor statement. 

The Toledo Blade reports that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has accepted FENOC's "Snow Job" as the root cause explanation for the cracking at Davis-Besse, despite its own staff's tough questioning of FENOC's original root cause analysis report on Feb. 28th.

Last year, Rep. Kucinich demanded an NRC public meeting to address the cracked concrete containment before reactor restart, but it did not take place till a month after the restart. NRC hurriedly approved reactor restart on Dec. 2nd, despite lingering questions on the part of its own technical safety staff. The reactor restarted on Dec. 6th. Not unitl Jan. 5th did NRC hold a public meeting, at Camp Perry near Davis-Besse. Even then, NRC gave FENOC until Feb. 28th to submit its root cause analysis, extent of condition, and corrective action report. But the report was so incomplete, NRC ordered a rewrite, not completed till May 16th.

Beyond Nuclear has issued a press release.

Update on July 10, 2012 by admin

The Toledo Blade has published an editorial breaking the story on what may yet prove to amount to a 36-year-old cover up at the Davis-Besse atomic reactor. On May 16th, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) admitted for the first time that cracking on the dome of the Davis-Besse concrete shield building, a part of the containment structure, was first documented not in October 2011, but rather 36 years earlier, in 1976.

Outgoing NRC Chair Jaczko warns we should not "fool ourselves" that nuclear safety regulations are adequate

In a blog, the New York Times' Matt Wald reports that outgoing U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Greg Jaczko (photo left) has warned that, in light of Fukushima, we should "fool ourselves" that U.S. nuclear safety regulations are adequate. In fact, the U.S. nuclear power industry is pressuring that certain "lessons learned" from Fukushima, identified by an NRC Task Force that Jaczko led the creation of, be "scuttled" rather than applied at U.S. reactors.

Declaration of Independence from proposed Fermi 3 new atomic reactor: "No indoctrination without representation!" regarding Fermi 1 meltdown history

A cover on the 1975 non-fiction book by John G. Fuller, "We Almost Lost Detroit," about the 1966 meltdown at the Fermi 1 experimental plutonium breeder reactor in Monroe, MichiganBeyond Nuclear and its allies in the intervention against the proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor in Monroe, Michigan have filed their 25th contention opposing the proposed new atomic reactor, citing a violation of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). NRC, Detroit Edison and the State of Michigan have finalized a NHPA mitigation Memorandum of Agreement about the demolition of the Fermi 1 containment shell, despite its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, in order to make room for the construction of Fermi 3, a General Electric-Hitachi so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR) . However, the decisions were made without even notifying -- let alone involving -- the public, a violation of NHPA. The coalition has issued a media release.

The intervenors have cited Atomic Energy Commission, Nuclear Power Development Corporation (Dow Chemical, Detroit Edison, et al.), U.S. congressional testimony, and documentation on how close the Fermi 1 meltdown of October 5, 1966 came to a "terrifying," catastrophic radioactivity release. The coalition's attorney, Terry Lodge of Toledo, has argued that the Fermi 1 archive must include documentation of the experimental plutonium breeder reactor's original goal of generating weapons-grade plutonium for U.S. hydrogen bombs, as well as materials for radiological ("dirty bomb") weaponry. "The 'official' narrative of this 20th century failure must not be hijacked for use as pro-industry promotion by the 21st century nuclear industry," Lodge said.

"The story of Fermi 1's nearly catastrophic failure offers a large window into the history of commercial nuclear power, an institutional void of safety culture within the primary regulatory agency, and nuclear power’s inherent weapons connection," said Keith Gunter of Livonia, Michigan, a launch partner of Beyond Nuclear and an official intervenor against Fermi 3. "After all, as John G. Fuller's book and Gil Scott-Heron's song titles put it, 'We Almost Lost Detroit,' not to mention Monroe, Toledo, and beyond," Keith Gunter added. (see image, above left)