FENOC's problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor, on the Lake Erie shore in Oak Harbor, OHThe U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced its annual performance review public meeting re: First Energy Nuclear Operating Company's (FENOC) problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor, on the Lake Erie shore near Toledo, will be held Thursday, June 11, 2015 -- and Beyond Nuclear and its environmental allies will be there!
Here is NRC's handout for the meeting (please note, the slides are oriented in the wrong direction, as posted at NRC's website!).
A big focus of the "open house" discussion will be Davis-Besse's severely cracked, and ever worsening, Shield Building, an integral part of the radiological containment structure. Since the cracking was first made known to the public in late 2011, Beyond Nuclear and its coalition allies (Citizen Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste MI, and Ohio Green Party) intervening against Davis-Besse's 20-year license extension have filed numerous contentions about the cracking. The intervention against the license extension was filed Dec. 27, 2010, and is still being contested. Davis-Besse's 40-year license expires on Earth Day (April 22), 2017.
Another important issue to be discussed will be Davis-Besse's 2014 replacement of steam generators, which the above environmental coalition, as well as Sierra Club, had contested. Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associated, Inc., served as the coalition's expert witness.
Toledo-based attorney, Terry Lodge, serves as legal counsel for the coalition in both proceedings.
More recently, those resisting Davis-Besse's license extension added Nuclear Waste Confidence (or lack thereof!) to their objections, an issue that will soon be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Attorneys Diane Curran (of Harmon Curran in D.C.) and Mindy Goldstein (of Emory University's Turner Environmental Law Clinic in Atlanta) represent a national coalition on Nuclear Waste Confidence, including Beyond Nuclear at Davis-Besse.
As Michael Keegan of Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes has pointed out, June 9th marks the 30th anniversary of a close call with disaster at Davis-Besse -- the loss of cooling to the reactor core for 12 minutes. NRC regarded this accident as the worst since the Three Mile Island meltdown in 1979. See pages 2-3 of Beyond Nuclear's backgrounder for a summary of this June 9, 1985 accident.
Those in the area are encouraged to attend this June 11, 2015 NRC meeting.
In addition, Davis-Besse opponents are urged to attend a Sierra Club et al. rally on Mon., June 15th at 11am, at the PUCO HQ sidewalk, 180 E. Broad, Columbus, OH 43215, to protest FirstEnergy's attempted $3 billion ratepayer bailout for its dirty, dangerous, and uncompetitive Davis-Besse atomic reactor, as well as Sammis coal burner.