"N.R.C. Nomination Shines Spotlight on Waste-Disposal Issue"

Allison Macfarlane previously served on President Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear FutureThe New York Times has reported that Wednesday's confirmation hearing on Dr. Allison Macfarlane, proposed by President Obama to chair the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), will likely focus on "waste, waste, and earthquakes." Coincidentally coming on the heels of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling last Friday, vacating the NRC's "Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision," the already thorny high-level radioactive waste dilemma just got thornier. 

If confirmed, Dr. Macfarlane would represent "a new day and a new age and a new way of looking at things,” as the first geologist ever to chair the NRC. One of the many risks thrown into the national spotlight in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe is whether or not U.S. atomic reactors east of the Rockies were actually built well enough to withstand earthquakes, now known possible at places such as Entergy's Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City. With the impossiblity of evacuating more than 20 million people within 50 miles in the event of an emergency, significant earthquake fault lines have come to light in the vicinity of Indian Point, decades after the construction of its two still-operating reactors just 25-30 miles from midtown Manhattan.

Dr. Macfarlane also literally "wrote the book" on why Yucca Mountain is unsuitable as a high-level radioactive waste dumpsite. She edited Uncertainty Underground, a 2006 technical look at Yucca's hydrologic, geologic, seismic, volcanic, and many other flaws.

NRC "effectively defines 'regulatory capture' "

NRC file photo of Commissioner Kristine SvinickiIn a scathing article -- "House Postpones Witch Hunt While Nuclear Power Industry Awaits Results of Latest Power Play" -- Gregg Levine of Capitoilette reports on the impending "cynical deal" to tie controversial Republican U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner (NRC) Kristine Svinicki's (pictured, left) re-confirmation, for another 5 year term at the NRC, to President Obama's nomination of Dr. Allison Macfarlane, for a one-year term as chairwoman of the agency. Levine describes the trade off on Capitol Hill, in which Republicans will secure their coveted re-confirmation of the blatantly pro-industry Commissioner Svinicki, as nuclear safety yet again taking a back seat to "influence peddling and classic beltway horse-trading."

Levine quoted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps in a May 28th article about Obama's nomination of Macfarlane.

"Nuclear Rubberstamp Commission" by Karl Grossman

Investigative journalist, and Beyond Nuclear board of directors member, Karl Grossman (pictured, left), has published an article entitled "Nuclear Rubberstamp Commission" which has appeared at the Huffington Post and elsewhere. In it, Karl reports that U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman, Dr. Gregory Jaczko, has been pressured to resign over a year early due to withering attacks by the nuclear power industry and its friends within the NRC and on Capitol Hill, due to his safety advocacy. Karl points out that NRC has never, in its nearly 40 years of existence, denied a license to construct or operate a commercial atomic reactor. It has also rubberstamped 73 license extensions for 20 additional years of operation at U.S. atomic reactors, with 13 other license extensions already applied for.

New York Times editorial: "Nuclear Power After Fukushima"

In a May 25th editorial, the New York Times lauded outgoing U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman, Dr. Gregory Jaczko, for his devotion to safety -- such as his call for clear and ambitious deadlines for "Fukushima lessons learned" to be applied at U.S. atomic reactors -- and called on his nominated replacement, Dr. Allison Macfarlane, to keep holding NRC's and the nuclear power industry's feet to the fire.

But, as Beyond Nuclear board of directors member Karl Grossman has put it in his article "Nuclear Rubberstamp Commission," the New York Times "misses the institutional point": Jaczko was crucified by the nuclear power industry, and its friends within the NRC and on Capitol Hill, for his safety advocacy, a fate that could easily befall Macfarlane as well.

Environmental coalition, concerned residents, met with NRC Chairman Jaczko after his tour of problem-plagued Palisades

Michael Keegan, Alice Hirt, and Kevin Kamps of Don't Waste MI call for Palisades' shutdown at the August 2000 Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camp. Palisades' cooling tower steam, as well as Lake Michigan, are visible in the background.On May 25th, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Gregory Jaczko toured Entergy Nuclear's Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, MI on the Lake Michigan shoreline. NRC lowered Palisades' safety status to one of the four worst-run reactors in the U.S., out of 104 operating, after five euphemistically termed "unplanned shutdowns" in 2011 alone. After Jaczko's tour of the plant, he held a press conference with area media, then met with representatives of environmental groups from Michigan and Illinois, as well as concerned local residents. The environmental coalition included Beyond Nuclear, Clean Water Action, Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, Don't Waste Michigan, League of Women Voters, Michigan Land Trustees, and Nuclear Energy Information Service. The environmental movement of Michigan, and beyond, has long called for Palisades' permanent shutdown, for a multitude of safety and environmental reasons.

The single greatest safety concern, of many afflicting Palisades, is embrittlement of its reactor pressure vessel, the worst in the U.S. Michael Keegan of Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes (pictured, left) warned about this in 1993; a year ago, the Associated Press exposed NRC's weakening of embrittlement safety regulations in order to allow Palisades to keep running. But Palisades' replacements of age-degraded steam generators (for the second time in the plant's history) as well as its reactor lid -- in the aftermath of the Davis-Besse, Ohio "Hole-in-the-Head" near-disaster -- are more than five years overdue. Palisades is thus deep into its "break-down" phase of increased reactor accident risk, as termed by David Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists on his "Bathtub Curve" graphic (so named because of the curve's shape). Citizens Nuclear Information Center-Tokyo has just reported alarming news about reactor pressure vessel embrittlement/pressurized thermal shock risks at Japanese reactors.

Beyond Nuclear issued a statement, as did Don't Waste MI's Alice Hirt (pictured, left): "We do not want a Fukushima here on the shore of Lake Michigan...We plead with you to help us close down this plant NOW." Area summertime resident Gail Snyder also issued a statement.

WMUK, the NPR radio station in Kalamazoo, MI, interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps (pictured, left) about reactor risks at Palisades. Kevin warned that NRC should shut Palisades down, before it melts down (the Associated Press quoted this as well), because the reactor is the worst embrittled in the U.S., with age-degraded steam generators and reactor lid, and vitally needs fire protection upgrades. Entergy promised to make these repairs over five years ago when it took over ownership from Consumers Energy at Palisades, but has broken these promises. Michigan Radio also quoted Kevin.  The Kalamazoo Gazette also reported on this story, as did theSt. Joe Herald-Palladium.

Kalamazoo News Channel 3 interviewed Maynard Kaufman and Barbara Geisler of Michigan Land Trustees in Bangor, less than 10 miles from Palisades. They warned of risks to west Michigan's vibrant shoreline agriculture from a Fukushima- or Chernobyl-like disaster. Grand Rapids TV 8 also reported on this story. TV 57 in South Bend, IN also briefly reported on Jaczko's visit.