May 15, 2025: Data Centers and Nuclear Power on the Susquehanna River: More Questions than Answers

Sep 29, 2024: The case against restarting Three Mile Island’s Unit-1

Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island

Did you catch "The Meltdown: Three Mile Island" on Netflix?
TMI remains a danger and TMIA is working hard to ensure the safety of our communities and the surrounding areas.
Learn more on this site and support our efforts. Join TMIA. To contact the TMIA office, call 717-233-7897.

    

NRC Names New Deputy Executive Director for Operations and New Director, Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response

Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 24-076 October 10, 2024

NRC Names New Deputy Executive Director for Operations and New Director, Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today announced Robert Lewis as Deputy Executive Director for Operations, in the areas of materials, waste, research, state, tribal, compliance, administration, and human capital programs, and Craig Erlanger as Director of the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response. Both are effective Oct. 20, 2024.
 
Lewis has 32 years of experience at the NRC, including specialization in waste management, nuclear fuel cycles, risk assessment, transportation, and emergency preparedness and response. Since 2019, he has served as Deputy Director of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
 
Prior to that, he served as the Assistant for Operations in the Office of the Executive Director for Operations, where he led many aspects of NRC’s recent efforts to modernize and transform its business practices and represented the United States on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Commission on Safety Standards. He has also served as Director of the Division of Preparedness and Response, in NSIR, where he oversaw post-Fukushima changes to NRC and licensee emergency management programs and improved integration of NRC activities into the national response framework.
 
A graduate of the NRC’s Technical Intern Program, Leadership Potential Program and Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program, Lewis earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the State University of New York at Fredonia, and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Arizona. He is a graduate of the Executive Leaders Program of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security.
 
Erlanger joined the NRC in 2004 as a security specialist. He has held numerous positions throughout the NRC since, including serving as an NSIR Branch Chief, where he was a key contributor to implementation of risk-informed, performance-based cyber security for reactors, and managed integrated response and fuel cycle and transportation security. Among his most notable contributions to the NRC mission were his efforts during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency where he led integral elements of the agency’s comprehensive regulatory response to the global pandemic.
 
Since joining the Senior Executive Service in 2014, he has served as both the Deputy Director and Director of the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety, Safeguards and Environmental Review in NMSS and head of the Division of Operating Reactor Licensing in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. Most recently, he was the Deputy Director and Acting Director of NSIR.
 
Prior to joining the NRC, Erlanger worked in the private sector for a consulting firm focusing on physical security vulnerability assessments and business continuity programs. He also served more than 20 years in the U.S. Marine Corps in both active and reserve duty roles.
 
Erlanger earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master’s degree in business administration from American University. He is a graduate of the NRC’s Leadership Potential Program and SES Candidate Development Program, and a recent graduate of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security Executive Leaders Program at the Naval Post Graduate School.
 
By admin at Fri, 10/11/2024 - 14:13

NRC Seeks Presentation Proposals for Virtual Workshop on Storage and Transportation of Spent Fuels for Advanced Reactors

Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 24-075 October 10, 2024
CONTACT: David McIntyre, 301-415-8200

NRC Seeks Presentation Proposals for Virtual Workshop on Storage and Transportation of Spent Fuels for Advanced Reactors

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking presentation proposals for a public virtual workshop to be held Dec. 3-5 on storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuels for advanced reactor designs now under development.
 
The workshop is being held in coordination with the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute, with assistance from the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses of San Antonio, Texas. The deadline for submitting proposed presentations is Nov. 7.
 
With the nuclear industry developing advanced reactor designs with new fuels, the workshop will explore how these new fuels will meet the NRC’s requirements for safe storage and transportation of spent fuel once they are removed from a reactor. Specific topics on the agenda include physical behavior of fuel and containers (structural integrity, materials performance); nuclear physics; and current regulations and guidance.
 
Instructions for submitting proposed presentations and for registering for the 2024 Workshop on Storage and Transportation of TRISO and Metal Spent Fuels can be found in a brochure on the NRC website and on the workshop website.
By admin at Fri, 10/11/2024 - 14:09

Environmental Coalition Intervenes Against Palisades Atomic Reactor Restart: Groups Warn of Safety Risks of Unprecedented, Expensive "Nuclear Zombie" Scheme

 NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR

For immediate release 

Contact: Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist, Beyond Nuclear, Kalamazoo, MI, (240) 462-3216,   kevin@beyondnuclear.org

Michael Keegan, co-chair, board of directors, Don’t Waste Michigan, Monroe, MI, (734) 770-1441, mkeeganj@comcast.net

Eric Epstein, chair, Three Mile Island Alert, Harrisburg, PA, (717) 635-8616, epstein@efmr.org

David Kraft, Director, Nuclear Energy Information Service, (773) 342-7650, neis@neis.org


(Media reporters wishing to speak with Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer of Fairewinds, can do so by contacting Kevin Kamps, above.)
Environmental Coalition Intervenes Against Palisades Atomic Reactor Restart
Groups Warn of Safety Risks of Unprecedented, Expensive "Nuclear Zombie" Scheme

COVERT TOWNSHIP, MI and WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 8, 2024--A safe energy watch-dog coalition* filed a petition to intervene with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and requested a hearing, in opposition to Holtec International's unneeded Palisades nuclear power plant restart scheme on Lake Michigan's southeastern shore in Van Buren County. The petition, backed by expert witness Arnold Gundersen, chief engineer of Fairewinds Associates, Inc., warns of the extreme risks to safety, security, health, and the environment resulting from the more than 50-year old atomic reactor's severe age-related degradation, as well as its owner, Holtec's, utter inexperience operating a nuclear plant. (See a summary of Gundersen's declaration, below.) In terms of global warming mitigation, the coalition's petition also cites the significant opportunity costs of investing many billions of dollars of public subsidies into restarting Palisades, based on expert witness Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford University's expert declaration on the reliable, cost-effective, and quick deployment potential of such clean energy sources as renewables like wind and solar power, storage, and efficiency.

"Palisades is the flagship for this latest attempted nuclear relapse, and it is circling the drain. Constellation at TMI Unit 1 would be wise to cut its losses now and not follow Palisades into the abyss. The flagship Palisades has hit an iceberg. Three Mile Island Alert stands in opposition to the Palisades and TMI-1 closed reactor restarts, which is why we have joined this intervention," said Eric Epstein, chair of TMIA in Harrisburg, PA. The organization was founded in 1977, two years before the infamous 50% meltdown at TMI-2 on March 28, 1979, the worst commercial atomic reactor disaster in U.S. history.

"All the king's horses, and all the king's men, will court disaster if they try to run Palisades again," said Alice Hirt of Holland, MI, intervenor on behalf of Don't Waste Michigan, a statewide, grassroots nuclear watch-dog group for the past four decades.

"Lake Michigan is the drinking water supply for 16 million people in four states, including the City of Chicago," said David Kraft, director of Nuclear Energy Information Service, watch-dog on Illinois' nuclear industry for more than four decades. "Whether routinely discharging radioactive, toxic chemical, or thermally hot wastewater into the Lake, as well as the risk of a Fukushima or Chornobyl-scale catastrophe, Palisades' restart threatens the future of the Great Lakes, 21% of the entire planet's surface freshwater," Kraft added.

SUMMARY OF DECLARATION BY NUCLEAR ENGINEER ARNOLD GUNDERSEN

Entergy, Palisades’ prior owner, gave up the nuclear power plant’s operating license because using the dilapidated and ramshackle reactor was unprofitable.  Entergy knew the reactor was unprofitable for at least half a decade before plant closure, so the corporation neglected critical repairs and long-term maintenance investments, anticipating closure in 2022.

Instead of safeguarding Palisades’ valuable components as the facility neared its 2022 closure date, Entergy allowed the plant to deteriorate further.  It sold Palisades to Holtec as scrap with useless components meant to be dismantled and destroyed.

Holtec Decommissioning International (HDI) is an industrial demolition contractor with no nuclear power plant design, engineering, construction, or operations experience.

Holtec Palisades acknowledges that Palisades' reactor’s physical condition is severely degraded.

Using billions of dollars in Federal and State subsidies and none of its own cash assets, Holtec is attempting to grab funding to resurrect the 53-year-old derelict Palisades atomic reactor.

A resurrection like the one planned for the Holtec Palisades facility is a preeminent construction project and a feat that has never been attempted anywhere else.

The Holtec Palisades site, reactor, and crucial electric generating components are unsafe and incapable of reuse due to their poor condition and permanent flaws. More importantly, most experienced staff left when the plant closed, and the entire Quality Assurance (QA) program was destroyed, meaning that every component, wire, electric bulb, etc., must be reevaluated and tested.  Holtec Palisades claims it will replace all Palisades’ staff and operate the defective and decimated reactor facility for 25 years.

 

Furthermore, the degraded condition of every aspect of this nuclear power plant, the lack of a long-term experienced, skilled staff, and the non-existent QA and management oversight programs that should be hallmarks of our country’s nuclear safety and licensing process and programs are sadly lacking at Holtec Palisades.

 

Additionally, should this decrepit and defective scrapped reactor somehow achieve licensure, its electricity will be too expensive to compete against renewable power sources. Thus, Holtec will demand additional subsidies from additional federal agencies and the State of Michigan to keep its aged and scrapped Palisades operating unsafely again.

Holtec and the NRC's licensing approach violates [Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 50.59]. Palisades should not be allowed to restart unless it complies with all the regulations of 10 CFR 50.59, has completed all costly plant modifications, and meets all 21st-century licensing criteria.

The reincarnation of the Palisades atomic power plant by Holtec Decommissioning International as Holtec Palisades violates 10 CFR 50.59. This is not an issue for legal scholars or the NRC but is part of the problem in the NRC’s overwhelming desire to operate nuclear plants no matter what the safety and financial costs are to the people of the United States (U.S.).

In particular, it is essential to understand that NRC Commissioner Crowell has recognized that Entergy terminated the old Palisades operating license and that the permit cannot be reissued to Holtec without Palisades meeting the new, more stringent safety criteria of the 21st Century. He said, that Holtec Palisades needs to "start from scratch." Furthermore, NRC Commissioner Crowell added, “Certainly, the entire operation of the plant needs to be reassessed,” Crowell said. “It’s not the same as a refueling outage, and it’s not the same as a license renewal...I feel like it’s difficult to get our ducks in a row for that because it changes almost on a monthly basis...I understand they [Holtec] are in a posture of wanting to find a buyer to do it...but I think at this stage of the game, you’re gonna have to start from scratch." (Exchange Monitor, 2/7/2023)

*The coalition includes: Beyond Nuclear; Don't Waste Michigan; Michigan Safe Energy Future; Nuclear Energy Information Service of Chicago; and Three Mile Island Alert of Harrisburg, PA. Terry J. Lodge of Toledo, OH, and Wallace L. Taylor of Cedar Rapids, IA, serve as the coalition's legal counsel.

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By admin at Fri, 10/11/2024 - 14:07

Holtec knew of problems with Palisades' steam generator tubes before $1.52B loan finalized

Holtec knew of problems with Palisades' steam generator tubes before $1.52B loan finalized

Tom Henry
The Blade
 
Oct 5, 2024
3:28 PM
 
Two days after the Biden Administration finalized a $1.52 billion federal loan to Holtec International in support of its historic effort to restart the mothballed Palisades nuclear plant, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a document that shows the company had conceded almost a month earlier that the number of cracks and flaws on the plant’s steam generator tubes “far exceeded estimates.”
 
The newly released document, made public by the NRC on Wednesday, is a summary of a Sept. 3 conference call between the federal regulator overseeing the nuclear plant and Holtec, the company that purchased it with hopes of making it the first in nuclear history to be put back into service after decommissioning had begun.
 
The document states that inspections to date have revealed some 1,417 indications of tiny cracks or flaws in the tubes. It states that 701 tubes in one steam generator and 248 in another are candidates for repairs or plugging.
 
Nick Culp, Holtec Palisades senior manager of government affairs and communications, told The Blade in a telephone interview Friday morning and in a follow-up email afterward that the company is committed to making all necessary repairs to ensure safety and that the latest information will not derail it from its timetable of getting Palisades back in operation by the fall of 2025.
 
Tubes that require maintenance “will get plugged or sleeved,” he said.
 
“Each one is unique,” Mr. Culp said of the flaws.
 
The company’s email emphasizes collaborations with “outside industry-leading partners” to ensure the most appropriate corrective actions are taken.
 
“We expected to find areas requiring additional maintenance activities during our proactive inspections and planned for this contingency,” the email states. “These findings are being addressed as part of our comprehensive restart maintenance strategy, which will require further inspections, testing, and repairs.”
 
But Alan Blind, who was the engineering director at Palisades from May of 2006 through February of 2013 when it was owned by Entergy, told The Blade he knows the NRC well enough to believe that the regulator won’t stand for an unlimited number of repairs.
 
 
At some point, Holtec will likely learn that its best path toward getting the NRC’s authorization for a restart would be by replacing the steam generators, a project that would cost as much as $500 million and delay restart efforts by about two years, Mr. Blind said.
 
He said he experienced the dilemma after he left Palisades and became a site vice president at the former Indian Point nuclear plant complex in New York. That facility eventually replaced its steam generators after trying to repair them for years.
 
“We’re not there yet,” Mr. Culp said when asked what it would take to make that kind of a decision at Palisades.
 
The NRC knows that the failure rate for steam generator tubes can increase exponentially in a short period of time, Mr. Blind said.
 
“It’s the rate of degradation,” he said. “You can’t prove it.”
 
The Sept. 3 call summary “provides a snapshot of Holtec’s findings at that time,” said Viktoria Mitlyng, NRC spokesman.
 
Regardless what action Holtec takes, the “stress corrosion crack indications must be appropriately addressed to maintain the generator’s pressure boundary,” she said.
 
“We expect to receive an analysis of the Holtec’s steam generator inspection results and a path forward to address the analyzed condition of the steam generators tubes,” Ms. Mitlyng said.
 
Palisades was shut down and put in its decommissioning phase in May, 2022, after more than 51 years of operation.
 
No plant has ever been put back into service after decommissioning began.
 
Holtec was hired by the plant’s previous owner, Entergy, to decommission it.
 
It began doing that, then switched gears and bought the plant with the intention of trying to put it back into service. Holtec applied to the U.S. Department of Energy a year ago this month for a loan to restart Palisades. It was notified last March that the Biden Administration was offering $1.52 billion and closed on the deal Monday.
 
Holtec has never operated a nuclear plant.
 
Palisades is along the Lake Michigan shoreline, about 200 miles from Toledo.
 
On Sept. 20, Constellation Energy Co. announced it has made a deal with Microsoft to attempt a restart of the mothballed Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear plant in eastern Pennsylvania. That project follows Palisades as the second effort to put a mothballed nuclear plant back into service.
 
In related news, the NRC staff has scheduled a 90-minute meeting for Oct. 24 with Holtec Decommissioning International to discuss resolution of an outstanding issue at Palisades. The public can view it online or in person at the NRC’s headquarters in Rockville, Md.
 
First Published October 5, 2024, 3:28 p.m.
By admin at Fri, 10/11/2024 - 14:03

NRC Seeks Comment on New Reactor Generic Environmental Impact Statement

Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 24-074 October 4, 2024
CONTACT: Scott Burnell, 301-415-8200

NRC Seeks Comment on New Reactor Generic Environmental Impact Statement

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking comment on a proposed rule for a Generic Environmental Impact Statement for licensing new reactors. The generic impact statement uses a technology-neutral framework and plant/site parameters to identify environmental issues common to new reactors, and those issues needing project-specific analysis.
 
NRC staff members will conduct an in-person meeting and two webinars to discuss the proposed generic impact statement and accept comments from the public. The in-person meeting will be at NRC headquarters, 11555 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland, on Nov. 7 from 1-4p.m. Eastern time. The webinars will be Nov. 13 from 1-4 p.m. Eastern time, and Nov. 14 from 6-9 p.m. Eastern time. Additional details for all three meetings will be available soon on the NRC’s website.
 
The meetings are one method to comment before the Dec. 18 deadline. Comments can also be submitted via regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2020-0101, via email to Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov, or by mail to Office of Administration, Mail Stop TWFN-7- A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
 
By admin at Sat, 10/05/2024 - 11:08

[decomm_wkg] Helene floods reactor in Florida

https://files.constantcontact.com/abc65024401/7ee258bf-32c2-48a3-bbd6-c0cec7c545aa.jpg?rdr=true

Beyond Nuclear Bulletin
October 3, 2024

HELENE FLOODS FL REACTOR
12-ft surge at Crystal River

Duke Energy reported to the state of Florida that its decommissioning Crystal River nuclear power plant on Florida’s Gulf Coast was inundated by Hurricane Helene’s 12-foot storm surge.

Duke’s filing cites, “The whole site was flooded, including buildings, sumps, and lift stations. Industrial Wastewater Pond #5 was observed overflowing to the ground due to the surge.” Crystal River, south of Cedar Key and closed in 2013, is being decommissioned rather than operational. Had it been operational, even in “hot shutdown,” the hurricane force wind, flooding and power outage might have caused a nuclear accident with far reaching radioactive consequences on top of the natural disaster. Helene sends a warning ahead of an accelerating climate crisis to still vulnerable nuclear power plants.
Read More

FIGHTING CISFs
Resistance from US to Japan

The New Diplomacy Initiative (NDI) of Tokyo hosted a webinar focused on the fights against highly radioactive waste consolidated interim storage facilities (CISF) in Japan. NDI invited Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste specialist, Kevin Kamps, to present about the many EJ victories against CISFs here, over decades, including at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and a large number of targeted Indigenous Nations' reservations, including Skull Valley Goshutes, Utah. Another American panelist, Camilla Feibelman, director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, presented on the past decade of resistance in New Mexico and Texas to CISFs targeted there. Several Japanese speakers focused on struggles against CISFs targeted at the north and south ends of Japan's main island, as well against dirty, dangerous, and expensive reprocessing.

 
Watch Video

NUKE RUST BUCKET!
Corrosion "far exceeds" expectations

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) summary of a conference call with Holtec, published October 2, reveals why NRC recently issued a rare Preliminary Notification of Occurrence at Palisades. NRC reports a recent inspection of tubes in Palisades' two steam generators (SG) revealed Stress Corrosion Cracking under Holtec “far exceeded” what occurred under previous owner, Entergy: 250 times more tubes were found to be damaged. Entergy operated Palisades from 2007-22; Holtec took over the reactor less than 2.5 years ago, under false pretenses to decommission it. Inspections uncovered “at least 700 additional tubes that must be plugged,” as many as had been plugged during the previous 20 years of operations. Palisades' unprecedented restart could be delayed years, despite massive bailouts.
 
 
 
 
 
Read More

WATCH SAN ONOFRE SYNDROME
Free online at film festival

SOS, The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power's Legacy, is one of only 28 films to be shown at the 13th Global Nonviolent Film Festival 2024, and one of only 9 films in the feature documentary category. The films are free to watch (no registration or credit cards needed) until October 13, along with daily video presentations and an awards’ show on October 7.
 
SOS is an empowering story of successful community action to shut down leaking reactors. But then they discover horrific amounts of high-level radioactive waste lethal for millions of years are being placed in thin canisters only 108 ft. from the rising sea. Also see a webinar featuring the film makers, and moderated by Beyond Nuclear’s Cindy Folkers.
 
Watch Here

Beyond Nuclear | 301.270.2209 | www.BeyondNuclear.org

Donate
By admin at Sat, 10/05/2024 - 11:06

[decomm_wkg] New NRC Report Highlights Dangerous Components at Palisades Nuclear Plant; Safety Groups Call for Complete Dismantlement of Atomic Reactor to Protect Great Lakes Residents

 NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR

  For immediate release 

  Contact: Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist, Beyond Nuclear, Kalamazoo, MI, (240) 462-3216, kevin@beyondnuclear.org

  Michael Keegan, co-chair, board of directors, Don’t Waste Michigan, Monroe, MI, (734) 770-1441, mkeeganj@comcast.net

(Media reporters wishing to speak with Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer of Fairewinds, can do so by contacting Kevin Kamps, above.)

New NRC Report Highlights Dangerous Components at Palisades Nuclear Plant

Safety Groups Call for Complete Dismantlement of Atomic Reactor to Protect Great Lakes Residents

COVERT TOWNSHIP, MI and WASHINGTON, D.C., October 2, 2024--A new report issued today by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) identifies severe damage in the two massive steam generators (SGs) at Michigan’s Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. If the reactor were allowed to restart, it would put one of the oldest U.S. nuclear power plants at risk of a meltdown.  

Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairewinds, has prepared the following analysis of the new NRC report. Gundersen has been retained by an environmental coalition -- Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste Michigan, and Michigan Safe Energy Future -- in their bid to block Palisades' unprecedented restart from closed for good status, because it is unneeded, insanely expensive for the public, and extremely high-risk for safety, health, and the environment, including these just revealed risks involving the steam generators.

Gundersen analysis:

Permanently shut down by Entergy Corp. in May 2022, the outdated Palisades reactor was sold to Holtec International as scrap to be entirely dismantled.  Holtec instead abruptly decided to attempt its reactivation and, in August 2024, began an inspection of the Palisades steam generators to achieve its restart goal.  Federal regulators from the NRC identified four key problem areas.  [NRC quotes in bold]:

  1. When Entergy sold Palisades for scrap, it did not place plant systems in “wet layup” -- stabilized storage, with appropriate chemicals to prevent corrosion.  “The site [Holtec] placed the SGs in wet layup once it was determined they would be attempting to recommence normal operation,” according to the NRC. It is still unclear whether wet layup was delayed by weeks, months, or longer, very likely resulting in accelerated corrosion of SG tubes.

  2. The inspection uncovered "at least 700 additional tubes that must be plugged" due to metal corrosion.   These were as many tubes as had been plugged during the previous 20 years of operating the aged Palisades reactor, designed in 1965.

  3. Even worse, the NRC said, was that Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) under Holtec “far exceeded” what occurred under previous Palisades owner, Entergy.  250 times more tubes were found to be damaged.  Stress Corrosion Cracks (SCCs) in an atomic reactor are severe and cause significant damage to sensitive, vital safety equipment.  Because the system was not placed in a proper wet layup, extensive corrosion was discovered on the outside diameter of steam generator tubes.
  4. Avoiding Stress Corrosion Cracking is critical to prevent a reactor core meltdown at Palisades.  "The NRC staff notes that stress corrosion crack indications must be appropriately addressed to maintain the generator’s pressure boundary."  What happens when a steam generator pressure boundary is not maintained?  If a "cascading failure" impacts enough SG tubes, it could result in a catastrophic nuclear reactor core meltdown.

Gundersen published an essay in the aftermath of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi triple-meltdown in Japan, explaining why such a nuclear disaster on the shoreline of Lake Michigan would be even more catastrophic for those downstream.

-30-
By admin at Sat, 10/05/2024 - 10:58

Jane Fonda: Nuclear power at Three Mile Island is no climate solution

Jane Fonda: Nuclear power at Three Mile Island is no climate solution

Nuclear power is slow, expensive — and wildly dangerous, the actor and activist writes. Why would anyone tempt fate by restarting a reactor that suffered the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history?

The actor Jane Fonda writes that while some see a planned restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant as a tool to fight climate change, the risk of an accident outweighs any potential benefits.
The actor Jane Fonda writes that while some see a planned restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant as a tool to fight climate change, the risk of an accident outweighs any potential benefits.Clem Murray / Staff Photographerby Jane Fonda, For The Inquirer
Published Oct. 2, 2024, 10:06 a.m. ET

    The recent news about re-starting a nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island power plant 75 miles west of Philadelphia hit me hard.

    My heart sank as I thought back to The China Syndrome, a nuclear disaster movie I starred in with Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas in 1979. Why, I wondered, would anyone tempt fate by restarting a reactor that suffered the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history?

    The China Syndrome was about a nuclear power reactor potentially melting down and unleashing a cloud of deadly radioactivity across the surrounding region. Two weeks after the movie hit theaters, real life imitated art with a vengeance.

    One of the two reactors at Three Mile Island suffered what investigators termed “a partial meltdown.” As industry officials and federal regulators tried to determine the extent of the damage and whether to evacuate people, a terrifying drama played out on TV screens across Pennsylvania and around the world.

    The front page of the Inquirer on March 29, 1979 featuring reports about the accident at Three Mile Island.
    The front page of the Inquirer on March 29, 1979 featuring reports about the accident at Three Mile Island.Inquirer archives

    I realize that, today, some people regard nuclear power as a necessary tool in the fight against climate change. As someone who is devoting my life to that fight, I understand the temptation to embrace nuclear power. We absolutely need to phase out oil, gas, and coal — the fossil fuels overheating our planet — and fast. Any means of achieving that goal deserves consideration.

    The latest sign of our climate peril came last week as Hurricane Helene, amped by super-hot sea water, battered Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Helene’s destructiveness, however, is also a reminder that climate change can endanger nuclear power facilities.

    As the Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania has noted, “As temperatures rise and climate hazards, such as drought, sea level rise, and extreme precipitation intensify, nuclear infrastructure is put at risk.”

    Earthquakes also imperil nuclear plants, as illustrated by the Fukushima accident in Japan in 2011. Terrorism is another risk. Last week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told the U.N. General Assembly that new intelligence indicates that Russia is contemplating an attack against Ukraine’s nuclear plants — a disaster, Zelensky said, “that must never come.”

    The Russian invasion of Ukraine has stoked fears of a radiation accident at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station.
    The Russian invasion of Ukraine has stoked fears of a radiation accident at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station.AP

    Sheer economics also argue against nuclear power.

    Nuclear power is the most expensive electricity in the world. Nuclear plants can only be operated because we, the public, subsidize them lavishly. A study by the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists concluded that decades of subsidies to nuclear power had “already resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in costs paid by taxpayers and ratepayers.”

     

    In the case of the Three Mile Island facility, the CEO of Constellation Energy, which owns the plant, proudly told the Washington Post that Microsoft has guaranteed to buy all the electricity the plant will produce. If that sounds like the free market at work, read the fine print. The CEO admitted that the Microsoft deal was only possible because of federal subsidies.

    The CEO wouldn’t provide specific figures, so let me help him out. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 — the Biden administration’s signature climate legislation — authorized $6 billion in subsidies for nuclear power. The Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act of 2021 set aside an additional $6 billion.

    Nuclear power is the most expensive electricity in the world.

    That $12 billion is just the tip of the iceberg. The most outrageous subsidy is a law known as The Price-Anderson Act, which absolves nuclear companies from legal liability for the vast majority of the costs of a possible accident. Guess who gets to pay instead? We do.

    The nuclear industry’s business model has long been: Privatize the profits, socialize the costs. With the Three Mile Island accident, the people of Pennsylvania came dangerously close to having that business model literally blow up in their faces.
     

    Ironically enough, the main reason nuclear power is so expensive is also the main reason it isn’t much help against climate change. It’s simply too slow — no nuclear reactor of any kind has been built in less than 10 to 20 years. What’s more, that extra-long construction time translates into massive borrowing costs for the capital needed to finance the plants, boosting their eventual cost.

    And yes, that’s true even of the new generation of smaller, modular reactors that Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder, is so fond of. Every time I speak in public about the climate crisis, someone asks if the modular reactors can’t be a solution. So I’ve spent time researching the issue, because I think when celebrities presume to speak about public issues, we have an obligation to know the facts.

    Jane Fonda writes that while it takes at least a decade to get a nuclear plant online, renewable energy sources can be up and running in a few years.
    Jane Fonda writes that while it takes at least a decade to get a nuclear plant online, renewable energy sources can be up and running in a few years.Angela Weiss / MCT

    With climate change, we don’t have the kind of time needed to get a nuclear plant licensed, built, and supplying power to the grid. Scientists are clear: humanity has to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (about 2 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial level if we’re to avoid catastrophic destruction and human suffering.

    That means, scientists say, that emissions of heat-trapping pollution must fall by half over the next five years. So simply as a matter of timing, nuclear is not a good climate solution.
     

    By contrast, solar plants take about four years to get up and running. Wind turbines, about the same. And boosting energy efficiency — designing our buildings and vehicles so they use much less energy but deliver the same comfort and performance— is the fastest, most powerful tool of all for displacing fossil fuels.

    The nuclear industry’s business model has long been: Privatize the profits, socialize the costs.

    None of these renewable energy sources risk a nuclear meltdown. None guzzle billions of gallons of fresh water like nuclear plants do — water whose supply will become ever more uncertain as climate change unleashes deeper droughts in the years ahead. None burden our descendants with vast amounts of waste that remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years, with a $400 million annual bill for disposal that the public must pay.

    That radioactivity, by the way, is one reason why it’s simply inaccurate to call nuclear power “clean energy.” It may be non-carbon energy, but anything that stays fatally poisonous for millennia is not clean.

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    Jane Fonda, For The Inquirer

    By admin at Thu, 10/03/2024 - 15:05

    The hottest trend in nuclear power: Reopening shuttered plants | Canary Media

    Despite this surge in support — and rising demand for new sources of firm, carbon-free electricity — the best the domestic nuclear industry can muster right now is not a cutting-edge new design or technological advancement. It’s a backward-looking effort to reanimate deteriorated old stock, abetted by billions in government subsidies.
     
    We’ll soon find out if nuclear vendors will overpromise and underdeliver on this new approach too. The clock is ticking on Holtec’s pledge of getting Palisades restored and connected to the grid by the end of next year. 
     
    By admin at Tue, 10/01/2024 - 14:21

    Here's a response to the nyt's article on nuke power & AI

    The New York Times
     
    Harvey Wasserman | LA

    The tragic arrogance & greed behind re-opening this 50-year-old nuke is beyond staggering. 

    See KILLING OUR OWN: THE DISASTER OF AMERICA'S EXPERIENCE WITH ATOMIC RADIATION to grasp nuke power's long-term threat to human existence. 

    I was at TMI in January, 1980, interviewing the victims. It was horrifying
     ( https://www.nytimes.com/1980/03/27/archives/ongoing-fallout-fear.html ) and will be again if this madness persists. 

    Today two very large reactor complexes in Russia/Ukraine could render all of Europe a radioactive wasteland. A seismic shock at Diablo Canyon, due any day now, could make Los Angeles a Pripyat dead zone. Dozens of downwind US cities are similarly vulnerable.

    None of the 94 nukes now licensed in the US have private insurance....for good reason. VC Summer in SC is a $9 billion tombstone for what Forbes once called the largest "managerial disaster" in business history.

    Wind, solar, geothermal & battery technologies can now provide all the electricity we need at a fraction of nuclear's cost, with no killing radiation, heat or carbon emissions. 

    Nuclear is far more expensive and dangerous now than when Hyman Rickover warned against its commercial use a half-century ago. 

    Silly Mythological Reactors are predictably soaring in price & delay. The AI/Crypto scam means to line private pockets at public expense. As at birth, nukes mean only mass death. 

    Solartopia is cheaper, safer, cleaner, more reliable & more job-producing. 

    Its time is now.
    By admin at Sun, 09/29/2024 - 15:47

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