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after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Limerick's two decade old severe accident mitigation alternatives analysis is obsolete and far from sufficient.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.

Archived webcast of Beyond Nuclear's emergency enforcement petition to NRC on Mark 1s now available

The archived webcast of Beyond Nuclear's October 7th, 2011 NRC Petition Review Board meeting on its 10CFR2.206 emergency enforcement petition is now available. Beyond Nuclear was joined by numerous allies from various grassroots anti-nuclear groups who live in the shadows of General Electric Mark 1 boiling water reactors -- identical twins to the design at Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4.

NRC rules license proceedings can continue full steam ahead despite Fukushima

As reported by the Newburyport News, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has decided to proceed "full steam ahead" with the Seabrook license extension proceeding, despite a legal intervention by Beyond Nuclear and environmental allies to suspend the proceeding in the wake of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe.

In addition, Beyond Nuclear at the Fermi 3 new reactor proceeding, and the Davis-Besse license extension proceeding, and environmental allies at many additional old and new reactor proceedings, including new reactor design certification proceedings, have been rebuffed by the NRC Commissioners in a parallel call for license and design certification proceeding suspensions in the wake of Fukushima. At the time of the Three Mile Island meltdown in 1979, the NRC effectively suspended any and all license proceedings for a year and half. Not so this time, in the aftermath of the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

Update on September 17, 2011 by admin

The Patriot Ledger has also reported this story, in the context of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant near Boston, Massachusetts. In this case, NRC rejected filings by not only an environmental watchdog, Pilgrim Watch, but even the State of Massachusetts Attorney General's office. A unique exception to NRC's full speed rubber stamp of 20 year license extensions, Mary "Pixie" Lampert at Pilgrim Watch has managed to keep the Pilgrim license extension proceeding tied up for going-on six years now, raising issues such as related to significantly flawed "severe accident mitigation alternatives" (SAMA) analyses. Mary has generously assisted Beyond Nuclear with similar contentions in its intervention against the Davis-Besse license extension in Ohio.