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FUKUSHIMA
FALLOUT: SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES FROM MAINE TO CALIFIORNIA (45 GROUPS AND
INDIVIDUAL LITIGANTS) PETITION NRC TO SUSPEND ALL NUCLEAR REACTOR LICENSING
AND CONDUCT A "CREDIBLE" THREE MILE ISLAND-STYLE REVIEW
FRIENDS of THE COAST, (Edgecomb,
Maine) Watchdog of Maine Yankee’ s stored nuclear waste and highly
influential in the shutdown and final cleanup of the defunct Maine Yankee
Nuclear Plant; together with NEW ENGLAND COALITION (Brattleboro,
Vermont) engaging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Entergy Nuclear
Vermont Yankee in a non-stop litigation sparring match since 2001 have joined
Public Citizen, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and San Luis Obispo
Mothers for Peace; Among 45 Litigants Now Before NRC Licensing Tribunals Who
Are Urging NRC to Delay Licensing While NRC and Presidential Commission
Conduct a Full Study of Implications of Japan Reactor Crisis.
Friends of the Coast and New England Coalition are joint intervenors opposing the application of NextEra Seabrook for a 20 year extension of its federal
license, due to expire in 2032. Among Admitted for litigation are
Friends/NEC contentions that Seabrook below ground safety-related cables are
susceptible to flooding but not designed or rated for underwater service; and
that Seabrook’s severe accident mitigation analysis are biased toward making
potential accidents look less dangerous that they would truly be. Friends/NEC
says it is apparent that these considerations (flooding of electrical cables
and accident mitigation measures) have played heavy in the Fukashima tragedy. Friends/NEC now contends that the
course and effects of the Fukashima accident must
be studied before NRC can validate either the environmental and safety
advocate’s concerns or the nuclear industry’s reassurances regarding designs
to be licensed or relicensed.
Contact:
Raymond Shadis
207-882-7801 (answers in Spanish)
207-380-5994 (Cell)
"NRC violated the law by re-licensing the Vermont Yankee reactor at
the same time it launched an investigation into whether U.S. safety and
environmental standards are strong enough in light of the Fukushima
accident. The National Environmental Policy Act requires the NRC to
learn and apply the lessons of Fukushima
before it allows another reactor to operate. By establishing a Task
Force and ordering the investigation of the regulatory implications of
the Fukushima accident for U.S. reactors, the NRC has obligated itself to
consider those implications in all prospective licensing decisions.”
Attorney Diane Curran
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WASHINGTON, April 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- A total of 45 groups and individuals from across the nation are formally
asking the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to immediately suspend
all licensing and other activities at 21 proposed nuclear reactor projects in
15 states until the NRC completes a thorough post-Fukushima reactor crisis
examination comparable to the process set up in the wake of the serious,
though less severe, 1979 accident at Three Mile Island.
The petitioners also are asking the NRC to supplement its own investigation
by establishing an independent commission.
The petition seeks
suspension of six existing reactor license renewal decisions (Columbia,
Davis-Besse, Diablo Canyon, Indian Point, Pilgrim,
and Seabrook); 13 new reactor combined construction permit and operating
license decisions (Bellefonte Units 3 and 4, Bell Bend, Callaway, Calvert
Cliffs, Comanche Peak,Fermi, Levy County, North
Anna, Shearon Harris, South Texas, Turkey Point, Vogtle, and William States Lee);a construction permit
decision (Bellefonte Units 1 and 2); and an operating license decision (Watts
Bar). In addition, the petition asks the NRC to halt proceedings
to approve the standardized AP1000 and ESBWR reactor designs.
Available online at http://www.nuclearbailout.org,
the petition explains that the action is needed to review "the safety
and environmental implications of the ongoing catastrophic radiological
accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Units 1-6 ('Fukushima'), in Okumu, Japan."
According to the petition, the needed NRC review should include a close look
at "whether the March 11, 2011 Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyo-Oki
earthquake and ensuing radiological accident poses new and significant
information that must be considered in environmental impact statements to
support the licensing decisions for all new reactors and renewed
licenses."
Emergency action by the NRC is necessary because a number of the pending
licensing proceedings are approaching completion, including for Pilgrim, Vogtle, and the AP1000 design certification proceeding.
The NRC was subjected to extensive criticism when it extended the license for
the controversial and problem-plagued Vermont
Yankee reactor just days after the Fukushima
reactor disaster.
An attorney for the petitioners, Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg
& Eisenberg, LLP, said: "NRC violated the law by
re-licensing the Vermont Yankee reactor at the same time it launched an
investigation into whether U.S. safety and environmental standards are strong
enough in light of the Fukushima accident. The National Environmental
Policy Act requires the NRC to learn and apply the lessons of Fukushima before it
allows another reactor to operate. By establishing a Task Force and
ordering the investigation of the regulatory implications of the Fukushima accident for U.S. reactors, the NRC has obligated
itself to consider those implications in all prospective licensing
decisions. We demand that the NRC establish a credible process for
studying and applying the lessons learned from the Fukushima
accident, in keeping with the precedent created after Three
Mile Island."
Curran also said: "Suspension of licensing decisions pending
investigations of lessons learned also would be consistent with the course
followed by the Commission following the Three Mile
Island accident, when the Commission delayed new licensing
actions for a year and a half while it studied the implications of the
accident for reactor safety." In addition, Curran said, the
Commission should request the appointment of an independent Presidential
Commission, as was done after the Three Mile Island
accident.
Sara Barczak, high risk energy director for
petitioner Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a regional organization, ,
said: "Utilities across the Southeast have aggressively pursued building
costly new reactors in spite of the risks that poses to ratepayers and
taxpayers. It's of paramount importance that federal regulators take
the time needed to carefully reassess the concerns the Fukushima
disaster raises here in the U.S.
and not yield to the nuclear industry's unreasonable timelines. It is
important to take a step back before billions of more dollars are
spent."
Jane Swanson, spokesperson for petitioner San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, San Luis Obispo, CA,
said: "Fukushima
has given the NRC a clear warning. The agency is obligated by its
responsibilities for public safety to hit the pause button on all licensing
applications until all the lessons to be learned are thoroughly
understood."
Mary Lampert, director of petitioner Pilgrim Watch,
Duxbury, MA,
said: "Pilgrim, located in America's
Hometown, is the same design as the Fukushima
plants, is older than most of them, and has even
more spent fuel in its single spent fuel pool. The major cause of the Fukushima disaster was
the loss of off-site power; but it doesn't take a tsunami to cause that. The
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission told all Americans within 50 miles of Fukushima to evacuate;
several million people live within a 50 mile radius of Pilgrim."
Dr. Arjun Makhijani,
president, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER),
said: "The Fukushima Daiichi plant is rewriting the book on
nuclear reactor accidents. There are multiple major sources of
emissions from the same site at the same time, including more than one
reactor and more than one spent fuel pool. For the first time, major
portions of three reactor buildings have been blown away by hydrogen
explosions. Backup power arrangements have been shown to be grossly
inadequate. Freshwater was not available for essential cooling functions
for an extended period. The situation is far from being under control
more than one month after the start of the accident. Continuing
business as usual in licensing and reactor certification in the face of the
unprecedented, hugely complicated, and ongoing Fukushima accident would be rash and
contrary to the mandate of the NRC to ensure safety and protect public
health."
Among the groups and individuals seeking the emergency action on the part of
the NRC are: Beyond Nuclear; Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL);
Center for a Sustainable Coast; Citizens Allied for Safe Energy; Don't Waste
Michigan; Friends of the Coast; Friends of the Earth; Georgia
Women's Action for New Directions; Mothers Against Tennessee River Radiation;
Missouri Coalition for the Environment; Missourians for Safe Energy; National
Parks Conservation Association; North Carolina Waste Reduction and Awareness
Network; Northwest Environmental Advocates; New England
Coalition; Nuclear Information and Resource Service; Nuclear Watch South;
Public Citizen; San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace; Savannah Riverkeeper; Seacoast Anti-Pollution League; Sierra Club
(Michigan and South Carolina chapters); Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
(SACE); Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition; and the
Village of PInecrest, Florida.
The petition calls for the following:
* The Commission should suspend all decisions regarding
the issuance of construction permits, new reactor licenses, combined
construction permits and operating licenses (COLs), early site permits
(ESPs), license renewals, or standardized design certification pending
completion by the NRC's Task Force of its investigation of the
near-term and long-term lessons of the Fukushima accident and the issuance of
any proposed regulatory decisions and/or environmental analyses of those
issues;
* The Commission should suspend all proceedings with
respect to hearings or opportunities for public comment, on any
reactor-related or spent fuel pool-related issues that have been identified
for investigation in the Task Force's Charter of April 1, 2011, including
external event issues (i.e., seismic, flooding, fires, severe weather);
station blackout; severe accident measures (e.g., combustible gas control,
emergency operating procedures, severe accident management guidelines);
implementation of NRC regulations regarding response to explosions or fire;
and emergency preparedness. The Commission should also instruct hearing
judges who are considering contentions to permit the parties an opportunity
to make arguments regarding the relevance of their concerns to the Fukushima
accident.
* The Commission should suspend all licensing and related
rulemaking proceedings with regard to any other issues that are identified by
the Task Force as the subject of its investigation. The proceedings
should be suspended pending completion of the Task Force's investigation into
those issues and the issuance of any proposed regulatory decisions and/or
environmental analyses of those issues.
* The Commission should conduct an analysis, as required
by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), of whether the March 11,
2011 Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyo-Oki earthquake and
ensuing radiological accident poses new and significant information
that must be considered in environmental impact statements to support the
licensing decisions for all new reactors and renewed licenses. All
environmental assessments should be published in draft form for public
comment.
* The Commission should conduct a safety analysis of the
regulatory implications of the March 11, 2011 Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyo-Oki
earthquake and ensuing radiological accident. While emergency safety
measures that arise from that analysis may be issued as enforcement orders,
any long-term requirements should be issued as proposed rules, with
appropriate opportunities for comment.
* The Commission should establish procedures and a
timetable for raising new issues relevant to the Fukushima accident in pending licensing
proceedings. The Commission should allow all current interveners in NRC
licensing proceedings, all petitioners who seek to re-open closed licensing
and relicensing proceedings, and all parties who seek to comment on design
certification proposed rules, a period of 60 days following the publication
of proposed regulatory measures or environmental decisions, in which to raise
new issues relating to the Fukushima reactor accidents. The Commission
should suspend requirements to justify the late-filing of new issues if their
relevance to the Fukushima
accident can be demonstrated.
A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://www.nuclearbailout.org
as of 4 p.m. EDT on April 14, 2011.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fukushima-fallout--45-groups-and-individuals-petition-nrc-to-suspend-all-nuclear-reactor-licensing-and-conduct-a-credible-three-mile-island-style-review-119844504.html
NEC,
organized and founded in 1971, is the region’s sole advocate for
environmental and nuclear safety with intervenor
status in the Entergy Vermont Yankee federal relicensing process, and is an intervenor in two open dockets before the Vermont
Public Service Board Docket 7440 – Shall Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee
receive a CPG for an additional years of operation and less widely
reported Docket 7600 – opened as a result of Entergy’s misinformation in
Docket 7440, re: underground pipes and groundwater contamination.
New England
Coalition is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization. All contributions are tax-deductible. Donate at necnp.org
using PayPal or send a check to NEC, PO Box 545, Brattleboro , VT
05302
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