NRC Commissioners to reveal votes on Nuke Waste Con Game Thursday, Feb. 25

Portrait of the current NRC Commission. Pictured from left to right: Commissioner Jeff Baran, Commissioner Kristine L. Svinicki, Chairman Stephan (sic) Burns and Commissioner William C. Ostendorff. (Please note, Chairman Burns' first named is correctly spelled Stephen. His first name is misspelled in the text, below this portrait, posted on NRC's homepage.)The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Electronic Information Exchange (EIE) Hearing Docket this morning served to following notice to intervening parties against old reactor license extensions, as well as proposed new reactor combined construction and operating license applications:

"NOTICE TO THE PARTIES IN:

Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant, Units 3 and 4, Docket Nos. 52-014-COL & 52-015-COL
Callaway Plant, Unit 1, Docket No. 50-483-LR
Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, Units 3 and 4, Docket Nos. 52-034-COL & 52-035-COL
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1, Docket No. 50-346-LR
Diablo Canyon Power Plant, Units 1 and 2, Docket Nos. 50-275-LR & 50-323-LR
Fermi Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 3, Docket No. 52-033-COL
Fermi Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 2, Docket No. 50-341-LR
Indian Point Nuclear Generating Units 2 and 3, Docket Nos. 50-247-LR & 50-286-LR
Levy County Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2, Docket Nos. 52-029-COL & 52-030-COL
North Anna Power Station, Unit 3, Docket No. 52-017-COL
Seabrook Station, Unit 1, Docket No. 50-443-LR
Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2, Docket Nos. 50-327-LR & 50-328-LR
South Texas Project, Units 3 and 4, Docket Nos. 52-012-COL & 52-013-COL
South Texas Project, Units 1 and 2, Docket Nos. 50-498-LR & 50-499-LR
Turkey Point, Units 6 and 7, Docket Nos. 52-040-COL & 52-041-COL
Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Unit 2, Docket No. 50-391-OL
William States Lee III Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2, Docket Nos. 52-018-COL & 52-019-COL

The Commission has scheduled a tentative Affirmation Session for Thursday, February 26, 2015, 12:55 p.m. EST, that addresses the Petitions to Suspend Reactor Licensing Decisions and Reactor License Renewal Decisions Pending Issuance of "Waste Confidence" Safety Findings, filed on Multiple Dockets.

Note: This session will be publicly webcast.  Please use the link below to view the session.

http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/webcast-live.html ".

As indicated by the bolded text above, Beyond Nuclear is directly, officially intervening against the 20-year license extensions proposed at Davis-Besse, OH (a Three Mile Island twin design), Fermi 2, MI (a Fukushima Daiichi twin design), and Seabrook, NH. In addition, Beyond Nuclear is an official intervenor against the proposed new reactor at Fermi 3, MI.

Thus, the NRC Commissioners will rule, on Feb. 26th, on a coalition of environmental intervenors' Petition to Suspend Licensing and Re-licensing of Reactors. That Petition was filed on Sept. 29, 2014, by some three dozen organizations, engaged in the 27 pending, individual reactor NRC licensing proceedings listed above.

As explained by Diane Curran and Mindy Goldstein, the attorneys representing the environmental coalition, "the Petition accompanied [the groups'] contentions challenging the NRC's failure to make Atomic Energy Act-required Waste Confidence safety findings in those cases." (Attorney Terry Lodge of Toledo serves as the environmental coalition legal counsel in the Davis-Besse and Fermi 2 & 3 proceedings listed above.)

The Petition, as well as the contentions in the individual proceedings, would form the basis for an appeal to the federal courts regarding NRC's 2014 Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel rule and environmental impact statement.

Although NRC Commissioners Kristine L. Svinicki and William C. Ostendorff voted in favor of the finalization of the Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel rule and environmental impact statement last year, the other two NRC Commissioners -- Chairman Stephen G. Burns, and Commissioner Jeff Baran -- were not yet serving in 2014. (The fifth seat on the NRC Commission currently remains unfilled.) See the photo, above left.

Update on February 26, 2015 by admin

The four NRC Commissioners (there is a vacany on the Commission currently) just held a 2-3 minute Affirmation Session. It was Webcast on the Internet, and open to public attendance in the room at their Rockville, MD HQ. The unredacted transcript is posted below, at the end of this update.

And here is the NRC Commissioners' MEMORANDUM AND ORDER, laying out their legal reasoning for today's rejection of the coalition's Petition, contentions, and motions.

They revealed that they had rejected the environmental coalition's Petition and contentions.

They then affirmed "Aye" that they in fact did vote the way they were being listed as as having voted.

Problem is, they don't clearly reveal that at Affirmation Sessions. Was it a 4-0 vote? 3-1? 2-2? (The environmental coalition would need majority support by the Commissioners, so even a 2-2 vote would result in rejection of the Petition and contentions.) As soon as Beyond Nuclear learns how each Commissioner actually voted, and if they included a justification in writing for their vote (which they sometimes do, but not always), we will post it here.

However, a number of colleagues, including Diane Curran, do think it was a 4-0 Commission vote today.

Within just a matter of less than 10 minutes, the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panels (ASLB)) overseeing the Davis-Besse, Fermi 2, Ferm 3 license proceedings, sent a copy of th MEMORANDUM AND ORDER out to us, our attorney Terry Lodge, and our coalition intervenors.

This very likely means that the coalition will appeal to the federal courts, to challenge NRC's illegal behavior, yet again. Beyond Nuclear is represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge in three proceedings: two interventions against old reactor 20-year license extensions (at Davis-Besse, OH, and Fermi 2, MI). He also serves as legal counsel for Beyond Nuclear and environmental coalition allies at the Fermi 3, MI proposed new reactor fight. All three reactors are located on the Lake Erie shore. In fact, 30 miles apart, Fermi nuclear power plant and Davis-Besse nuclear power plant are visible with the naked eye, one from the other.

Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisenberg, LLP of Washington, D.C., and Mindy Goldstein of Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University in Atlanta represent the three dozen environmental groups, intervening against 27 license extensions and proposed new reactor licenses.

Unredacted Transcript

>> I call the affirmation session to order. We have
chairman Burns on the phone in the room. Madam
secretary I understand we have one item for affirmation
would you leached us through that item.
>> Yes, can you hear me okay
>> I hear you fine.
>> Okay. The Commission is being asked memory dumb in
order responding to a petition filed by several
organizations requesting the Commission suspend final
reactor licensing decisions pending its issuance of a
waste confidence safety decision. Petitioners have also
submitted companion filings proposing a related
contention together with procedural motion to reopen the
record and several proceedings the Commission has voted
to approve a memorandum and order which denies the
petitions to suspend and the related motions and
confirms the Commission's determinations regarding the
safety of continued spent fuel storage and the technical
feasibility of permanent spent fuel disposal in a
repository. With the Commissioners in it the refresh my
memory aif I were your votes
>> Aye
>> Chairs Burns affirm your vote
>> Aye
>> Thank you, that's all I have
>> Is there any other business?
>> No thank you for standing in
>> Good luck getting back
>> Okay. Thank you, everyone. We're adjourned.
>> Bye bye.
Event is not active

Urge President Obama to oppose burial of TransCanada's radioactive wastes on Great Lakes shore!

Successul resistance to TransCanada's Keystone XL tar sands crude oil pipeline must now shift to fend off the dumping of TransCanada's radioactive wastes on the Great Lakes shore!

As reported by the Associated Press, on Feb. 24th, President Obama vetoed Senate Bill 1, which would have rushed the immediate construction of TransCanada Pipelines' Keystone XL tar sands crude oil pipeline. Our friends and colleagues at 350.org called for a rapid response action at the White House, at 5pm, just hours after the veto. As we have many times in the past -- on tar sands, fracking, and other environmental issues -- Beyond Nuclear answered the call, and stood in solidarity with our allies. We have also joined a unity statement with a large number of other groups, calling on President Obama to reject TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline once and for all.

Take action against another of TransCanada's dirty, dangerous and expensive scheme: the plan to bury radioactive waste on the Great Lakes shoreline! Urge President Obama to block this insane proposal!

Take action on radioactive waste! Contact President Obama, your Members of Congress, and state/county/local officials!

What can you do about the radioactive waste risks facing our continent, and your locality? Contact your elected officials!

The White House

Please contact President Obama. Thank him for canceling the risky and astronomically expensive Yucca Mountain, Nevada high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) dump proposal: he has zeroed out funding for the project since 2009, and even ordered his Department of Energy (DOE) to withdraw the construction and operating license application submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Also urge President Obama to take action against Canada's proposed Great Lakes shoreline radioactive waste dump, as a growing number of resolutions across the Great Lakes region call for.

Finally, urge him to put a halt to the DOE proposal to ship liquid HLRW, by truck, from Chalk River nuclear lab, Ontario, Canada, to Savannah River Site, South Carolina. Liquid HLRW has never been shipped in North American history, and is unacceptably risky. The shipments are also unnecessary to begin with, and are proposed for no good reason whatsoever. The main driving force is SRS's hope to make $60 million on the project, as well as to keep its dirty, dangerous, and expensive reprocessing capabilities on life support -- facilities that should have been retired long ago.

Congress

Please contact your two U.S. Senators, as well as your U.S. Representative, regarding the issues listed above. Your three Members of Congress can be reached, by phone, via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121.

Urge them to block congressional Republican efforts (as by Rep. Upton (R-MI) and Shimkus (R-IL), attempting to revive the canceled Yucca Mountain dump project.

Also urge them to join congressional resolutions, in the Senate and House, opposing the Canadian Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump. The Great Lakes represent nearly 90% of the surface fresh water in North America, providing drinking water to 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations. If this proposed Canadian Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump is allowed to happen, it sets a very dangerous precedent continent-wide for burying radioactive waste immediately next to major surface waters and drinking water supplies.

Lastly, urge them to oppose risky and unnecessary shipping of liquid HLRW from Ontario to South Carolina. If these dangerous shipments are allowed to roll, they will also set a dangerous precedent for future radioactive waste shipments continent-wide, throwing even basic common sense caution to the wind.

Your State, County, and Local Government

Contact Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, for more detailed information on how these various radioactive waste risks affect your locality. You can reach Kevin by phone at (301) 270-2209 ext. 1, or email at kevin@beyondnuclear.org.

Yucca Mountain-bound trucks, trains, and barges would carry high-level radioactive waste and irradiated nuclear fuel on roads, rails, and waterways in most states (43 of the lower 48). Centralized interim storage facilities (parking lot dumps), as at Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas, would launch such Mobile Chernobyls, floating Fukushimas, and radiological dirty bombs on wheels, as well.

It is high time to educate state, county, and local officials about these risks, and work to prevent them.

Your state, county, and locality could also pass a resolution opposing such risks as the Canadian Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump proposal.

Rep. Shimkus (R-IL) to visit $11 billion hole in the ground in desert, again

Members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Economy are accompanied by their staff as the take a tour of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 (File, JESSICA EBELHAR/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL)No, it's not a headline in the satirical Onion newspaper, but it could be. As reported by Steve Tetreault in the Las Vegas Review Journal, U.S. Representative John Shimkus (Republican-Illinois), chairman of the Environment and the Economy Subcommittee, plans to visit the shutdown, boarded up, fenced off Yucca Mountain Project site for the second time in four years.

His last visit in April 2011, on the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe's 25th annual commemoration, cost U.S. taxpayers $15,000. But that's nothing compared to the $8 billion of ratepayer money, and $3 billion of taxpayer money, wasted at Yucca since the early 1980s.

Yucca dump advocates, like Shimkus, often adjust for inflation, and round up, to say $15 billion has been wasted at Yucca. But when they say "wasted," they mean because the project has been canceled. They would like to see another $100 billion or so spent there, to license, construct, open, and operate the dump.

As reported by the article: "“If Mr. Shimkus wants to come spend money in Nevada, then by all means,” Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman said. “But what he will find at Yucca Mountain is a boarded-up, closed facility. Yucca Mountain is dead and no amount of visits by Mr. Shimkus and the pro-Yucca fanatics will change that.”

Shimkus's support for one of nuclear lobbyists' top legislative priorities should come as no surprise, however. He is from the most nuclear powered state in the Union (see NEIS's "Nuclear Illinois" map). His district includes the Honeywell uranium conversion plant in Metropolis -- an essential step in the uranium fuel chain, and the only such facility in the U.S.

Illinois speaks out against Canadian Great Lakes shoreline radioactive waste dump proposal

OPG's proposed so-called Deep Geologic Repository for radioactive waste burial would be located less than a mile from the Great Lakes shoreline.Today, DuPage County, the second most populous in Illinois, announced the passage of a resolution in opposition to the proposal by nuclear utility Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to bury radioactive wastes from 20 atomic reactors across the province at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, on the Lake Huron shore in Kincardine, ON (see photo, left). Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump shared the good news in a press release, with the DuPage Co. resolution attached.

On Feb. 6th, the City of Chicago also passed a similar resolution. As reported in the Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump's press release, the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, said: “The Great Lakes hold 84 percent of North America’s fresh water and Chicago’s position as the paramount Great Lakes city makes OPG’s proposed nuclear waste repository a threat to both public health and our environment. As shown by our City Council’s unanimous approval of a resolution opposing the repository, as well as the many voices throughout the United States and Canada, passionate support to protect our Great Lakes spans across North America and cannot be ignored.”

As tallied at the Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump website, the 142 resolutions, and counting, passed to date by tribes, states, counties, cities, towns, and villages across the Great Lakes Basin, represent a combined population of 17.9 million residents. Altogether, the Great Lakes provide drinking water for 40 million people in eight U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.

What's especially significant about DuPage County's and Chicago's resolutions, is the fact that these are themselves "nuclear municipalities." DuPage County hosts the national HQ of Exelon in Warrenville, the biggest nuclear utility in the country, with 23 atomic reactors in its fleet. And Chicago, encircled by Exelon reactors (including identical twin designs to Fukushima Daiichi), gets around 80% of its electricity from nuclear power. Yet, these municipalities have spoken out against the insane proposal to bury radioactive waste on the Great Lakes shore.

As Dave Kraft, director of Nuclear Energy Information Service of Illinois, has pointed out, if burying radioactive waste on the Great Lakes shore is a bad idea, it's also a bad idea to be generating and storing it there in the first place.