NRDC challenges SAMA at Limerick license extension proceeding

The Natural Resources Defense Council has challenged Exelon Nuclear's Severe Accident Mitigation Alternatives (SAMA) analysis for its proposed 20-year license extension at the twin unit Limerick Boiling Water Reactors near Pottstown, PA. NRDC issued a press release on Nov. 28, 2011 when it launched the intervention and contention.

Beyond Nuclear has similarly launched a SAMA challenge against the Davis-Besse atomic reactor's proposed license extension. Although the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) have largely gutted Beyond Nuclear's SAMA contention, an oral argument pre-hearing will still be held at the Lucas County Courthouse in downtown Toledo on November 5th and 6th, at which Beyond Nuclear will strive to keep its SAMA contentions alive. Beyond Nuclear is deeply indebted to the New England Coalition at Seabrook, NH, and Pilgrim Watch at Pilgrim, MA, upon whose groundbreaking SAMA work it entirely depended.

Some strange connections between Indian Point, NY and Fukushima Daiichi, Japan

A delegation of four Japanese women farmers and anti-nuclear activists from Fukushima, Hokkaido, and Kyodo traveled to Indian Point nuclear power plant (visible in the background on the Hudson River) to show solidarity with the anti-nuclear movement there, Sept. 2011.In August 2010, Green Action Japan invited Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on a nationwide speaking tour of Japan to describe the risks of storing irradiated nuclear fuel in pools, with radioactivity leaks from Indian Point's storage pools near New York City at the top of the list. Kevin's first stop was Fukushima Daiichi, located in an area of high population density, not far from Tokyo.

Entergy Nuclear has bragged that Indian Point can withstand an earthquake of magnitude 6.1. But Columbia University has warned that a 7.0 earthquake is possible. After the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe began on March 11, 2011, NRC re-evaluated seismic risks in the U.S. It determined that Indian Point Units 2 & 3 are the most earthquake-vulnerable atomic reactors in the U.S.

Similarly, the Japanese federal government's point man on Fukushima Daiichi, Hosono, assured reporters that Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4's high-level radioactive waste storage pool could withstand a 6.0 earthquake. But voices, such as Japanese diplomat Akio Matsumura, have warned that a 7.0 quake is very likely to occur there in the next few years.

In Sept., 2011, a delegation of Japanese farmers and anti-nuclear activists from Fukushima and Hokkaido, led by Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action Japan, traveled to the U.S. Beyond Nuclear hosted them in Washington, D.C. and New York City, including a trip to Indian Point (see photo, above left).

Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 had only recently been granted a license extension when it melted down, perhaps within an hour of the 9.0 earthquake striking on March 11, 2011. If it had not been granted extended operations, its reactor core would have been de-fueled and would not have melted down.

Indian Point Units 2 & 3 have applied for 20 year license extensions. The State of New York, Riverkeeper, and Hudson River Sloop Clearwater have gotten ten contentions opposed to the license extensions accepted by an NRC licensing board for hearings on the merits. The oral arguments have just begun.

Mission Electric Forum opposes 20 year license extensions at Indian Point 2 & 3

As posted at the Stony Point Center's website:

"Mission Electric -- The Power Is Ours is a forum that was organized by the Stony Point 55, a coalition of concerned environmental activists and organizations regarding the catastrophic dangers in waiting if operations at the Indian Point plant continue in the lower Hudson Valley of New York...

The presenters included Andy Spano, former Westchester County Executive, Ron Leonard, renewable energy expert, Tom Kacandes, former economic developer for Empire State Corporation, Frank Pinto, retired United Nations Senior Environmental Policy Expert, Tim Judson, Board member, Citizens Awareness Network, Manna Jo Greene, Environmental Director for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.

...This forum was co-sponsored by: Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Citizens Awareness Network, SDIPN, and Connie Hogarth Centre for Social Action at Manhattanville College, Rockland Sierra Club, NYPIRG, Hudson Valley Fellowship of Reconciliation, Rockland Water Coalition, and Stony Point Center."

At an Entergy Watch summit, held in conjunction with the Clamshell Alliance's annual reunion at the World Fellowship Center in Conway, New Hampshire in July 2012 -- attended by Beyond Nuclear's Paul and Linda Gunter as well as Kevin Kamps -- Marilyn Elie of Westchester Citizens Awareness Network and Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition invited Kevin to present at another Indian Point forum at Stony Point Center in Stony Point, NY, near Entergy's Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, on October 21, 2012.

"Process Flaws" in NRC's 20 year license extension rubber-stamp process

Riverkeeper has published an account at its website about "Process Flaws" with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) license extension process:

"Riverkeeper has previously joined regional and national nuclear watchdog groups in petitioning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to suspend current license renewal proceedings for the Indian Point, Oyster Creek, Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants until an objective and independent investigation is conducted into the current license renewal process.

This petition was in direct response to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit in September 2007 which found:

1) The NRC staff failed to verify the authenticity of technical safety information in over 97% of the renewal applications audited by OIG; and

2) NRC staff reviewers routinely ‘cut and pasted’ whole sections of the renewal application text into their own safety reviews, rather than write their own evaluations.

At the Ginna nuclear power plant in upstate New York, the Inspector General found that NRC staff had copied 100% of the safety review data provided by the nuclear operator into its own safety evaluation, without providing any evidence that the information in the application had been properly verified."

Over the past 20 years, Entergy has inspected less than half of "highly important," safety-significant pipes and components susceptible to corrosion at Indian Point Units 2 & 3

Riverkeeper reports at its Facebook page:

"Under cross-examination by Riverkeeper attorneys yesterday, Entergy admitted that in 20 years, it had inspected fewer than half of the 8,000 components susceptible to corrosion at the Indian Point nuclear reactors. And these are pipes and other components that Entergy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agree are "highly important" to the safety of the plant. 

Who knows if those pipes can withstand another 20 years of use, or if they'd fail catastrophically, endangering the 20 million Americans who live in the shadow of the plant. 

How safe and secure does that sound? 

That's just one reason why Riverkeeper--the first to present evidence in the historic NRC hearings that started this week--is arguing that the NRC should close Indian Point as intended when Entergy's licenses expire.

Learn more about our Indian Point relicensing battle: http://bit.ly/S63VI2"

In April 2010, Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter published a report, Leak First, Fix Later, which described the epidemic of radioactive leaks from underground pipes -- and other systems, structures, and components -- at aging nuclear power plants, including a chapter on Indian Point's leaking high-level radioactive waste storage pools. In August 2010, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps prepared a backgrounder about leaking high-level radioactive waste storage pools in the U.S., for use on a national speaking tour of Japan organized by Green Action Kyodo. His first stop was Fukushima Daiichi.