Nuclear Licensing Board Grants Evidentiary Hearing on Risk of Brittle Vessel Fracture at Entergy Nuclear’s Palisades Atomic Reactor

NRC file photo of Entergy Nuclear's Palisades atomic reactor, located on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Covert, MIThe U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP) overseeing an intervention petiton filed by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge on behalf of an environmental coalition (Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste MI, Michigan Safe Energy Future, and Nuclear Energy Information Service) has granted an evidentiary hearing on the merits of concerns regarding the risks of a ductile tear, or fracture, of Entergy Nuclear's severely embrittled Palisades atomic reactor pressure vessel (RPV), located in Covert, MI on the Lake Michigan shore.

Although Entergy's Palisades has the worst embrittled RPV in the U.S., it is but the canary in the coal mine. As revealed in an April 2013 NRC document (see point #4, on page 5 of 15 on PDF counter), Next Era's (Florida Power & Light's) Point Beach Unit 2, also located on the Lake Michigan shore in Wisconsin, is nearly as bad. Following not very far behind in terms of RPV fracture risk are Entergy's Indian Point Unit 3 near New York City, Pacific Gas & Electric's Diablo Canyon on the California coast, and FirstEnergy's Beaver Valley Unit 1 in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. FirstEnergy has also been required to have an Aging Management Plan for RPV embrittlement at its Davis-Besse atomic reactor on the Lake Erie shore near Toledo, an indication that this is a serious concern there as well.

As a safety precaution in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe, Japan's nuclear power plant with the worst embrittled RPV -- at Genkai 1 -- was permanently shut down.

See the NRC ASLBP's "MEMORANDUM AND ORDER" on the Palisades RPV hearing, here. The coalition has issued a press release on their legal victory.

See the coalition's March 9, 2015 intervention petition here. Also see Entergy Nuclear's and NRC staff's opposition to the intervention petition here, and the coalition's defense of its filing here.

The coalition's expert witness declaration (prepared by Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc. in Burlington, VT), as well as an expert Greenpeace Belgium report on micro-cracking risks in Belgian RPVs that should be tested for at Palisades, were cited by the ASLBP as grounds for granting the hearing.

Fairewinds Energy Education has also produced a short, humorous educational video about RPV risks at Palisades.

The same ASLBP had previously ruled against a related but distinct intervention petition concerning brittle fracture pressurized thermal shock risks at Palisades (see the ruling here). The coalition immediately vowed to appeal the adverse ruling, and its attorney Terry Lodge did do so, to the full NRC Commission, in early June.

Update on June 24, 2015 by admin

Andrew Lersten at the Benton Harbor-St. Joe Herald-Palladium has reported on this story.

WSJM radio in s.w. MI has also covered this story.

WNDU/South Bend has also reported on this story.

Update on July 14, 2015 by admin

On July 13th, Entergy Nuclear appealed to the full NRC Commission, calling for the ASLBP's granting of the hearing to be overruled.

Environmental intervenors have 25 days to rebut Entergy's appeal, that is, by August 7th.

Coalition cites catastrophic risk of Palisades RPV fracture, appeals ASLB ruling to full NRC Commission

A diagram describing pressurized thermal shock in a nuclear reactor. Credit: Japan Atomic Energy Agency. Japan's worst embrittled RPV, at Genkai 1, has been permanently closed in the aftermath of Fukushima.Citing the risks of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) fracture, core meltdown, and catastrophic release of hazardous radioactivity at Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor in southwest Michigan, an environmental coalition (Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste MI, MI Safe Energy Future, and Nuclear Energy Info. Service of IL) has appealed an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel's adverse ruling to the full U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The coalition's legal counsel, Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge, filed the appeal on June 2nd.

Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc. in Burlington, VT, serves as the coalition's expert witness on the risks of pressurized thermal shock (PTS) causing "brittle fracture" in the Palisades RPV. Gundersen and Fairewinds Energy Education have produced a short, humorous, educational video about PTS risks entitled "Nuclear Crack Down?"

NRC has admitted on numerous occassions that Palisades has the worst neutron radiation embrittled RPV in the country. Palisades first surpassed embrittlement safety standards in 1981, just ten short years into its operations. NRC, and/or the nuclear utilities owning and operating Palisades, have previously predicted various "End of Life" dates for the problem-plagued atomic reactor, the earliest being 1995. However, as reported by Jeff Donn of AP in 2011, NRC has weakened safety regulations time after time, to accommodate the age-degraded nuclear power plant, one of the oldest still operating in the U.S.

See updates on Beyond Nuclear et al.'s intervention against Entergy Palisades' License Amendment Request for regulatory relief dating back to Dec. 1, 2014 at the Reactor Safety website section.

Update on July 15, 2015 by admin

On June 29th, both Entergy Nuclear and NRC staff issued Answers to the environmental coalition's June 2nd appeal.