Coalition defends its challenge against risky steam generator replacements at Davis-Besse

Terry Lodge speaks out against 20-year license extension at Davis-Besse at Oak Harbor High School in Ohio, August 2012On June 21st, an environmental coalition represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge (photo, left) re-asserted its challengeagainst risky steam generator replacements at FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's (FENOC) Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo. The filing rebutted June 14th attacks byFENOC as well as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff on the coalition's standing, as well as the merits of its contentions.

The coalition, comprised of Beyond Nuclear, Citizen Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club, launched its intervention petition on May 20th. The coalition's expert, Fairewinds Associates, Inc's Chief Engineer, Arnie Gundersen, also serves as Friends of the Earth's (FOE) expert in the San Onofre defective replacement steam generator proceeding, which recently resulted in the permanent closure of two reactors. FENOC has taken similar short cuts on safety as did Edison International, which resulted in the San Onofre engineering catastrophe that put 8 million southern Californians at radiological risk, and has resulted in a $2.5 billion boondoggle.

45-year-old construction error on leaky tank discovered at Palisades atomic reactor

Entergy and NRC have just discovered that, at Palisades, plant diagrams are not accurate depictions of "as-built" realityAs reported by Andrew Lersten at the St. Joe Herald-Palladium, a 45-year-old construction error has been discovered at Entergy Nuclear's problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline in southwest MI. While repairing a 300,000 gallon tank of water that has been leaking for over two years -- including into the safety-critical control room, as well as directly into Lake Michigan -- workers found that a grout ring and sand bed region called for in the blueprints had never been installed back in 1968. Entergy and NRC now admit that phantom structures assumed to have been there all along may go a long way to explaining why the floor of the tank has suffered repeated leaks, despite multiple attempted repairs.

As recently as April 25, 2013, in a submission to NRC, Entergy gave engineering credit to structures which, in reality, didn't even exist: "Pressure stress loads are carried by the sand base, concrete grout ring, and concrete foundation beneath the tank bottom."

The discrepancy between Palisades' blueprints (see image, left), and the actual "as-built" reality, raises serious safety significant questions about the entire atomic reactor.

The Herald-Palladium, for whom Palisades unquestionably could do no wrong for decades on end, published a blistering editorial on May 23rd. The editorial board concluded:

"...as events in Japan proved in 2011, there is really no second chance when it comes to a catastrophic nuclear event.

We know that Entergy officials will say emphatically that they understand the stakes and are doing everything possible to maintain safety. But talk is cheap, and past problems at the plant don’t inspire confidence. What is really needed are better results.

Should Palisades continue to stumble along in the next months and years, then we hope the NRC takes a much harder look at Palisades’ license. Energy production and commerce are important, but not nearly as important as the safety and well-being of an entire region."

Prohibitively expensive cost of safety repairs leads nuclear utilities to instead permanently close age-degraded atomic reactors

"Burning Money" image by Gene Case, Avenging AngelsBloomberg has reported:

"Edison International (EIX)’s decision to abandon its San Onofre nuclear plant in California is the latest blow for an industry already facing questions about its long-term survival.

Edison, based in Rosemead, California, announced June 7 it will permanently shut the plant’s two reactors, trimming total U.S. operating units to 100 from 104 at the beginning of the year and 110 at the peak in 1996. The announcement brings to four the number of units permanently removed from service this year, the most in any year since the nation embraced nuclear power.

Other facilities are nearing the end of their projected lifespans and may need costly renovations while cheap natural gas has siphoned off market share. Potentially expensive regulations to bolster safety in response to a triple meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant in 2011 have raised the concerns of investors...

The last wave of U.S. plant closures was in the late 1990s, when falling gas prices helped tilt economics in favor of retiring rather than attempting large-scale repairs. Six reactors were closed from 1996 to 1998, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission data, and peaked in 1996 when Haddam Neck in Meriden, Connecticut; Maine Yankee in Wicasset, Maine; and Unit 2 at the Zion plant in Illinois shut...

“The decision to shut down rather than retrofit the San Onofre nuclear plant shows the changing economics of the power market,” Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, a Chicago-based advocate of cleaner energy, said in a telephone interview. “We suspect other nuclear plant owners may start reaching the same decision.”

In fact, Dominion Nuclear made just such a decision, to permanently shutdown its Kewaunee atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline of Wisconsin last month. 

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on October 22, 2012 that Dominion, referring to its losing battle to remain competitive in a deregulated electricity market, could not afford the needed safety repairs at Kewaunee:

'We looked at all alternatives to keep the unit operating, but we could not make the reductions in the cost without it affecting safety,' [Dominion spokesman Richard] Zuercher said." (emphasis added)

As Howard Learner stated above, such market realities begs the question, which reactors will close next? On Feb. 8th, Entergy's brand new CEO, Leo Denault, when asked why several reactors in his fleet were so financially strapped, admitted in an interveiw with Reuters that:

"...some plants are in the more challenging economic situations for a variety of reasons, including 'the market for both energy and capacity, their size, their contracting positions and the investment required to maintain the safety and integrity of the plants.'" (emphasis added)

Davis-Besse's "San Onofre-like" shortcuts on safety with steam generator replacements focus of NRC public meeting

Terry Lodge speaks out against Davis-Besse in August 2012 at an NRC public meeting held at Oak Harbor High SchoolBeyond Nuclear set up an info. table at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "annual performance review" public meeting in Carroll Township, Ohio, just a few miles down the road from FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's (FENOC) problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor. Beyond Nuclear was there to let the public know about the ongoing resistance by an environmental coalition to Davis-Besse's 20-year license extension, and its recently filed intervention against FENOC's San Onofre-like shortcuts on safety regarding its proposed 2014 steam generator replacements.

Toledo attorney Terry Lodge (photo, left) represents the coalition, and Fairewinds Associates, Inc's Chief Engineer, Arnie Gundersen, serves as its expert witness. Gundersen also serves as Friends of the Earth's (FOE) expert, which just successfully forced Edison International to permanently shutdown the San Onofre 2 & 3 atomic reactors due to fatally flawed replacement steam generators.

WTOL's Jennifer Steck quoted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps (print article; television report):

'..."We want to prevent a Chernobyl or Fukishima on the shoreline of the Great Lakes," said Kevin Kamps, of Beyond Nuclear. "There is no reactor in this country that's come closer to that as many times as Davis-Besse has."

Davis-Besse is licensed for operation through 2017, and in the process of a 20-year license renewal. Delaying that renewal and preventing a steam generator replacement in 2014 are the main goals of Beyond Nuclear.

"We've long strived to shut down Davis-Besse, and we're not going to give up now," Kamps said. "We're just going to re-double our efforts."...'

The Toledo Blade's Roberta Gedert also quoted Kevin:

“They went way out of their way to avoid a license amendment on this major organ transplant,” said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste watchdog for Beyond Nuclear. “If they have made any mistakes, they have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars because we are going to challenge them at every turn.”

Update on June 13, 2013 by admin

The June 12, 2013 Fairewinds Energy Education podcast, featuring Arnie and Maggie Gundersen, is mostly focused on last week's permanent closure of San Onofre Units 2 & 3 in CA. But beginning at minute 23:00, Arnie applies the lessons learned at San Onofre -- where he serves as Friends of the Earth's expert witness -- to the new "leader of the pack" regarding the San Onofre like-for-like issue: Davis-Besse in Ohio. 

San Onofre 2 & 3 had insisted that its old steam generators and its new replacement steam generators were like-for-like. In this way, Edison International avoided the very public license amendment proceedings that likely would have revealed the replacement steam generator design and fabrication defects that have now proven fatal at San Onofre 2 & 3.

Ironically, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) has followed Edison International's unwise path. FENOC has convinced the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that its proposed 2014 steam generator replacement is "like-for-like," thus far avoiding a public license amendment proceeding. But a coalition of environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear, is challenging this. They have retained Arnie Gundersen as their expert witness.

What you can do to help shutdown Palisades before it melts down

U.S. Sens. Levin and StabenowThere are many actions you can take to help shutdown Palisades before it melts down.

For example, you can contact U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow (see photo, left), both Michigan Democrats, and senior Democratic Party leaders (committee chairs) in the U.S. Senate. Their full contact information is listed below. Read on for ideas on what you can say to them.

Urge them to do all they can to force Palisades' shutdown, for safety's sake.

Urge them to work together to request an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) into the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) regulatory rollbacks on safety standards, enabling the age-degraded Palisades atomic reactor to keep operating. Specifically, urge them to launch a GAO investigation on Palisades' embrittled reactor pressure vessel, at risk of rupturing due to pressurized thermal shock if the emergency core cooling system is ever activated. This would lead to a loss of coolant accident, reactor core meltdown, and catastrophic radioactivity release, potentially killing and injuring tens of thousands, and causing over $100 billion in property damage downwind and downstream.

Palisades has the worst embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the U.S., as admitted by senior staff at a Feb. 29, 2012 public meeting in South Haven. Michael Keegan of Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes documented that Palisades had violated NRC safety standards just 10 years into its operations, by 1981. In June 2011, the Associated Press pointed to reactor pressure vessel embrittlement as the top example of NRC weakening safety standards in order to enable dangerously degraded atomic reactors to keep operating.

A coalition of dozens of Michigan environmental groups asked for this GAO investigation from Sens. Levin and Stabenow in spring 2006 -- yes, 7 years ago. Concerned citizens and environmental group representatives again asked them to do this in early 2012. Yet they never have.

You could also urge Sen. Stabenow to hold hearings in the Senate Agriculture Committee, which she chairs, regarding the risks to Michigan's agricultural economy from a catastrophic radioactivity release at Palisades.

You could also urge Sen. Stabenow to call for hearings on the Water and Power Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on which she serves, to look at the risks to Lake Michigan -- source of drinking water for tens of millions -- if Palisades were to unleash a Fukushima-like catastrophe on its shoreline.

Here are the two Senators' contact information:

U.S. SENATOR DEBBIE STABENOW:

Click on this link for Sen. Stabenow's Webform, where you can send her an email. 

Washington, D.C. Office

Senate Hart Office Building #133, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510; phone (202) 224-4822; Fax (202) 228-0325.

Flint/Saginaw Bay Office

432 N. Saginaw St, Suite 301, Flint, MI 48502; Phone: (810) 720-4172

Southeast Michigan Office 

243 W.Congress Suite 550, Detroit, MI 48226; Phone: (313) 961-4330

Mid-Michigan Office 

 
221 W. Lake Lansing Road, Suite 100, East Lansing, MI 48823; Phone: (517) 203-1760

Western Michigan Office 

3280 E. Beltline Court NE, Suite 400, Grand Rapids, MI 49525; Phone: (616) 975-0052

Northern Michigan Office

3335 S. Airport Road West, Suite 6B, Traverse City, MI 49684; Phone: (231) 929-1031

Upper Peninsula Office

1901 W. Ridge, Marquette, MI 49855; Phone: (906) 228-8756

U.S. SENATOR CARL LEVIN:

Click on this link for the Webform where you can send him an email.

Washington, D.C. Office

269 Russell Office Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510-2202; Phone (202) 224-6221; Fax (202) 224-1388; TTY (202) 224-2816

Detroit Office

Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building; 477 Michigan Avenue, Suite 1860; Detroit, MI 48226-2576; Phone (313) 226-6020; Fax (313) 226-6948; TTY (800) 851-0030

Escanaba Office

524 Ludington Street, Suite LL-103, Escanaba, MI 49829-3949; Phone (906) 789-0052; Fax (906) 789-0015

Grand Rapids Office

Gerald R. Ford Federal Building, Suite 720, 110 Michigan Street, NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503-2313; Phone (616) 456-2531; Fax (616) 456-5147

Lansing Office

124 W. Allegan Street, Suite 1810, Lansing, MI 48933-1716; Phone (517) 377-1508; Fax (517) 377-1506

Traverse City Office

107 Cass Street, Suite E, Traverse City, MI 49684-2602; Phone (231) 947-9569; Fax (231) 947-9518

Saginaw Office

515 N. Washington Avenue, Suite 402, Saginaw, MI 48607-1370; Phone (989) 754-2494; Fax (989) 754-2920

Warren Office

30500 Van Dyke Avenue, Suite 206, Warren, MI 48093-2109; Phone (586) 573-9145; Fax (586) 573-8260

If you live in west Michigan, you could join in the activities of the grassroots groups working for Palisades' shutdown.

For the Michigan Safe Energy Future--Shoreline Chapter, contact Bette Pierman at bette49022@yahoo.com or (269) 369-3993. The Shoreline Chapter meets monthly on the first Saturday of each month at 1 PM Eastern at the South Haven Memorial Library.

For the Michigan Safe Energy Future--Kalamazoo Chapter, contact Iris Potter at b.irispotter@gmail.com or (269) 271-4342.