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“TMI’s groundwater monitoring program is very comprehensive and it worked exactly as intended,” said Rick Libra, TMI Site Vice President. “We identified this one sample quickly and we’re working hard to find the source and keep our stakeholders informed.”

Three Mile Island has a comprehensive radiological monitoring program that includes 55 wells and five additional sampling stations. No unusual levels of tritium have been found in the other wells or stations.

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The SLS’s and SO’s actions caused Exelon to violate NRC requirements and the PBAPS operating license. Specifically, on January 16, 2011, and January 25, 2011, the SLS did not access a security post to monitor and assess the environmental conditions and monitor the SO’s alertness.

Consequently, on those occasions, the supervisor failed to complete security post inspections in accordance with the requirements specified in Exelon implementing procedure SY-AA-120, “Supervisor Post Checks and Post Orders,” and the site security plan (which is required to be implemented in accordance with PBAPS License Condition 2.C(3)).

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REQUEST FOR WITHHOLDING INFORMATION FROM PUBLIC DISCLOSURE FOR PEACH BOTTOM ATOMIC POWER STATION, UNIT NOS. 2 AND 3
(TAC NOS. ME7538 AND ME7539)

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The public will have the opportunity to ask the NRC staff questions about the process during the meeting, which will be webcast. A teleconference will also be available by calling 888-220-3090 and using passcode 69958. Those planning to attend the meeting or call in to the teleconference should contact William Reckley at 301-415-7490 or william.reckley@nrc.gov to ensure adequate meeting resources are available.

The NRC continues to evaluate and act on the lessons learned from Fukushima to ensure U.S. nuclear power plants implement appropriate safety enhancements. Following direction from the agency’s five Commissioners, the NRC’s activities are being led by a steering committee comprised of senior NRC management. The agency has also established the Japan Lessons-Learned Project Directorate, a group of more than 20 full-time employees focused exclusively on implementing NTTF recommendations and related activities.

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July 16, 2012,
 
Cindy Bladey, Chief Rules, Announcements and Directives Branch (RADB)
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Office of Administration
Mail Stop TWB-05-BO1M,
Washington, D.C. 20555-0001

 
Dear Ms. Bladey:
 
Enclosed please find Three Mile Island Alert Inc.’s Comments 
Re: PPL Bend LLC;  Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant Combined License
Application; Notice of Intent to Conduct A Supplemental Scoping                
Process on the Revised Site Layout   (Docket ID NRC-2008-0603).
 
Respectfully submitted,
 

Eric Epstein, Chairman, TMI-Alert
4100 Hillsdale Road
Harrisburg, PA  17112
(717)-541-1101

 

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TMI-Alert's Testimony; Tables 1, 2, 3 & 4

Enclosure 1

Enclosure 2

Enclosure 3

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Good Day:

On behalf of NC WARN, NIRS, and UCS, I submitted the attached 2.206 petition to the NRC earlier today.
 
It seeks revisions to the technical specifications (part of the operating license) for the two reactors at the Brunswick nuclear plant in North Carolina.
 
As outlined in the petition and its attached brief, the problem involves requirements for irradiated fuel in the spent fuel pools.
 
More precisely, the problem involves a near complete lack of requirements.
 
Unless an irradiated fuel bundle removed from the reactor core within the past 24 hours is being moved in the spent fuel pool, there's no legal requirement that the spent fuel pool contain even a drop of water. Or containment integirty. Or ac power. Or dc power. Etc.
 
The petition seeks to rectify this problem by revising the technical specifications to require all those preventative and mitigative measures when freshly irradiated fuel is being moved within a spent fuel pool whenever irradiated fuel is in the spent fuel pool period.
 
Such requirements cannot be too onerous or costly -- many already exist in the technical specifications for the Pilgrim nuclear plant in Massachusetts and have done do for years.
 
Earlier this year, the NRC ordered plant owners to install instrumentation to monitor the water level and its temperature inside spent fuel pools.
 
Without the actions we seek in our petition, plant owners could install the instrumentation to comply with the NRC's order and then immediately disable it - except when freshly irradiated fuel is being moved. After all, since the technical specifications do not require water to be in the spent fuel pool sans movement, there's no legal requirement to monitor the level or temperature of the non-required water.
 
Many other boiling water reactors in the US - like Cooper in Nebraska and Browns Ferry in Alabama - have this same shortcoming. As time permits, UCS will be glad to work with local groups as we did with NC WARN and NIRS in North Carolina, to draft and submit petitions to the NRC to fix these plants, too.
 
Thanks,
Dave Lochbaum
UCS

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REQUEST FOR VOLUNTARY RESPONSE TO PETITION FROM UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS REGARDING COMPLIANCE WITH TITLE 10 OF THE CODE OF FEDERAL REGULA TIONS (10 CFR), PART 50, APPENDIX A, GENERAL DESIGN CRITERIA 44, "COOLING WATER," AND 10 CFR 50.49, "ENVIRONMENTAL QUALIFICATION"

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From Bloomberg

The Fukushima nuclear disaster was the result of “man-made” failures before and after last year’s earthquake, according to a report from an independent parliamentary investigation.

The breakdowns involved regulators working with the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to avoid implementing safety measures as well as a government lacking commitment to protect the public, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission said in the report.

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From the National Diet of Japan:

THE UNPRECEDENTED NUCLEAR ACCIDENT that began on March 11, 2011 is the subject of the following report, which we hereby present to the members of the National Diet of Japan for their review. We do this in accordance with the Act Regarding the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission.

Our investigative task is adjourned today, some six months after the appointment of our Chairman and Members in December of 2011.

This report is meant to reinforce the administrative authority of the legislative body and strengthen oversight activities on issues related to nuclear power. As the first independent commission chartered by the Diet in the history of Japan’s constitutional government, we would like to emphasize how important it is that this report be utilized, for the Japanese people and for the people of the world.

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From PennLive:

A senator wants an investigation of the cleanup at an old nuclear waste site about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey says in a statement Wednesday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Inspector General should investigate the cleanup of the former Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp., or NUMEC, site, which operated from 1957 until the 1980s.

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