News

TMI EMERGENCY SIREN TEST SCHEDULED FOR DEC. 1

Sirens to sound for three minutes at 12:15 p.m.

LONDONDERRY TWP, PA (Nov. 29, 2016) — Exelon Generation will conduct its semi-annual, full volume test of the emergency warning sirens surrounding Three Mile Island Generating Station on Thursday, Dec. 1 at approximately 12:15 p.m. This is one of two semi-annual tests performed each year.

The TMI emergency warning siren system consists of 96 sirens located in parts of Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties that are located within a 10-mile radius of TMI. The sirens are not a signal to evacuate, but a warning to tune to a local Emergency Alert Broadcast television or radio station. County emergency management authorities activate the sirens, which can be used in the event of any emergency, including severe weather.

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NRC Begins Scoping Effort for Environmental Review of Proposed WCS Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking comments from the public on the issues to be covered in the environmental review of an application from Waste Control Specialists to construct and operate a facility to store spent nuclear fuel in Andrews County, Texas. The NRC will prepare an environmental impact statement to document its evaluation of those impacts and is now taking public comments on the scope.

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ORDER

(On Communication Received and Providing Opportunity to Respond)

On November 1, 2016, Mr. Sabatini Monatesti submitted an e-mail and an attachment to members of the Board assigned to preside over an appeal from the NRC Staff’s denial of a request for access to sensitive unclassified non-safeguards information (SUNSI) in the above captioned proceeding.

The submission does not appear to have been properly filed through the Commission’s E-filing system as required by 10 C.F.R. § 2.305(c).

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THREE MILE ISLAND NUCLEAR STATION, UNIT 1 - STAFF REVIEW OF SPENT FUEL POOL EVALUATION ASSOCIATED WITH REEVALUATED SEISMIC HAZARD IMPLEMENTING NEAR-TERM TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATION 2.1 (CAC NO. MF3905)

Attention: West Coast friends -

John LaForge is currently on a speaking tour in your area! Attend one of these upcoming book talks to learn more about the dangers of nuclear weapons--and please help us spread the word.

Thurs., Oct. 13: Berkeley, CA - 7 pm at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists

Fri., Oct. 21: Poulsbo, WA - 6:30 pm at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action.

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SUN DAY CAMPAIGN
(a campaign for a sustainable energy future)

News Advisory
 
U.S. RENEWABLES NOW OUTPACE NUCLEAR POWER
IN ENERGY PRODUCTION AND ELECTRICAL CAPACITY

For Release:  Wednesday - October 5, 2016
 
Contact:  Ken Bossong, 301-270-6477 x.11
 
Washington DC – Two new reports from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) confirm that nuclear power is rapidly losing the race with renewable energy sources.
 
EIA's latest "Monthly Energy Review" (with data for the first half of 2016) notes that during the first six months of this year, renewable sources (i.e., biofuels, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind) accounted for 5.242 quadrillion Btus (quads) of domestic energy production.  This includes thermal, liquid, and electrical forms of energy.  By comparison, nuclear power provided only 4.188 quads.  That is, renewables outpaced nuclear by more than 25%. [1]
 
Meanwhile, FERC's latest "Energy Infrastructure Update" (with data through the end of August 2016), states that the total available installed generating capacity in the U.S. from the combination of utility-scale (i.e., greater than 1-MW) hydropower, wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal has grown to 215.82 gigawatts (GW) or 18.39% of total generating capacity.  Nuclear power's installed capacity is only107.06 GW or 9.12% of the total. Thus, renewable energy generating capacity is now more than double that of nuclear. [2]
 
However, actual electrical generation by nuclear plants for the first seven months of 2016 is 19.9% of total generation. That is still higher than that provided by renewable sources which contributed 15.8% (a figure which does not include electricity produced by distributed renewables such as rooftop solar). [3]
 
But while nuclear power's share of net electrical generation has remained essentially flat over the past decade -- e.g., it was 19.4% in 2006, renewable energy's share is growing rapidly -- increasing from 9.5% ten years ago to 15.8% today [4] -- with EIA forecasting continued strong growth in the years ahead. [5]
 
"If renewable sources maintain their current growth rates, they could fully eclipse nuclear in the trifecta of not only energy supply and generating capacity but also electricity production within the next five or six years," concluded Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign.  

# # # # # # #

[1] U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Monthly Energy Review," September 27, 2016
http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec1_3.pdf
[2] Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, "Energy Infrastructure Update," September 30, 2016
http://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2016/aug-energy-infrastructure.pdf
[3] U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Electric Power Monthly"(see Table ES1.B), September 26, 2016

http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly
[4] Ibid. (see Table 1.1)
[5] U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Short-Term Energy Outlook," September 7, 2016 http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/renew_co2.cfm

Nuclear Regulatory Commission - Press Release

NRC Issues Confirmatory Order to Power Resources, Inc.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a Confirmatory Order to Power Resources, Inc., of Casper, Wyo., documenting actions that the company has agreed to take to ensure it maintains complete and accurate records of radiation surveys of personnel exiting its facilities.

The order formalizes commitments company officials made to the NRC following an investigation of activities at the company’s North Butte facility in Campbell County, Wyo. The NRC preliminarily determined that a former operations supervisor falsified a record of exit surveys that was supposed to be conducted on Sept. 12, 2013. In fact, the surveys required by NRC regulations were not conducted.

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PEACH BOTTOM ATOMIC POWER STATION – MATERIAL CONTROL AND ACCOUNTING PROGRAM INSPECTION REPORT NO. 05000277/2016405 AND 05000278/2016405

Download ML16265A018

Dear Colleagues:
 
Teri Sforza, a reporter at the Ocean County Register, requested records on the NAS cancer study from the NRC under the Freedom of Information Act. Within the past few days, the NRC placed their response to Teri in ADAMS. There are four files, each nearly 100 Mb in size (way to big to email). The ML numbers for these files along with links to the files in ADAMS are:

ML16259A145 or https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML16259A145
 
ML16259A146 or https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML16259A146
 
ML16259A147 or https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML16259A147
 
ML16259A149 or https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML16259A149
 
I've only reviewed one of the four files so far, but there seems to be useful stuff hidden amongst lots of admin noise.

Thanks,
Dave Lochbaum
UCS