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

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
08/9/2012

CONTACT:
Colleen Connolly, Department of Environmental Protection Northeast Regional Office
570-826-2035

 
Free Radon Test Kits Available in Nine Counties through American Lung Association

WILKES-BARRE -- Free home radon test kits are available to residents of nine counties in northeast and north-central Pennsylvania, thanks to a $75,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to the American Lung Association, or ALA.

The kits are offered to residents of Bradford, Clinton, Lycoming, Northumberland, Potter, Schuylkill, Sullivan, Susquehanna and Tioga counties.

“These test kits equip residents with information needed to confront the dangers of having radon in our homes,” DEP Secretary Mike Krancer said. “By providing this vital tool, DEP and ALA are making sure residents stay safe and informed.”

The testing is part of a three-year, community-based program ALA sponsors to promote radon awareness in Pennsylvania. The first year of the program is focused on the northeast region, which ALA has identified as having lower radon testing rates and greater likelihood of elevated radon levels than other areas of the state.

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that is colorless, odorless and tasteless. It is second only to cigarette smoking as a cause of lung cancer. The only way to know the level of radon inside a home or other kind of building is to test for it, and the U.S. Surgeon General and ALA recommend that all homes be tested for radon. Nearly one in 15 homes nationwide has a high level of indoor radon, and in Pennsylvania, the rates are even higher.

Residents who are interested in obtaining a kit can do so in several ways. Visit ALA’s website at www.lunginfo.org/freeradonkit, where Pennsylvania residents can order a free home radon test kit, while supplies last.

School-based programs at which ALA representatives give presentations may provide radon test kits to students for use in their homes. Commitment from parents that the test would be performed is required and, ideally, the school would use the radon program as part of its science lessons.

ALA staff members or the organization’s cooperative partners may also provide radon test kits to members of the public at community outreach events. In the past, businesses, extension agents, health centers, municipal governments, shopping malls and civic clubs have participated.

Interested schools and organizations should contact Tony Delonti, ALA program specialist, at 570-346-1784 or adelonti@lunginfo.org.

For more information, visit www.dep.state.pa.us or call 717-783-3594.

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August 7, 2012

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AGREES TO HOLD REACTOR LICENSING DECISIONS IN ABEYANCE

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted the Motion of Three Mile Island Alert, Inc.*, and nuclear interveners at 21 other plants across the country, to suspend all licensing decisions that are dependent on the agency's Waste Confidence Rule.

On June 8, 2012 the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit tossed out a regulation that allowed nuclear waste to be stored at reactors for 100 years or more. The Appeals Court said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to fully study the environmental risks of long-term onsite storage when it adopted the so-called "waste confidence" rule in December 2010.

Today’s Order assures  the public of an opportunity to participate, regardless of how the Commission proceeds, and states that individual contentions based on the federal court decision should be held in abeyance pending a further order.

Diane Curran, one of the attorneys spearheading the litigation project, said from her Washington, D.C. office, "This order pretty much gives us all we asked for." However it is unclear as to which recent NRC licensing decisions the agency deems dependent on the Waste Confidence Rule.

Beginning in 2007, Three Mile Island has prepared comments,  and testimony and filed litigation opposing the licensing and construction of the Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plan before the NRC, Susquehanna River Basin Commission and US. Army Corps of Engineers.

Eric Epstein, Chairman of TMI Alert, Inc. said, “This is victory for common sense and prevents the nuclear industry from flushing its radioactive waste down the streets of reactor communities.”

*Three Mile Island Alert , Inc., tmia.com, a safe-energy organization based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and founded in 1977. TMIA monitors Peach Bottom, Susquehanna, and Three Mile Island nuclear generating stations.

Eric Epstein can be reached at 717-541-1101.

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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has reintegrated security inspection results into the agency’s Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) assessment program, effective July 1. The reintegration will be reflected in the August quarterly update to the ROP’s Action Matrix.

The NRC previously treated safety and security inputs to the Action Matrix separately. Reintegrating security information provides a holistic representation of licensee performance and will allow NRC staff to more fully leverage supplemental inspection procedures and resources when performance warrants.

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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)

Download ML12192353

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

Download:

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

Enclosure 1

Enclosure 2

Enclosure 3

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"

Download: ML12172A157