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.
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.
The proposed restart of Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor seems to have been cooked up in the dark. It has been met with unabashed enthusiasm by Gov. Josh Shapiro and many members of the Pennsylvania Legislature.
If it were to go through, the proposed restart of Three Mile Island would have only one client: Microsoft. The relationship would be exclusive and mostly benefit Microsoft’s data centers outside Pennsylvania. This sweetheart deal offered by Microsoft, although high on federal subsidies, is short on details.
Drake: No amount of money is worth turning Wyoming into a nuclear waste dump
Kerry Drake Wyoming columnist
Wyoming really needs to clone Jeff Steinborn, a New Mexico state lawmaker, or elect someone just like him.
Last year, Steinborn led a successful effort to ban the transportation and storage of high-level nuclear waste in his home state.
Steinborn didn’t buy the claims of a private company that planned to build a temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel rods near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Backers had visions of billions of dollars dancing in their heads.
It’s the same dream some Wyoming legislators have embraced — fortunately without success — since the early 1990s. Now the idea has reared its ugly head again.
Rep. Donald Burkhart Jr., R-Rawlins, said he will bring a draft bill to October’s Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee to allow a private nuclear waste dump (my description, not his) to be built in Wyoming.
Burkhart, who co-chairs the panel, said the state could reap more than $4 billion a year from nuclear waste storage “just to let us keep it here in Wyoming.” What a sweet deal!
Except the prospect of that much revenue may be a tad overstated. It could be about $3.974 billion less than Burkhart suggested, so the trial balloon he floated won’t get off the ground.
Wyoming legislators start touting nuclear waste storage whenever the state has a budget crunch.
I naively thought whether to establish a temporary “Monitored Retrievable Storage,” as they used to be called, had long been settled in Wyoming.
In 1992, then-Gov. Mike Sullivan rejected a proposed Fremont County project. A University of Wyoming survey in 1994 found 80% of respondents opposed a high-level nuclear waste facility.
“It makes no sense to me as governor to put this state or its citizens through the agonizing and divisive study and decision-making process of further evaluating the risks of an MRS facility,” Sullivan wrote in a letter to Fremont County commissioners.
In 2019, the Legislative Management Council narrowly decided — in a secret email vote — to authorize a Spent Fuel Rods Subcommittee to study the issue. Sen. Jim Anderson, R-Casper, said it could be an annual $1 billion bonanza.
The subcommittee’s enthusiasm for the idea sank when it learned the feds were only going to pony up $10 million a year. That figure has since increased, but not by much.
The Department of Energy announced in 2022 that it would make $16 million available to communities interested in learning more about “consent-based siting management of spent nuclear fuel.” Last year, the pot was sweetened to $26 million.
Steinborn said there was no financial incentive at all for an interim site in his state. “New Mexico has not been offered anything in the deal,” he said. “And even if we had, I don’t think any amount of money would convince me that it’s the right thing.”
Steinborn said the nation needs a permanent solution for storing spent nuclear fuel. “But New Mexico can’t just be the convenient sacrifice zone for the country’s contamination,” he said.
And neither should Wyoming. Yes, the U.S. Department of Energy and Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates are backing a $4 billion Natrium nuclear power plant near Kemmerer. But Wyoming has no obligation to take other states’ nuclear trash.
It’s increasingly unlikely a permanent site will ever be built. Yucca Mountain, Nevada, was chosen by Congress in 1987, but it’s been tangled up in a web of political and scientific controversies.
There is a significant legal obstacle to siting a “temporary” waste site in Wyoming or anywhere else. Congress would have to amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which prohibits designating an interim storage site without a viable plan to establish a permanent deep-mined geologic repository — like the Yucca Mountain project, but one that could actually be approved and built.
Victor Gilinsky, former consultant for the state of Nevada, investigated the Yucca Mountain project. He offered this observation: “I don’t think any state would ever trust the Energy Department to build and operate a nuclear waste repository.”
Why in the world do Wyoming legislators who brag about their distrust of federal government see nothing wrong with a federal agency managing nuclear waste here? They’ve turned down an estimated $1.4 billion for Medicaid expansion since 2013, but they’re willing to take peanuts from the federal government to be a nuclear dumping ground.
Jill Morrison, a retired landowner advocate who has lobbied against similar proposals since the 1990s, told WyoFile that lawmakers are trying to sneak in this one “and ram it through.”
“It threatens public safety, and it’s really going to wreck Wyoming’s national reputation and image as a destination for tourism and recreation — a beautiful place to visit or live,” Morrison said.
I’ve read suggestions on the internet that Wyoming could make a nuclear waste facility a tourist attraction.
I reckon something that exciting could at least draw half of the 4.5 million Yellowstone visitors we get each year. Charge ‘em $1,088 each, the average price of a Taylor Swift concert ticket. That would bring in a cool $2.4 billion.
That’s not as much as Burkhart said we’d reap, but it’s about as realistic.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a rare Preliminary Notification of Occurrence, concerning a "large number" of steam generator (SG) tube "indications" detected during an inspection related to the scheme to restart the Palisades zombie reactor on Lake Michigan in Covert, MI. NRC did not give an exact number of newly detected flaws. But a 2020 inspection on SG 'A' reported 666 plugged tubes out of 8,219, or 8.1%. It has been known since 2006 Palisades' SGs have needed replacement, for the second time. A small number of failed tubes can cause a release of hazardous radioactivity to the environment. Cascading failure of enough tubes during power operations can cause a catastrophic reactor core meltdown.
Ukraine's (UA) president, Zelensky, warnedthe annual United Nations (UN) General Assembly of world leaders yesterday Russia (RU) is threatening to attack UA's nuclear power plants. This, while the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in UA, long occupied by Russian troops, and the Kursk NPP in RU, are precariously near front line combat between the two countries' militaries. This has elicited recent warnings from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency Director General, Grossi, on UA and RU. Meanwhile, the president of RU, Putin, announced Russian nuclear weapons policy has changed, allowing their use against a non-nuclear armed country, like UA, if its conventional attacks against RU are supported by a nuclear weapon-state, like France, the UK, or US.
The Nuclear Free Team of the Sierra Club's Grassroots Network is offering a free viewing of Atomic Bamboozle: The False Promise of a Nuclear Renaissance as part of their film series. Registration is open now for viewing through September. This film is a must see for everyone, but especially those who are tempted by the "bamboozle" that nuclear power is a harmless climate solution. On September 30 from 5-7 pm PT, Sierra Club will host a webinar with the filmmaker Jan Haaken, Associate Producer Cathy Sampson-Kruse, M.V. Ramana, Mark Z. Jacobson, and David Schlissel and moderator Mike Carberry, Co-Chair Nuclear Free Team. Register for this webinar. We encourage you to share this viewing opportunity widely.
Nuclear madness is everywhere. Our government is determined to promote new reactors and the continued use of dangerous old ones, as long as we pay for them. Executives and politicians have even been convicted of crimes to ensure this happens. The media laps up the rhetoric and parrots the lie that nuclear power is “carbon-free”. Yet, spending those same dollars on renewables would get us more carbon reductions faster and without all the deadly risks of nuclear power. That’s why we need your support now more than ever to block these dangerous proposals at every step including through legal action. If you agree that nuclear power is NOT the answer to the climate crisis, please donateto Beyond Nuclear today.
Nuclear power is being falsely presented as a solution to the climate crisis, but the truth is that it creates far more problems than the ones it fails to solve. Nuclear energy is not only dangerous and costly, but it also leaves behind radioactive waste that will haunt generations to come. And yet, governments and corporations across the globe are pushing for a massive expansion of nuclear power plants–risking our safety and the environment.
At NIRS, we know that real solutions to climate change lie in clean, renewable energy sources like wind and solar—not in outdated, hazardous, and wasteful nuclear technology. That's why we are on the frontlines, fighting alongside you, to stop this dangerous nuclear expansion in the U.S. and around the world.
Here’s what’s at stake:
Billions in Taxpayer Dollars are being funneled into pro-nuclear policies and projects, while affordable and safe renewable energy solutions are being neglected thanks to huge amounts of pro-nuclear lobbying on the Hill.
Communities at Risk: The construction of nuclear reactors puts countless communities—often low-income and marginalized populations—in danger of radiation leaks, accidents, and long-term health impacts.
Nuclear Waste: New reactors will produce more toxic, radioactive waste, which STILL has no safe, long-term storage solution and threatens ecosystems, wildlife, and human health.
We cannot allow this dangerous industry to grow unchecked. That’s why we are working tirelessly to expose the true costs of nuclear power and advocate for real climate solutions.
Challenge and halt new nuclear projects across the US.
Mobilize communities and policymakers to support renewable energy alternatives.
Provide education and resources to inform the public about the dangers of nuclear energy and the benefits of sustainable, safe power.
Push for stronger regulations and hold the nuclear industry accountable for its environmental and health impacts.
Fight back against the pro-nuke lobbyists flooding politicians’ time and opinions with dangerous and deceitful rhetoric about a so-called “nuclear renaissance.”
Will you stand with us? Your contribution today will make a critical difference in our fight to stop nuclear expansion and champion a future powered by clean, renewable energy.
Together, we can stop the nuclear industry's dangerous expansion and create a world where clean, renewable energy is the norm. Thank you for standing with us in this fight
P.S. Your donation is tax-deductible and will directly support our efforts to promote Energy Democracy, a renewable energy grid future, and workers' rights in the energy sector. Please consider giving today!
NRC Restores Expiration Dates for Renewed Turkey Point Licenses
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has restored the expiration dates of Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Units 3 and 4’s subsequent renewed licenses to July 19, 2052, and April 10, 2053, respectively.
The NRC’s action follows completion of a supplemental environmental review to comply with a 2022 Order from the Commission. Several environmental groups requested a hearing on this environmental review. After consideration of these hearing requests, the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board terminated this adjudicatory proceeding in August, concluding that no contested matters remained before it for resolution. The Board’s decision can be appealed to the Commission through late September. NRC regulations direct the staff to take licensing actions even if an appeal is pending. The Commission retains the ability to act on any appeal and, as needed, direct additional staff action on the licenses.
The Turkey Point units are pressurized-water reactors located in Homestead, Florida, about 25 miles south of Miami. Information about the Turkey Point subsequent license renewal review is available on the NRC website. Eight U.S. commercial nuclear power reactors, including Turkey Point, have received subsequent renewed licenses (authorizing operations from 60 to 80 years). Seven applications for subsequent license renewal are currently under review.
According to the “World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2024,” the world had 408 operational reactors producing 367-GW in the middle of the year, which is significantly less than installed capacity predictions for solar by the end of the year and five time less the world’s cumulative PV capacity. There were around 1.6-TW of PV at the end of 2023 and possibly around 1.9-TW by the end of June, given recent projections from BloombergNEF and Bernreuter Researchers, which foresee 5920GW and 660-GW, respectively, this year.
A Three Mile Island nuclear reactor could restart under a new deal with Microsoft
Constellation Energy Corp. says it has signed a 20-year agreement with Microsoft under which the technology company will purchase power from Three Mile Island Unit 1.
Reactor operators Brian Bowers (left) and Bryan Bricking, in the control room of Three Mile Island reactor in 2017. TMI reactor 2 is still shut down after the partial nuclear meltdown accident in 1979. Reactor 1, this unit was shut down in 2019.Clem Murray / Staff Photographer
Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Corp. said Friday that it has signed a 20-year agreement with Microsoft under which the technology company will purchase power from Three Mile Island Unit 1. That reactor is located at an independent facility from Unit 2, which closed in 1979 after experiencing a partial meltdown.
Constellation said it would spend $1.6 billion to restart Unit 1 — and won’t seek “a penny in grant money” from the state or federal governments — which the company said “operated at industry-leading levels of safety and reliability for decades.” Federal regulators would need to approve a restart, though it already has support from Gov. Josh Shapiro. The company said it expects the reactor to come online by 2028.
“I think policymakers have recognized that a strategy that is dependent just on wind, solar, batteries isn’t going to fully get us there and meet the needs of the system from a reliability standpoint,” Joe Dominguez, Constellation’s president and CEO, said in an interview.
The Three Mile Island power plant complex in Middletown, Pa. Unit 2, on the left, infamously shut down in 1979 after an accident. Unit 1, on the right, was shut down in 2019.Clem Murray / Staff Photographer
For Microsoft, buying energy from the renewed plant, dubbed the Crane Clean Energy Center, will “help match the power its data centers in PJM use with carbon-free energy,” according to a news release. Valley Forge-based PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization, operates the electric grid in 13 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The plan to reopen Three Mile Island is likely to face some opposition from groups critical of the nuclear industry. “We will challenge this proposal at every venue that is available for us,” said Eric Epstein, a former chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, a nonprofit that says it promotes “safe-energy alternatives to nuclear power.”
“This is another chapter in a nightmare that won’t end,” he said.
Dominguez said multiple factors have contributed to a changing landscape for the nuclear industry since the Three Mile Island reactor closed five years ago. In addition to reliability questions with regard to wind and solar, he pointed to incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the pandemic. “We saw this effort … to bring in and onshore a lot of critical supply,” he said.
A study commissioned by the Pennsylvania State Building & Construction Trades Council — which supports the restart and represents more than 115 local unions — estimated that the project would create 3,400 jobs, including 600 direct jobs at the plant in Londonderry Township, south of Harrisburg.
The study projected that over 20 years, the Crane Clean Energy Center — named after the late Exelon CEO Chris Crane — would generate $3.6 billion in state and federal tax revenues and reduce carbon emissions by an average of 3 million metric tons per year, “offsetting about 10% of Pennsylvania’s passenger vehicle emissions.”
Thomas Webler, senior research fellow at the Social and Environmental Research Institute, challenged the projected offset of auto emissions in Pennsylvania because the restart won’t be powering electric vehicle chargers. Pennsylvania emitted 258 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, according to state data.
Shapiro, a first-term Democrat, said in a statement that the facility “will safely utilize existing infrastructure to sustain and expand nuclear power in the commonwealth while creating thousands of energy jobs and strengthening Pennsylvania’s legacy as a national energy leader.”
Pennsylvania has five nuclear power plants, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Constellation, which is publicly traded, owns Limerick Generating Station in Montgomery County and Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in York County.
Restarting Unit 1 would require approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and permits from state and local agencies, according to Constellation. The company said it also plans to seek a license renewal “that will extend plant operations to at least 2054.”
Dominguez, the CEO, said the plant remains in “pretty good condition,” though the company needed to replace the main transformer. Other tasks include ordering key components, hiring staff, and connecting the plant to PJM, he said.
Asked about potential safety concerns, Dominguez said TMI “will always be remembered by some people as the industry’s point of greatest failure in the United States.”
“But for those of us who worked and have worked in the industry for decades, Three Mile Island represents something very different,” he said. “It represents the place where we learned hard lessons and the birthplace of the resolve, the new processes, new equipment, new designs through construction activities that ultimately transformed the industry.”
Epstein, the antinuclear power activist, said the focus at the site should be on cleanup.
Ninety-nine percent of TMI 2 reactor’s fuel has been moved to Idaho since the 1979 accident. But officials say removing the last 1% of fuel is challenging. “First things first, remove the waste from the island, and clean up TMI 2,” Epstein said.
France's EDF investigates second automatic shutdown at Flamanville 3 reactor
By Alban Kacher and Benjamin Mallet September 17, 20249:08 PM GMT+8Updated 3 days ago
A general view of the three reactors making up the Flamanville nuclear power plant with the third-generation European Pressurised Water nuclear reactor (EPR) in the background in Flamanville, France, April 25, 2024. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
Sept 17 (Reuters) - French state-owned energy group EDF said on Tuesday its teams were shutting down the new Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor to carry out technical checks after the plant triggered an automatic halt for the second time this month.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Flamanville's new-generation EPR reactor is the first nuclear unit to be connected to the French grid since the Civaux 2 nuclear reactor in 1999. It is expected to produce about 1.6 gigawatts (GW) per hour, making it France's largest reactor.
KEY QUOTE
"The start-up of an EPR is a long and complex process, involving the commissioning of equipment for the first time. Other automatic shutdowns and contingencies are likely to be activated until the reactor reaches full power," an EDF spokesperson said in a statement.
CONTEXT
After 12 years of delays and setbacks, EDF started divergence operations - the first nuclear fission that allows electricity production to begin - on the Flamanville 3 nuclear plant about two weeks ago.
The reactor stopped automatically on Sept. 4, only a day after it entered production, due to human error during post-divergence tests.
The French power utility said on Sept. 7 it resumed activity and testing at the plant, in order to prepare for the connection procedure planned for late autumn.
WHAT’S NEXT
After identifying the technical details of the issue, EDF teams will carry out some more checks and adjustments before resuming start-up operations, the EDF spokesperson said.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday that it is teaming up with yet another energy company as part of a mission to transform portions of government-owned property once used for the nation’s nuclear weapons program into prime real estate for renewable energy endeavors.
The federal agency will be negotiating a lease agreement with Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources Development for nearly 3 square miles (7.8 square kilometers) of land surrounding the nation’s only underground repository for nuclear waste.
The project at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New Mexico is the latest to be announced by the Energy Department, which has identified more than 50 square miles (130 square kilometers) of government land that can be used for constructing solar arrays and battery storage systems that can supply utilities with emissions-free electricity.
Andrew Mayock with the White House Council on Environmental Quality on Tuesday echoed a statement made earlier this year when the first negotiations were announced. He said federal agencies are using their scale and purchasing power to support the growth of the clean energy industry. “We will spur new clean electricity production, which is good for our climate, our economy, and our national security,” he said.
At the nuclear repository in New Mexico, federal officials say there is potential to install at least 150 megawatts of solar and another 100 megawatts of storage.
While the amount of energy generated by NextEra at the WIPP site would be more than enough to meet the needs of the repository, none would feed directly into government operations there. Officials said the energy from the solar array would be sold to Xcel Energy by NextEra and put into the utility’s distribution system.
Xcel serves customers in parts of New Mexico and Texas, as well as other states.
Officials said there is no estimate of when ground could be broken, saying engineering and planning work would be needed once a lease is signed and regulatory approvals would be required.
The largest of the so called cleanup-to-clean-energy projects is slated for the Hanford Site, where Hecate Energy LLC has plans to deliver a gigawatt-scale system that would span thousands of acres on the southeastern edge of the property. It could be several years before that project comes online.
Other lease agreements already are being negotiated for projects stretching from the Hanford Site in Washington state, where the U.S. produced plutonium, to national laboratories and other sites in Idaho, Nevada and South Carolina.
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