News

 NRC APPROVES PROPOSAL TO CONTINUE DISTRIBUTING POTASSIUM IODIDE

NEAR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS AS AN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS MEASURE

The NRC has approved a staff recommendation to continue providing potassium iodide (KI) to states requesting it for residents who live within the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone of a commercial nuclear power plant. The NRC had originally authorized only a one-time distribution to states requesting the product.

Three Mile Island Unit 1’s biennial exercise to evaluate the station’s emergency plan will be held Tuesday, April 14.  

Municipalities and counties within the 10-mile radius of TMI-1 will participate, staffing their emergency response centers. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Environmental Protection are also participating in the exercise.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will evaluate the exercise.

Hudson River fish may be beneficiaries of decision, but power plants may need to be pushed

WASHINGTON – Entergy Northeast, the company that owns and operates the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, may consider cost-benefit analysis with reviewing technology at the plant.

The issue at hand was environmentalist organizations’ call for the plant to convert to a closed-cycle cooling system, which they maintain would draw far fewer fish into the system and reduce the fish kill by over 95 percent.

The Riverkeeper group fought for the closed cooling system. Hudson Riverkeeper and organization President Alex Matthiessen said they are pleased that the court “agreed that EPA is not required to use cost-benefit analysis and left it up to EPA on remand to decide to what extent, if any, cost benefit analysis should be used in regulating cooling water intake structures.”

By P.J. Reilly

Staff Writer, Lancaster Newspapers

State, county and municipal officials are making preparations now for the "monumental" journey of two gigantic, 510-ton steam generators, which will travel the length of Lancaster County as they move from Maryland to Three Mile Island.

To accommodate the generators, which are 70 feet long and 13 feet tall, temporary bridge bypasses must be built, overhead utility wires, trees and traffic signals must either be moved or removed and roads must be closed to all traffic.

"It will be an event unlike anything we've seen in my lifetime, as far as moving something goes," said Barry Smith, Manor Township's manager. "I've seen them move houses, and I thought that was pretty cool.

"But this apparently is going to be staggering."

 Rutland Herald

April 3, 2009

Entergy doesn't have cash in fund to clean up Vernon nuclear plant site.
By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER
BRATTLEBORO - The cost of decommissioning the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant has gone up $25 million in the past year, at the same time its savings account to cover the costs of dismantlement and cleanup has declined about $93 million.

But according to a filing with the NRC this week, Entergy Nuclear has no plans of making any new contributions to the decommissioning trust fund, sidestepping the issue of the recent declines in the trust fund because of the economic crisis.
 

NRC details latest nuclear plant leak

Rutland Herald