"Activists to state case on Davis-Besse license," Toledo Blade

Davis-Besse's infamous "red photo," showing boric acid crystal and rust "lava" flowing from reactor lid.Tom Henry at the Toledo Blade has given advance coverage of tomorrow's Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board oral argument pre-hearing in Port Clinton, Ohio, near Davis-Besse atomic reactor. Beyond Nuclear, along with allies Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, have submitted four contentions against First Energy Nuclear Operating Company's proposed 20 year license extension: (1) wind as an alternative; (2) solar photovoltaics as an alternative; (3) wind and solar combined as an alternative; and (4) severe underestimation of the casualties and costs that would result from a catastrophic radioactivity release. On February 18, 2011, the ASLB ruled in favor of FirstEnergy's motion to strike, and ordered the environmental coalition to "strike" long sections of its "Combined Reply" rebuttal against the utility's and NRC staff's attacks upon its intervention. This included a backgrounder about Davis-Besse's many close calls with disaster over the past 34 years, compiled by Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps. According to various federal government spokespeople, from the NRC to the Department of Justice, Davis-Besse's hole in the head fiasco of 2002 was the worst incident at a U.S. atomic reactor since Three Mile Island Unit 2's 50% core meltdown in 1979.

NRC admits Beyond Nuclear into Seabrook relicensing hearing

A federal licensing board of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted a petition filed by Beyond Nuclear to bring a law suit challenging NextEra Energy’s application to extend the operating license of its Seabrook nuclear power plant on the New Hampshire coast from 2030 to 2050. NextEra’s application is being submitted 20 years in advance of Seabrook’s current operating license’s expiration date. Beyond Nuclear is joined by the New Hampshire Sierra Club and the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League alleging that NextEra failed to meet its legal obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to evaluate less harmful energy alternatives. As much as 5000 megawatts electricity generated through interconnected offshore and deepwater wind power projects is scheduled to be operational in the Gulf of Maine by 2030. The combination of more interconnected wind energy farms deployed in deep water off the coast of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island will be generating additional gigawatts of clean, safe, and affordable renewable electricity by the requested federal relicensing period. The licensing board agreed with Beyond Nuclear that there are "consequences" to filing a request for federal action nearly two decades in advance of the license expiration date. It is simply not reasonable or rational of the power company to say that renewable energy will not be feasible or commercially viable by 2030.

The federal licensing board also granted standing to the New England Coalition and Friends of the Coast and admitted three of four originally filed contentions regarding NextEra's lack of age management plans for miles of onsite buried electrical cables and power transformers and the misrepresentation of analysis for the amount of radiation released in a severe nuclear accident and its environmental and economic consequences.

The five petitioning groups will now seek to prevail against an onslaught of adversarial legal motions filed by both the power company and the NRC’s own Office of General Counsel to dismiss or whittle away the scope of the law suit. A public hearing before the three member NRC licensing board on these contentions could occur early in 2012.



Environmental coalition defends its intervention against "20 MORE years of radioactive Russian roulette?!" at Davis-Besse

"Lava" of carbon steel corrosion and boric acid crystals flowing from the Davis-Besse reactor lid a decade ago.In August, First Energy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a 20 year license extension at its trouble-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor on the Lake Erie shore east of Toledo. In October, NRC "docketed" the application as complete enough to proceed with its consideration for approval. Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario (CEA), Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio submitted their Petition to Intervene and Request for a Hearing on December 27, 2010 -- raising four contentions against the 20 year license extension: (1) wind power is a viable altenative, as is (2) solar photovoltaic power, and (3) certainly a combination of solar PV and wind; and (4), FENOC has significantly underestimated the consequences of a catastrophic radioactivity release from Davis-Besse in its "Severe Accident Mitigation Alternatives" (SAMA) analysis. On January 21, 2011, both the NRC staff and FENOC objected to all four of the environmental coalition's contentions; both also challenged the standing of CEA to take part in the proceeding, absurdly asserting that CEA's members seeking standing live a mere 300 feet beyond the 50 mile radius from Davis-Besse! (Intervenors "about" 50 miles from a nuclear plant, or less,  have almost automatically been conferred standing in the past.) In a "Combined Reply," the environmental coalition defended its standing and contentions on January 28, 2011. An NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) has been empanelled. The ASLB has announced a March 1, 2011 "oral pre-hearing" in Port Clinton, Ohio to consider whether or not to admit the contentions for a full hearing on the merits; the appendix to its order spells out in some detail the key questions the ASLB has on its mind. The NRC ASLB has requested a security detail from the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department, although the coalition is comprised entirely of non-violent environmental groups. Beyond Nuclear has prepared a backgrounder on the many close calls to major disasters this reactor has already experienced in its first 33 years of operations: "Davis-Besse: 20 MORE Years of Radioactive Russian Roulette on the Great Lakes Shore?!" On February 1st, the coalition issued a media release announcing its defense of the intervention. On Feb. 10th, the Joint Petitioners filed an Errata for their Combined Reply.