Background on Beaver Valley Unit 1 Steel Containment Liner Corrosion

Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear

July 10, 2009

Beaver Valley nuclear power station owned and operated by First Energy Generation Group is a two-unit Westinghouse Pressurized Reactor near McCandless, PA. Beaver Valley is a sub-atmospheric containment design where the pressure inside the containment is 4 psi below the pressure outside containment. There are only seven Westinghouse plants in the United States that rely on this sub-atmospheric design; Beaver Valley 1 & 2, North Anna 1 & 2, Surry 1& 2 and Millstone 3.

Judge rules Indian Point's fish-killing cooling process must stop

 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission) is considering the issuance 

of an order under Title 10 of the CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS (10 CFR), Section 50.80 

approving the indirect transfer of the Facility Operating License DPR-12 for Peach Bottom 

Many Americans mistakenly believe that France has solved the radioactive waste issue. According to this report, 

that is far from the truth: 

Reuters, June 30, 2009

French radioactive waste to double by 2030, High level waste to rise to 5,060 cm 

By Mathilde Cru

PARIS, June 30 (Reuters) - France's highly radioactive waste will more than double by 2030 mainly as spent fuel derived from nuclear reactors mounts up, the French national radioactive waste management agency (Andra) said on Tuesday.

Andra draws up every three years an inventory of sites polluted with radioactivity and details quantities per waste category as well as volume forecasts.

In 2007, high level waste, the most dangerous category, accounted for 95 percent of French waste radioactivity but only 0.2 percent in volume, it said in the inventory report. A complicated scale lists a wide range of different intensities of radioctive waste.

High level waste will rise by 120 percent to 5,060 cubic metres by 2030 out of a total of 2.2 million cubic metres, the Andra report said. The 2.2 million cubic metres itself is twice the 2007 level.

Eric Epstein, Chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, contends PPL's application for a license to construct a nuclear reactor at Bell Bend near Berwick, Pa. leaves at least four serious matters in need of attention. 

Epstein contends that the federally required funds to decommission (close down) a plant are inadequate. 

He also told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that PPL's has no solid plan for how to dispose of low-level radioactive waste.