On June 19, 2020 a coalition of environmental and public interest groups warned Gov. Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Gilchrist about its concerns regarding increased risks at Michigan's nuclear power plants, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter was cc'd to numerous additional MI state, county, and local officials, as well as to MI's U.S. congressional delegation, given their overlapping responsibilities to protect public health, safety, security, and the environment from nuclear risks. In addition, the letter was cc'd to leaders of MI's dozen federally recognized Native American tribes. The letter was signed by a Native American sovereign authority, the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority (CORA), based in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. (CORA is composed of five Native American tribes that have treaty rights in Michigan: 1836cora.org.)

 

Organizational signatories on the letter include the following Michigan groups, listed in alphabetical order: Alliance to Halt Fermi 3 in Livonia; Ban Michigan Fracking, Charlevoix ; Belle Isle Concern, Detroit; Black Autonomy Network Community Organization, Benton Harbor; Citizens for Peace, Livonia; Citizens' Resistance at Fermi 2, Redford; Coalition to Oppose the Expansion of US Ecology, Detroit; Detroit Independent Freedom Schools Movement; Don't Waste Michigan, Monroe and Sherwood; FLOW (For Love of Water), Traverse City; Freshwater Future, Petoskey; Green Living Science, Detroit; Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War (KNOW); League of Women Voters of Michigan, Lansing; Lone Tree Council, Bay City; Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, Mecosta; MI Organic Food and Farm Alliance, Lansing; MI Safe Energy Future-Kalamazoo and Shoreline (Benton Harbor) Chapters; MI Stop the Nuclear Bombs Campaign, St. Clair Shores; MI Wildlife Conservancy, Bath; Palestine Cultural Office-MI, Detroit; Palisades Park Community, Covert; Peace Action of MI, Ferndale; S.E. MI/Michael Gramlich Chapter, Veterans for Peace, Brownstown; Washtenaw350, Ypsilanti. Also, the 62 individuals who signed the letter include residents of dozens of MI communities, in both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas. In addition, national groups Beyond Nuclear and Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), with large numbers of members and supporters in MI, as well as a number of groups in states and provinces downwind and downstream, also signed the letter.

 

The letter, including all signatories, is posted online here: <http://www.beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-reactors-whatsnew/2020/6/20/nuclear-power-safety-concerns-in-michigan-amidst-the-covid-1.html>. Also pasted online is the briefing paper, "Nuclear Power Safety Concerns in Michigan amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic," linked here: <http://www.beyondnuclear.org/safety/2020/6/22/briefing-paper-nuclear-power-safety-concerns-in-michigan-ami.html>. It includes sections about Fermi nuclear power plant (Monroe County) in southeast MI on the Lake Erie shore, as well as Cook (Berrien County), Palisades (Van Buren County), and Big Rock Point (Charlevoix County) nuclear power plants in west Michigan, on the Lake Michigan shore.

 

The letter requests of the governor and lieutenant governor that:

 

 

The coalition's concerns include the spread of the highly contagious and potentially deadly coronavirus at the atomic reactors, especially by large, itinerant nuclear refueling outage workforces, numbering in the thousands of workers, who come in from other counties or states. Fermi Unit 2 in Frenchtown Township had to institute an extended safety stand down, after suffering one of the single largest coronavirus hotspots known in Michigan -- many hundreds of its workers were reported to have contracted COVID-19, requiring many hundreds more to self-isolate. The Fermi 2 infection crisis is a cautionary tale, including about the specter of further spread to the surrounding host communities. Palisades in Covert Township, and Cook in the City of Bridgman, have scheduled likely-overlapping refueling outages in late August and mid-September, 2020.

 

Also of concern are the mounting examples of safety shortcuts and regulatory rollbacks nuclear utilities are seeking, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is rubber-stamping, under the excuse of the pandemic emergency. Fermi 2 has already secured permission for a significant increase in the number of hours its workers are allowed to work, per day and per week. Workers can now be required to work up to 16 hours per day; 12 hours per day for 14 days straight; and up to 86 hours in any given work week. The letter and attached briefing paper raised concerns about the risk to workers' health, including increased vulnerability to COVID-19, as well as risk to public health, safety, security, and the environment, due to mistakes made by severely stressed and fatigued nuclear workers. NRC has laid the groundwork for nuclear utilities to request exemptions, deferrals, and regulatory rollbacks in the following additional areas, as well: Respiratory Radiological Protection Requirements; Owner's Activity Reports; Operators' Licenses; Physical Protection; and Fire Brigade Requirements. In addition, nuclear evacuation and mass sheltering preparedness, and other emergency response capabilities, appear ill prepared, given the compounding complications of need for social distancing during the pandemic. As stated in its letter to Gov. Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Gilchrist, the coalition "fear[s] the operating Michigan atomic reactors could seek such safety-significant exemptions in the near future, increasing risks to workers and the public."

 

Of the most immediate concern is the inadequate inspection and repair of the torus at Fermi 2, a safety-significant structure in the reactor's radiological containment system. Fukushima Daiichi in Japan showed the catastrophic consequences of containment failure during a meltdown at a General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor (GE, BWR). Fermi 2 is the largest GE Mark I BWR on Earth, identical in design, but supersized to be nearly as big as Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 and 2 put together. On April 16, 2020, Don't Waste MI and Beyond Nuclear, represented by legal counsel Terry Lodge of Toledo, OH, filed an emergency enforcement petition, demanding NRC require comprehensive inspection and repair of the Fermi 2 torus. David Lochbaum, a retired nuclear engineer with several decades of experience in industry, at NRC, as well as at the Union of Concerned Scientists, is serving as technical advisor to Don't Waste MI and Beyond Nuclear on the emergency enforcement petition. Fermi 2 is now reportedly set to restart by the end of June, after a three-month "extended safety stand down," despite the lack of resolution on the emergency enforcement petition, and despite the petitioners' request for expedited review. (See the related press release, and additional background documentation, here.)

 

Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, and board of directors member of the state-wide anti-nuclear alliance Don't Waste Michigan, representing the Kalamazoo chapter, said: "During a global pandemic emergency, atomic reactor and radioactive waste safety regulations should be strengthened and enforced, not weakened or waived."