News

NRC takes public comment as current license expires in 2014

Feb. 24, 2009
By RICHARD FELLINGER Harrisburg bureau

Midstate residents questioned whether Three Mile Island is safe and secure Tuesday as federal officials decide whether to renew the license for the nuclear power station.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a meeting at the Harrisburg-Hershey Sheraton to gather public comment on a draft report that is part of the re-licensing process for TMI's Unit 1. The unit is the only one that has operated at TMI since Unit 2 was crippled in a partial meltdown in 1979.

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A Richmond court's revocation of a water permit key to operating the North Anna nuclear power station may delay construction of a third nuclear reactor, environmental groups claimed on Feb. 23. 

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 BUSHEHR, Iran – Iranian and Russian technicians are conducting a test run of Iran's first nuclear power plant, officials said Wednesday, a major step toward launching full operations at the facility, which has long raised concerns in the U.S. and its allies over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

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A facility that cleans the uniforms of nuclear industry employees, including those at the Limerick Generating Station, is monitoring the build up of low-level radioactive material in the Schuylkill River. 

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 Spent Nuclear Fuel: A Trash Heap Deadly for 250,000 Years, or a Renewable Energy Source? 

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Feb. 17. 2009

RED WING, Minn. (The Associated Press)

A radioactive piece of equipment shipped from the Prairie Island, Minn.,

nuclear plant to Pennsylvania in October shifted during transport, and had

radiation levels eight times over safety standards by the time it reached

its destination.

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March 28 will mark the 30th anniversary of the accident at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pa. The TMI-2 accident had the greatest impact on nuclear regulation of any single event in history. Although there were no deaths or injuries, the accident is a reminder for the NRC and those who operate plants to remain vigilant in watching over the 104 operating reactors in the United States to ensure their safe operation. 

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Feb. 11, 2009

 

In the event of a nuclear emergency at Three Mile Island, residents living within 10 miles of the plant would be evacuated to relocations centers 15 to 20 miles away.

 

But if the event occurred during school hours, some of their children will be bused to pickup centers closer to the evacuation zone, some within a mile.

 

The watchdog group Three Mile Island Alert, fearing that parents who work outside the evacuation zone would not be able to reach the centers because of fleeing traffic, asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to move the sites for children at least five to 10 miles beyond the evacuation zones. Last week, the NRC agency denied TMIA’s petition saying existing emergency plans were adequate to protect the safety of school children in an accident.

 

The agency drew a distinction between the pickup centers for children, and centers for the general population: 

“Host school pickup centers are intended to serve as temporary locations where school children can be held while they wait for their parents or guardians to pick them up, whereas general population relocation centers offer longer-term assistance to people displaced from their homes,” said Annette L. Vietti-Cook, secretary of the Commission, in a letter announcing the ruling.

 

Eric Epstein, chairman of TMI-Alert, said the ruling “defies logic.”

 

“I don’t think people understand that the closer you are to the 10-mile cusp the more likely it is that the roads will be shut down and folks will only be allowed to go out, and not in,” he said.

 

Harrisburg Mayor Stephen R. Reed, who supported TMI-Alert’s 2007 petition, also was dismayed by the NRC’s decision.

 

“The NRC’s refusal to consider this means that ... thousands of parents will likely be driving straight into an evacuation zone to pick up their children, increasing the risk of radiation exposure,” said Mathew Coulter, a spokesman for the mayor. “This will certainly lead to massive traffic congestion and will likely result in mass confusion.”

 

After the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, federal regulators required communities to develop and test emergency plans that provide for the evacuation of everyone within a 10-mile radius of a nuclear plant.

 

Middletown Area School District children would be taken to Gov. Mifflin School District in Berks County.

 

 Lower Dauphin children would go to Pine Grove School District in Schuylkill County.

 

But some West Shore School District kids would be bused to four schools, all less than three miles from the evacuation zone. 

- Report by Garry Lenton of the Press And Journal

Garry Lenton can be reached at 944-4628, or glenton@pressandjournal.com

 

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Feb. 18, 2009

By Matthew Legg Business editor 

www.cumberland-news.co.uk

 

Nuclear chiefs have defended a controversial decision to question former employees of the Drigg waste dump to help them find 

out what is in it. 

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This is an excellent article written by Aileen Mioko Smith

for the 10th anniversary of the Three Mile Island Accident in 1989. The author interviewed residents who lived near 

Three Mile Island at the time of the accident and chronicled their stories and experiences, which are stil denied by
government 
and nuclear industry officials. 

Aileen is executive director of Green Action, a Japanese environmental NGO based in Kyoto, Japan.
She was nominated for the
National Book Award (USA) in 1976 for the book "Minamata," co-authored with W. Eugene Smith.
(Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975.) 

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