Entergy & NRC Watchers needed at NRC meeting on Palisades' CRDM through-wall leakage
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced a public meeting, to be held on Monday, October 1st from 1-2 PM Central time (2-3 PM Eastern time) at its Lisle, IL Region 3 office near Chicago, regarding the through-wall leakage of radioactive and acidic primary coolant water from the Palisades atomic reactor's Control Rod Drive Mechanism (CRDM).
If you can attend the meeting in person, please do. However, NRC is making Webinar and even call-in participation possible, for those unable to attend in person. Contact NRC Region 3 Staffer Swetha Shah by Saturday, September 29th for more information on how to participate at (630) 829-9608 or Swetha.Shah@nrc.gov.
You can also "reserve a seat" at the Webinar by signing up at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/977718426. Again, do so by Sat., Sept. 29th.
NRC will then send a confirmation email, giving additional information about the option to "Use Telephone" if you prefer, rather than Webinar. Call-in numbers and access codes will be provided.
See NRC's Meeting Notice as well as Public Meeting Scheduled for more information. Do so by going to the NRC's Public Meeting Schedule and scrolling down chronologically to the October 1st Palisades CRDM meeting for the links. On Sept. 26th, NRC Region 3 issued a press release about next Monday's meeting.
Palisades (pictured, above left), located in Covert, Michigan, near South Haven, on the southeastern shoreline of Lake Michigan in southwestern Michigan, is considered by NRC one of the four worst-run atomic reactors in the U.S., after experiencing an accident of "substantial significance to safety" a year ago, on Sept. 25, 2011. As documented by David Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists in 2010, Palisades -- unique in the U.S. nuclear industry -- has suffered 40 years of chronic CRDM seal leaks.
Beyond Nuclear has helped organize and rally concerned local residents and environmental groups after Palisades experienced five euphemistically dubbed "unplanned shutdowns" (accidents) in 2011 alone, followed by numerous leaks in 2012, as well as a complete collapse of "safety culture" that was covered up by Entergy and NRC, until it was outed by alarmed, courageous Palisades whistleblowers.
For more information, see Beyond Nuclear's recent posts about Palisades, including U.S. Rep. Ed Markey's revelations about "the crisis in the control room" at Palisades, as well as about the CRDM through-wall leak revealed a month ago.
Beyond Nuclear has prepared a full listing of posts about Palisades, just this year alone.
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Palisades has sprung yet another in a long line of leaks, this time in a service water pump, according to a Preliminary Notification of Occurrence just posted at NRC's website. The Holland Sentinel has reported on this leak, while focusing on emergency preparedness exercises being carried out in Allegan and other area counties.