Safety fears about French Areva EPR raised in Europe and U.S.

The New York Times has reported allegations of safety significant design flaws with nuclear fuel rod cladding, as well as the danger of control rod ejection accidents, at the French Areva "European Pressurized Reactor" targeted at Flammanville on the Normandy Coast. Meanwhile, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has continued to question the safety of interconnections between safety and non-safety "Instrumentation and Control" systems at the Areva "Evolutionary Power Reactor" targeted to be built at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland, Nine Mile Point on the Lake Ontario shoreline in New York State, and elsewhere. See the NRC press release here.

Methane Gas Levels in the Gulf Continue to Raise Coastal Nuke Concerns

“Astonishingly high” levels of methane gas from the BP oil spill are entrained in a submerged plume in the water of the Gulf of Mexico with renewed concern according to a breaking story by an Alabama TV news station.  The discovery has raised more questions about the safety of coastal nuclear power plant operations as a result of the oil catastrophe.  One water sample amounting to about two cups of water taken from along a boom line resulted in a small explosion in a testing laboratory flask possibly as the result of a chemical reaction with high methane levels and/or volatile oil dispersants. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not yet responded to a June 14, 2010 inquiry from Beyond Nuclear and two other safe energy organizations regarding potential risks to coastal nuclear power plant operations as a result of the oil spill, submerged contamination and entrained explosive gases. The focus remains on Florida’s Gulf Coast Crystal River nuclear power station which shut down for extensive repairs before the Deepwater Horizon spill. During full power operation the nuclear power plant will take in approximately one billion gallons of Gulf water each day for the reactor coolant system. In light of the extensive contamination in the Gulf, the NRC must make public its safety analysis for reactor operations before Crystal River is allowed to restart in September 2010.  

PSR blasts Congressional proposal to rollback NRC safety regulations

In an op-ed published in The Hill newspaper, Physicians for Social Responsibility's board president, Dr. Jeff Patterson, has compared legislative attempts -- as in the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act discussion draft -- to rollback Nuclear Regulatory Commission safety and licensning regulations for new atomic reactors to the same kinds of mistakes -- speed over safety -- that led to the BP Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe.

Is the AP1000 rust prone and at risk of catastrophic radioactivity releases? Arnie Gundersen says yes!

Image compliments of Arnold Gundersen, Fairewinds Associates, Inc.See the story in the New York Times Green blog. And see Arnie's power point on the subject at the Fairewinds Associates, Inc. website. This fatal design flaw on the most "popular" (among nuclear utilities anyway!)new reactor design in the U.S. -- with 14 on order, all targeted at the Southeast -- raises serious safety concerns about the nuclear power relapse, and the tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer-backed federal loan guarantees proposed to pay for it. Also see the April 21, 2010 press conference and related background documents that first raised the red flag on this issue. And see the Oct. 2009 NRC press release admitting another major design flaw with the AP1000, a structurally unsound shield building vulnerable to earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. If the AP1000 is "the best" new reactor design out there, awarded $8.3 billion in loan guarantees by President Obama last February and in line to potentially recieve a whole lot more, we'd hate to see the runners up!

Huge, rich overseas firms and foreign workers would supply new US reactors

Nuclear Information and Resource Service has published a report documenting that every single new reactor proposal in the US would be designed by either Japanese (Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi) or French (Areva) reactor vendors. Large nuclear components, such as reactor pressure vessels, would also be supplied by foreign firms, primarily Japan Steel Works. And some of the nuclear utilities proposing new reactors in the US are themselves partially owned by foreign firms. This means that federal loan guarantees for new reactors and uranium enrichment facilities would benefit foreign companies and workers, at US taxpayer risk and expense. The Christian Science Monitor reported this story.