Environmental coalition expert presses case against Fermi 3 due to major quality assurance violations

Arnie Gundersen has appeared frequently on major news media, including as a regular guest of anchor John King on CNN regarding the Fukushima nuclear catastropheExpert witness Arnie Gundersen (photo, left), Fairewinds Associates, Inc's Chief Nuclear Engineer, with 40 years of experience in industry, has documented yet more violations of quality assurance (QA) at Detroit Edison's proposed new reactor, Fermi 3. His "[NON-PROPRIETARY] TESTIMONY OF ARNOLD GUNDERSEN SUPPORTING OF INTERVENORS CONTENTION 15: DTE COLA LACKS STATUTORILY REQUIRED COHESIVE QA PROGRAM" was submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board (ASLB) on April 30, 2013.

Gundersen serves as the expert witness for the QA contention introduced by the environmental coalition opposing Fermi 3, namely: Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizen Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and Sierra Club, Michigan Chapter.

Gundersen's testimony applies to non-proprietary documentation revealing DTE's QA breakdowns over the past several years, the repercussions of which continue today. Gundersen also prepared a non-public analysis of DTE's proprietary documents, as well, and states in his non-proprietary, publicly available testimony:

"...after reviewing much of the material that DTE had labeled proprietary, Fairewinds has found no basis for Detroit Edison to designate these documents as proprietary, other than to avoid embarrassment if its own mistakes were shared with the public.

In Fairewinds Associates, Inc’s opinion, Detroit Edison’s labeling non-proprietary material as proprietary is an abuse of the public’s right to know how mismanaged the 'Fermi 3 Licensing Project' is."

Gundersen's non-proprietary, publicly available testimony went on:

"The data Fairewinds reviewed shows that confusion and lack of organizational control reigned within Detroit Edison for years prior to the COLA [combined Construction and Operations License Application] submittal and to this day. These early QA problems are the root cause of the current site characterization issues that continue to plague the Fermi 3 Licensing Project...In my opinion, this extensive breakdown in nuclear Quality Assurance that endangered the geotechnical work in 2007 continues to plague the Fermi 3 Licensing Project today."

Gundersen is refering to significant problems DTE has encountered in the area of Soil Structures Analysis, which has potential seismic risk significance.

At the same time as he filed Gundersen's testimony, environmental coalition attorney Terry Lodge of Toledo also submitted Intervenors' Initial Statement of Position on the QA contention.

DTE and NRC Staff, both advocating for approval of the COLA, also filed their own testimonies and statements of position by the April 30th deadline. DTE's Initial Statement of Position was accompanied by testimonies from Peter Smith, Stanley Stasek, Ronald Sacco, and Steven Thomas. NRC Staff's Initial Statement of Position was accompanied by testimonies from Adrian Muniz, Aida Rivera-Varona, and George Lipscomb. A formal hearing on the QA contention will be heard by the NRC ASLB later this year.

Also on April 30th, ironically enough, the Fermi 3 ASLB rejected several proposed intervention contentions the environmental coalition had submitted in response to NRC's Final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed new reactor. See the website post below for more information on these now-rejected proposed contentions.

Despite this, the environmental coalition's contention in defense of Fermi 3's impacts on the threatened Eastern Fox Snake, and its critical habitat, proceeds towards a formal hearing before the ASLB later this year.

Environmental coalition defends contentions against Fermi 3 proposed new reactor, challenges adequacy of NRC FEIS

Environmental coalition attorney Terry LodgeTerry Lodge (photo, left), Toledo-based attorney representing an environmental coalition opposing the proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor targeted at the Lake Erie shore in Monroe County, MI, has filed a reply to challenges from Detroit Edison (DTE) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff. The coalition includes Beyond Nuclear, Citizen Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.

The coalition's reply re-asserted "no confidence" in DTE's ability to safely store Class B and C "low-level" radioactive wastes on-site at Fermi 3 into the indefinite future, due to the lack of sure access to a disposal facility. It also again emphasized the lack of documented need for the 1,550 Megawatts of electricity Fermi 3 would generate. And the coalition alleged that NRC has failed to fulfill its federal responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as by the illegal "segmentation" of the needed transmission line corridor from the rest of the Fermi 3 reactor construction and operation proposal.

This legal filing follows by a week upon the submission of public comments about NRC's Fermi 3 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). The comments, commissioned by Don't Waste Michigan and prepared by Jessie Pauline Collins, were endorsed by a broad coalition of individuals and environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear. The FEIS comments included satellite images of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie in 2012, and in 2011 to 2012, attributable in significant part to thermal electric power plants such as Detroit Edison's Monroe (coal burning) Power Plant, at 3,300 Megawatts-electric the second largest coal burner in the U.S. Fermi 3's thermal discharge into Lake Erie will worsen this already very serious ecological problem.

In the very near future, the environmental coalition intervening against the Fermi 3 combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA) will submit additional filings on its contentions challenging the lack of adequate quality assurance (QA, regarding which nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates in Vermont serves as the coalition's expert witness) on the project, as well as its defense of the threatened Eastern Fox Snake and its critical wetlands habitat. The State of Michigan has stated that Fermi 3's construction would represent the largest impact on Great Lakes coastal wetlands in the history of state wetlands preservation law. 

Half a billion dollars already wasted on small modular reactors

The federal government is in the process of wasting more than half a billion dollars to pay large, profitable companies for what should be their own expenses for research & development (R&D) and licensing related to “small modular reactors” (SMRs), which would be about a third of the size or less of today’s large nuclear reactors.  In response, the nonpartisan group Taxpayers for Common Sense today handed out its latest “Golden Fleece Award” to the Department of Energy for the dollars being wasted on SMRs.

Titled “Taxpayer Subsidies for Small Modular Reactors,” a related TCS background report is available online here.

There is no assurance that electricity produced by an SMR would be competitive with otehr sources and there are no reliable cost estimates for SMRs. Traditional light water reactors are already seeing costs soar at the few construction sites around the world.

Fermi 3 Final Environmental Impact Statement incomplete: intervenors reveal major inadequacies; NRC announces major delays in Safety Evaluation Report; major setbacks projected

An artist's rendition of the ESBWR targeted to be built at Fermi 3

On Feb. 19, 2013, the environmental coalition intervening in opposition to the construction and operation of Detroit Edison's proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor filed new and amended contentions in response to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Final Environmental Impact Statement about the proposal. The coalition issued a news release.

Documents related to environmental intervenors' filing of Feb. 19, 2013 in opposition to the General Electric-Hitachi so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (or ESBWR, see image, left) proposed to be constructed and operated at the Fermi nuclear power plant in Monroe County, Michigan, on the Lake Erie  shoreline, as well as documents reveal the major schedule delays afflicting the project:

Intervenors' Feb. 19, 2013 "MOTION FOR RESUBMISSION OF CONTENTIONS 3 AND 13, FOR RESUBMISSION OF CONTENTION 23 OR ITS ADMISSION AS A NEW CONTENTION, AND FOR ADMISSION OF NEW CONTENTIONS 26 AND 27";

Current Fermi 3 COLA Review Schedule (Feb. 15, 2013), showing 2 years and 10 month of delay;

Original Fermi 3 Schedule (June 30, 2009).

"Endangered Snakes Prompt Hearing Over Fermi 3 Nuclear Plant"

An Eastern Fox Snake, an endangered constrictor species indigenous to southeast MichiganThe Monroe Evening News has reported on an environmental coalition's successful bid for hearing before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) in opposition to Detroit Edison's proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor on the Lake Erie shore of southeast Michigan.

The coalition is comprised of Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.

It contends that the nuclear utility, federal government, and State of Michigan are failing to protect the endangered Eastern Fox Snake species (see photo, left) from extinction due to habitat destruction caused by the construction and operation of a 1,550 Megawatt-electric General Electric Hiticahi so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR), as well as an associated 11-mile long, 300-foot wide transmission line corridor.

The State of Michigan has admitted the reactor construction will involve the largest impact on Great Lakes coastal wetlands in the history of state environmental protection law. Combined with the transmission line's destruction of more than 1,000 acres of undeveloped land, including forests and wetlands, the coalition contends the habitat loss could extirpate the endangered Eastern Fox Snake species in the region. More. 

Update on February 8, 2013 by admin

The Toledo Blade has also reported on this story.