From Coast to Coast, Reactors Ripe for Retirement

All atomic reactors must be shutdown, of course, but a number are especially ripe for permanent "retirement."

The State of Vermont Attorney General, William Sorrell, now has the support of numerous states and environmental groups in his appeal to the federal courts in New York City, seeking the shutdown of Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee atomic reactor. Sorrell also recently won a ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals against the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision" -- the State of Vermont has also challenged Entergy's continued generation of irradiated nuclear fuel after the expiration of its original 40 year license.

The Attorney General of the State of New York, Eric Schneiderman, another lead plaintiff in the successful legal challenge against the Nuclear Waste Con Game, cited the ruling as reason for Entergy Nuclear's application for a 20 year license extension at its Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant near New York City to be indefinitely delayed. Beyond Nuclear filed similar motions, for postponement of licensing decisions until NRC completes its court-ordered environmental assessment of high-level radioactive waste storage risks on-site at nuclear power plants, at Davis-Besse, Ohio; Fermi 3, Michigan; and Grand Gulf 1 & 3, Mississippi.

At Entergy's Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan, which just experienced yet another age-degradation related shutdown, Beyond Nuclear and its allies fired off a letter to NRC Chairman Jaczko, asking if he had known about leakage in the reactor's Safety Injection Refueling Water storage tank when he met with their environmental coalition on May 25th, and if he did, why he didn't tell us about it.

Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant near Omaha, Nebraska remains shutdown for the 14th month, after historic floods on the Missouri River submerged miles of safety critical electrical cable underwater for weeks on end, making their integrity and function highly suspect. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has petitioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for upgrades to regulations for detecting defects in safety wires submerged underwater or exposed to high humidity. The Nebraska Watchdog reports that just today, the downstream Sierra Club of Iowa has officially called for Fort Calhoun's permanent shutdown.

San Onofre nuclear power plant remains shutdown for the 5th month, after a steam generator tube rupture in January led to the discovery of unexpected, widespread, premature degradation. Friends of the Earth (FOE) has petitioned NRC to block restart indefinitely until Southern California Edison (SCE) obtains a license amendment for the significant changes in design used in the replacement steam generators -- the root cause of the deterioration, that should have been caught by a rigorous review which SCE deceptively sidestepped in the first place.

Safety Critical Cables, Wires at Nuclear Plants Are At Risk of Failure due to Underwater Submersion or High Humidity

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has petitioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) urging an upgrade to regulations on testing and qualification of safety significant electrical cabling at nuclear power plants. Some safety critical cables, with a theoretical life of 10,000 years when kept dry, could fail within just hundreds of hours after underwater submersion or exposure to high humidity.  NRDC issued a press release on its petition.

The Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant near Omaha, Nebraska has remained shutdown since April 2011, due to historic floods on the Missouri River which submerged much of the facility (see photo, left) -- including countless miles of safety significant electrical cabling -- underwater for weeks. The integrity of those cables is now highly suspect.

Nuclear, coal power face climate change risk-study

Warmer water and reduced river flows will cause more power disruptions for nuclear and coal-fired power plants in the United States and Europe in future, scientists say, and lead to a rethink on how best to cool power stations in a hotter world.

In a study published on Monday, a team of European and U.S. scientists focused on projections of rising temperatures and lower river levels in summer and how these impacts would affect power plants dependent on river water for cooling.

The authors predict that coal and nuclear power generating capacity between 2031 and 2060 will decrease by between 4 and 16 percent in the United States and a 6 to 19 percent decline in Europe due to lack of cooling water. Reuters

"Not on our Great Lakes: anti-nuclear activist criticizes proposed Ontario waste site"

Jim Bloch of The Voice, serving northern Macomb and St. Clair Counties in eastern Michigan, has reported on the speaking tour of Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps across Michigan, which featured showings of the documentary film "Into Eternity" about the proposed geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste in Finland. The tour was organized by Kay Cumbow of Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (CACC), to ring the alarm about the DGR ("Deep Geologic Repository," or DUD, as Greenpeace Canada's Dave Martin dubbed it, for Deep Underground Dump) targeted by the nuclear utility Ontario Power Generation (OPG) at the Bruce Nuclear Complex on the Ontario shoreline of Lake Huron, 50 miles from Michigan and upstream of such communities on the U.S. side as Alpena, Bay City, Port Huron, and Detroit.

Although supposedly "only" for so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes from 20 atomic reactors in Ontario, as Bloch reports, the DUD could easily morph into a catch-all for every category of radioactive waste, including high-level, from 22 operable and additional shutdown reactors across Canada. Concerned citizens and environmental groups are urged to express their opposition to Canadian decision makers by visiting the proposal's environmental assessment website. The Great Lakes (photo, above left), 20% of the world's surface fresh water, and drinking water supply for 40 million people in the U.S., Canada, and a large number of Native American/First Nations, would be put at radiological risk.

It's interesting that OPG chose to cut off its consideration of earthquakes in the area at just 180 years ago: 200 years ago, the New Madrid quakes of 1811 and 1812 -- the largest in North American recorded history -- were powerful enough to impact the Great Lakes region, even though they were epicentered in Missouri. Native American oral history in Michigan, for example, speaks of tsunami-like waves on the Great Lakes. The DUD's entrance tunnel mouth would be located about a half-mile from the Lake Huron shore, as would its surface facilities for handling and storing radioactive wastes.

"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.