When Rep. Upton and NRC Commissioner Svinicki refused to meet with the coalition, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps helped organize a vigil at Palisades' front entrance. He dressed as the Little Dutch Boy. His sign reads "Have Finger--Will Plug Radioactive Leak," and "Wooden Shoe Rather Use Wind Power?!" Palisades' latest leak happened amidst west Michigan's Dutch American annual tulip time festivals. Photo credit Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio.

Upton and Svinicki were visiting the atomic reactor in the aftermath of a 82.1-gallon spill of radioactive water into Lake Michigan. The leak came from the Safety Injection Refueling Water (SIRW) storage tank, which has been leaking for over two years. Although the investigation continues, it appears that a crack in a weld on a tank floor nozzle is at least partly to blame this time around. For the first year, the leak had been kept quiet by Entergy and NRC staff. Even the Chairman of NRC, Greg Jaczko, was not told about it, even during his tour of the troubled plant on May 25, 2012. A few weeks later, based on whistleblower revelations, U.S. Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) made public that the leakage was into the control room, and that safety culture among the workforce had collapsed at Palisades: 74% of the workforce, including management, felt that reporting safety problems would solve nothing, while inviting intimidation and harassment -- and so do not report safety problems!

WNDU TV NBC Channel 16 South Bend quoted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on its 11 PM coverage, that replacing the leaking Safety Injection Refueling Water (SIRW) storage tank would not make sense, if a number of other vital safety systems are not also either repaired, replaced, or upgraded.

As Kevin had conveyed on Western Michigan University's NPR station, WMUK, the list long-overdue repairs, replacements, and upgrades includes: the worst embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the U.S., steam generators in need of replacement for the second time in the reactor's history, a badly corroded reactor lid, and extensive fire safety upgrades, not to mention component cooling water and service water systems that have failed repeatedly in recent years.

ABC57 TV News South Bend also quoted Kevin about Palisades' Control Rod Drive Mechanisms (CRDMs), that have been leaking through seals for 41 years, and through-wall in 2001 and 2012. David Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists documented this chronic problem, uniquely bad in industry, in his July 2010 report "Headaches at Palisades: Broken Seals & Failed Heals." Lochbaum also addressed the 2012 through-wall CRDM housing leak during Beyond Nuclear-sponsored events in west Michigan, noting that -- under NRC regulations -- Palisades should have been shut down within 6 hours, but instead operated for an entire month with primary coolant leakage through the pressure boundary, an unacceptable safety risk. Lochbaum reported that NRC could have fined Palisades $140,000 per day for the violation, but, over a half-year on now, has fined Entergy not one penny.

WSBT TV South Bend quoted concerned local resident, Barbara Pellegrini, who said “There’s no use in patching and fixing anymore. It just isn’t working.” Barbara knows what she's talking about: she has a PhD. and specializes in materials science education.

On May 25, 2012, after touring the problem-plagued Palisades reactor and meeting with an environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko personally asked Barb to write the agency about her concerns regarding age-related degradation at Palisades. A major agenda item at the coalition meeting with Jaczko had been neutron embrittlement of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV), which makes it vulnerable to pressurized thermal shock, a risk of RPV breach, loss of coolant accident, meltdown, and catastrophic radioactivity release.

NRC took 11 months to respond to Dr. Pellegrini. The agency essentially implied that it does not perform independent analysis of materials degradation at Palisades, but rather relies on Entergy's analyses -- essentially taking the company's word for it.

WOOD TV 8 NBC Grand Rapids reported that the press conference, which was supposed to feature Rep. Upton and NRC Commissioner Svinicki, was largely taken over by Entergy's Chief Operating Officer. TV 8 also provided links to its coverage of numerous past leaks over the last year (a third of them involving the SIRW storage tank), as well as a map of the 50-mile radiological ingestion emergency planning zone around Palisades (which extends to within close proximity to Chicago, which draws its drinking water, for many millions of people, from Lake Michigan).

WZZM TV 13 quoted Kevin as saying that any exposure to radioactivity carries a health risk for cancer, and that these risks accumulate over a lifetime. The higher the dose, the higher the risk, but even so-called "diluted" radioactivity or "low-doses" of exposure to radiation cannot be called "safe," despite repeated Entergy and NRC statements to the contrary. In fact, Kevin pointed out, Palisades has been releasing radioactivity into the air and water "routinely" for 42 years now, sometimes intentionally, with a permit from the government, but other times un-intentionally, due to "accidental" (although chronic and repeated) spills or leaks. Another "little problem" with the "dilution is the solution to radioactive pollution" delusion is bio-concentration: the food chain re-concentrates radioactivity in the environment. Humans are at the top of the radioactively contaminated food chain.

Michigan Radio reported on the effort by a coalition of concerned local residents and environmental groups to request a meeting with Rep. Upton and NRC Commissioner Svinicki. As soon as the government officials' emergency tour of Palisades was announced in the news media, Michigan Safe Energy Future-Shoreline Chapter's Bette Pierman emailed a request to Congressman Upton, and followed up with a hardcopy of the letter delivered to his local St. Joe, MI office. A hardcopy was also delivered to his Capitol Hill office. The letter was emailed to NRC Commissioner Svinicki. Follow up phone calls were made to Rep. Upton's local St. Joe and Kalamazoo offices, as well as to NRC Commissioner Svinicki's HQ office in Rockville, MD. Despite this, Michigan Radio reports, Upton claimed to have been "unaware of any attempts to meet with him."

Michigan Radio reported: “We thought we had some common ground,” Kamps said of Upton, “We certainly follow these issues closely and I think that Upton needs to hear from us and I hope that he will sit down with us.”

Given the apparent rejection of their meeting request, the coalition decided to hold an all day vigil at Palisades' front entrance.

Michigan Radio reported that Upton "was dismissive of the protesters, saying they were mostly from out of town." Quite to the contrary, every single protestor was from west Michigan. The majority were from within the 10-mile EPZ (Emergency Planning Zone) surrounding Palisades, from such communities as South Haven, less than 5 miles north, and Bangor, about 10 miles to the northeast. Others were from Benton Harbor, about 15 miles south, and Kalamazoo, about 35 miles, downwind, to the east "as the crow flies," or as the radioactivity blows.

Michigan Radio reported: “We demand the tank be replaced and a dozen other systems be replaced,” Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear said. “I hate to be harsh but talk is cheap and actions speak a lot louder than words,” Kamps said, “[Upton, the Chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, with direct oversight on NRC] could pressure them to shut this plant until all dozen of those safety critical systems are repaired, replaced, upgraded. He’s not doing that.”

But, Michigan Radio reported: “(The NRC) is entrusted to do the right thing and certainly I’m not going to be looking over their shoulder,” Upton said.

Of course, "looking over [NRC's] shoulder," also known as congressional oversight, is Upton's job as Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman!

The Kalamazoo Gazette reported:

'Kamps said, "Upton has long been one of the nuclear power industry's best friends in Congress."

According to Federal Election Commission data, individuals and PACs representing the New Orleans-based company gave the congressman $24,600 during the 2012 election cycle, making Entergy the third-largest donor.'

Since 2008, Beyond Nuclear has published exposés on Upton's favors in return to the nuclear power industry for its campaign contributions: a 2-page summary; 22-page full report; list of nuclear industry PAC campaign contributions to Upton; and list of campaign contributions from nuclear industry-related individuals.

For her part, NRC Commissioner Svinicki almost always votes in the nuclear power industry's interests, often against the public interest. Most recently, she cast the single worst of the four bad votes against requiring radiological filters on the "new and improved" hardened vents to be installed on the 31 Fukushima twin GE Mark I and II boiling water reactors in the U.S. While only NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane voted for immediate installation of filters, and NRC Commissioners Ostendorff, Magwood, and Apostalakis voted to study the issue for years on end, Commissioner Svinicki simply voted to never require installation of filters. While NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko in May 2012, and Commissioner Magwood in March 2013, reached out to Beyond Nuclear to set up meetings with concerned locals while they toured Palisades, Commissioner Svinicki's office didn't even respond to the coalition's request for a meeting in May 2013.

WKZO Radio also reported on this story, and a Facebook page, "Palisades Nuclear Plant Watch," has been established.

The four setbacks in three days include: 1) the cancellation of two proposed new reactors at South Texas Project, because they violate U.S. law against foreign ownership of nuclear power plants; 2) Southern California Edison's threat that if NRC does not allow it to restart operations at its crippled San Onofre nuclear power plant, it will permanently shutdown both reactors there (SCE proposes to operate Unit 2 at 70% power levels, then to check in five months to determine how well the already badly damaged steam generator tubes are holding up; FOE, CBG, and many other groups oppose this grand nuclear experiment, within 50 miles of many millions of residents, as unacceptably risky); 3) Duke Energy's cancellation of two proposed new atomic reactors at its Shearon Harris nuclear power plant in North Carolina; and 4) Florida's amendment to its previously highly permissive "advance cost recovery" or "Construction Work in Progress" law, via which ratepayers have been gouged to pay for proposed new reactors, when there is no guarantee the proposed new reactors will ever actually get built or generate electricity.

Peter Bradford also added the May 7th shutdown of Dominion's Kewaunee atomic reactor in WI -- despite the 20 years of operating license still left to it -- as another example of the "worst week since Fukushima" for the U.S. nuclear power industry. A Dominion spokesman admitted in a media interview last October, when the utility announced it decision to close Kewaunee, that the high costs of safety significant repairs was a contributing factor in the "early retirement" decision.

As reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

'...The fishy tale has prompted federal regulators to ask a lot of new questions about morale at Perry and whether plant operators can control access to radioactive areas as required by regulation...

Because of a life-threatening incident during refueling two years ago at Perry in which three contractors were briefly exposed to hard radiation, the NRC has put the plant under a microscope on the issue of worker safety. The agency was already preparing to send squads of inspectors to the plant in June in an effort to determine whether Perry has corrected past shortcomings. Extra inspectors were at the plant earlier during this shutdown.

The company and the NRC said this latest incident is no laughing matter, as in the cartoon TV series "The Simpsons" in which Blinky, an orange fish, supposedly had three eyes from radiation exposure. Whoever was involved in the Perry incident will not get off as easily as nuclear worker Homer Simpson usually does...

"This is not something that happens every day. We want to know why it happened and how it happened," said Viktoria Mitlyng, NRC spokeswoman for the agency's Midwest region. "We are looking at the potential implications." '

Add that one to the "Fission Stories"!

Dominion's Kewaunee atomic reactor, on the Lake Michigan shore of northern WI, near Green Bay

Dominion had attempted to sell Kewaunee, but found no buyers. Platt's reports "CMS Energy -- which sold Palisades, its only nuclear station, to Entergy in 2007 -- had considered buying the plant, but decided against it because of low gas prices and investor pushback."

Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates, Inc points out that Kewaunee still had an operating license for another 20 years, but Dominion is unable to operate the reactor economically. Gundersen also points out that the 60-year SAFESTOR plan prior to decommissioning means Kewaunee will not be dismantled and cleaned up until about a century after it commenced operations, in 1973.

Duke Energy's announcement in recent weeks regarding the fatally cracked containment at its Crystal River, FL reactor, and today's final SCRAM at Kewaunee, are the first permanent shutdowns of commercial atomic reactors in the U.S. in about 15 years. Kewaunee joins Zion 1 & 2 in IL, and Big Rock Point in MI, on the list of reactors on the Lake Michigan shore permanently shutdown. Point Beach 1 & 2 in WI, as well as Cook 1 & 2 and Palisades in MI, are reactors still operating on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Lake Michigan is a headwaters of the Great Lakes, 20% of the world's surface fresh water, and drinking water supply for 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.

Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor on Lake Michigan's shoreline in southwest MI

Entergy and NRC spokespersons' repeated claims of no safety significance to the public flies in the face of decades of findings, as by the National Academy of Science (most recently in 2005), that any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how small, carries a health risk of cancer, and that these health risks accumulate over a lifetime.

U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) made public the serious nature of this particular leaking tank in June 2012. His information came from very courageous Palisades whistleblowers, and their attorney, Billie Pirner Garde. The leak, from the 300,000 gallon Safety Injection Refueling Water (SIRW) storage tank located directly above the control, began in mid-2011, and was flowing through the ceiling, and being captured in buckets in the safety critical control room, full of electrical circuitry and equipment that cannot get wet. The leak was concealed not only from the public and media, but even from the NRC's own Chairman, Greg Jaczko, as he toured Palisades on May 25, 2012. NRC later granted Entergy an exemption in 2012 to allow continued operations despite the degraded condition of the SIRW storage tank. 

In recent weeks, Beyond Nuclear learned from NRC officials that the now two-year-old leak has continued at a 0.5 to 1 gallon per day rate. But Saturday's leakage rate, which forced the reactor to shut down, was at 90 gallons per day, as documented in NRC's event notification report. Palisades' SIRW storage tank, just like the rest of the plant, is 46 years old, and obviously showing severe signs of "breakdown phase" age-degration, of increasing risk. 

The Detroit Free Press, Enformable Nuclear News, Kalamazoo Gazette, Michigan Radio, WSJM Radio, WKZO Radio,WWMT TV-3 Kalamazoo, Detroit News,  and WOOD TV-8 Grand Rapids have reported on this story.

Beyond Nuclear issued a media statement, challenging flippant Entergy and NRC claims that this leak carries "absolutely" no risk to human health and safety. NRC's Region 3 spokeswoman has been exposed making false claims regarding radioactivity leaks more than once at Midwestern reactors in just the past year, prompting the demand for an investigation by a member of Congress. Last year, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) demanded an NRC investigation into Mytling's downplaying of a reactor leak at the troubled Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo. In addition, Chicago watchdog group Nuclear Energy Information Service, via a Freedom of Information Act Request to the State of Illinois Dept. of Nuclear Safety, documented that Mytling's flip assurance -- that a radioactive steam leak at the Byron atomic reactor, in Jan. 2012, must have contained exceedingly low levels of hazardous radioactive tritium, as radiation monitors had not detected any -- was baseless and misleading, as no real-time tritium monitoring capability existed at the plant. Similar questions must now be asked of Mytling's questionable assurances that radioactivity levels in the water leaked into Lake Michigan were below detectable levels. Are there radiation monitors in place to verify such flip assurances?

Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor, 40 miles west of Kalamazoo on the Lake Michigan shore. Lake Michigan is a headwaters of the Great Lakes, 20% of the world's surface fresh water, drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations. Van Buren County, visible in the background, is one of Michigan's top agricultural producers.Kalamazoo Chapter-Michigan Safe Energy Future Sponsors

May 19th Benefit for "Shutdown Palisades Campaign"  

What:  

Great local musicians are donating their talents in support of this Campaign to Shutdown the Palisades nuclear reactor plant near South Haven on our Lake Michigan.  Palisades is a major threat to the Kalamazoo area which is within the 50-mile radius radioactivity fallout and ingestion zone.

Performers for the Benefit are:  Dunuya Drum and Dance; Duffield & Co.- Piano Blues-Boogie; Gypsy Sojourner- Folk and Blues (Catherine and Allen); Unusual Suspects-Blues; Wayfarers (Lynette & Tom).  There will also be an Open Mike ---"Your 1 Best Tune or Spoken Word."

Donation:  $5-$20+

Who:  

This Benefit is sponsored by the Michigan Safe Energy Future-Kalamazoo Chapter with support from the Shoreline Chapter and others

Why: 

To:

*Provide an opportunity for the public to learn more about this dangerous nuclear plant which could melt down and cause catastrophic damage to everything in its way.

*To continue to build the support for this Campaign

Background: 

Topping the public's concerns is Palisades’ reactor pressure vessel Embrittlement.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) conceded in February 2012 that Palisades has the worst embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the U.S.  Media has reported that Palisades will violate the NRC’s embrittlement safety regulations yet again by 2017.  It first did so in 1981, 10 short years into operations.  

There is major public concern, as well as from the Union of Concerned Scientists, that an activation of the Emergency Core Cooling System – the last line of defense against a reactor core meltdown at Palisades – could, ironically, invite catastrophe.  As it happens, suddenly-injected cold water could cause “pressurized thermal shock” in the aging pressure vessel - high pressure magnified by the sudden temperature decrease which would cause the pressure vessel, bombarded by neutrons for years, to fracture. This could lead to a Loss of Coolant Accident, core meltdown, and catastrophic radioactivity release to the environment.  

Kalamazoo is within the 50-mile radiation ingestion zone.  

A second major concern is the radioactive waste currently stored on site in older casks and on the shores of Lake Michigan.  To add to the threat, Palisades continues to generate high level radioactive waste without a repository for it. 

Palisades is owned by Entergy Corporation based in New Orleans.  Recent media reports have discussed Entergy's financial troubles as it operates several nuclear plants across the Country, including the controversial Vermont Yankee plant.  Entergy has not completed all the safety repairs necessary, and required, by the NRC for Palisades. Entergy has been under intense scrutiny from the NRC, with additional inspectors placed at the plant and increased monitoring.  We are also concerned that Entergy could simply walk away from its responsibility to the people of the Lake Michigan region and leave a radioactive legacy behind for us. 

Michigan Safe Energy Future calls for Shutdown Before Meltdown-2013 to avoid further risks.

Who Should Attend:

*Anyone concerned about safe energy for Michigan and about the devastating effects of a nuclear meltdown at Palisades.  

* Media from Kalamazoo, all Lake Shore Areas and any/all independent or other media 

When:    Sunday, May 19, 5-9 p.m. 

Where:  Old Dog Tavern, 403 Kalamazoo Ave., Kalamazoo, MI; 269-381-5677, plenty of parking available 

Media Contacts:   

Catherine Sugas, 269-692-2827

Iris Potter, 269-271-4342   Email:  b.irispotter@gmail.com  

Facebook Event named:   Benefit for "Shutdown Palisades Campaign" sponsored by Michigan Safe Energy Future 

www.beyondnuclear.org

"Burning money" graphic by Gene Case, Avenging Angels

FitzPatrick, Pilgrim, and Vermont Yankee have each already recieved 20-year license extension rubber-stamps from NRC. FitzPatrick, even though it never installed a hardened vent in the early 1990s, to deal with its too small, too weak containment -- the only one, of 23 Mark I in the U.S., to not do so. Pilgrim became the longest contested license extension -- a proceeding lasting over 6 years -- thanks to the efforts of Mary Lampert at Pilgrim Watch. And the Vermont Yankee license extension was actually blocked by the State of Vermont -- this court battle between and involving the state, Entergy, and NRC rages on in multiple federal and state venues.

In a Feb. 8, 2013 interview with Reuters, Entergy's brand new CEO, Leo Denault, admitted that one of the main financial challenges Entergy faces is the high cost of making vital safety repairs on its age-degraded reactors.

“Anybody paying attention during the Fukushima disaster knows that if a nuclear accident happens here these same reactor designs very likely will not protect us from radiation releases,” said Paul Gunter, Director of the Reactor Oversight Project for Takoma Park, MD-based Beyond Nuclear. Read the full press release.

NRC file photo of Entergy's Arkansas Nuclear One twin reactor station

In 2001, NRC rubber-stamped a 20-year license extension on top of Unit 1's 1974 to 2014 original operating permit, blessing its operation till 2034. In 2005, NRC followed suit at Unit 2, enabling it to run not from 1978 till 2018, but till 2038.

As the article reports: "When the generator stator fell, it damaged other equipment and a water pipeline used for extinguishing fires. Water spilled from the pipeline into the building that contains the power turbine, the NRC said. The water seeped into an electrical component, causing a short-circuit that cut off power to the plant from the electric grid, according to Entergy and the NRC."

Unit 1 was reportedly shut down for maintenance at the time of the accident, but Unit 2 was operating at full power. For a yet to be explained reason, Unit 2 "automatically" shut down after the accident. Emergency diesel generators are reportedly supplying electricity to emergency, safety, cooling, and other systems at both reactors.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "Current Reactor Status Report" shows that both Arkansas Nuclear One reactors are at zero power levels. An Event Notification Report has been posted at the NRC's website. Note that the Event Notification Report filed by Entergy reports only four injuries. The extent of damage to Unit 1 facilities has yet to be determined.

NRC Commissioner William Magwood IV

The coalition issued a press release.

The St. Joe Herald-Palladium has reported on the meeting, as did Fox 17 television Grand Rapids. Michigan Radio's "Environment Report" quoted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps.

NRC Commissioner Magwood's career has been devoted to the promotion of nuclear power, first as an industry insider (including as a consultant to Tokyo Electric Power Company, infamous owner of the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant), and then as head of the promotional Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The Huffington Post has published exposés on Magwood's attempted coups against his bosses in order to take their jobs -- successfully at DOE, unsuccessfully at NRC. As also reported by HuffPost, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has vowed to block Magwood's aspirations for the NRC Chairmanship, due to Magwood breaking his promise to Reid to not advocate for the controversial Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump as an NRC Commissioner.

Due to his career promoting nuclear power, Beyond Nuclear led the environmental coalition effort to block President Obama's nomination of Magwood for the safety-regulatory NRC Commission in the first place, as well as the U.S. Senate's confirmation of Magwood for the position (the Project on Government Oversight launched a separate effort to block Magwood's confirmation). At the end of 2011, U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) cited Beyond Nuclear's coalition letter opposing Magwood's confirmation as she, too, criticized his broken promises to her about Yucca during his Feb. 2010 Senate confirmation hearing as an NRC Commissioner. Beyond Nuclear has also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to NRC after receiving an anonymous tip that NRC Commissioner Magwood has been holding regular, secretive meetings with leaders of the industry's Nuclear Energy Institute, in violation of open meetings laws and regulations. However, despite filing the FOIA request on Dec. 3, 2011, NRC has not yet responded.

NRC has issued a notice and press release about its upcoming April 2nd "End of Cycle" annual performance review public meeting to be held in South Haven about Palisades. See more info. from NRC about the Apirl 2 meeting here, including its slideshow to be presented (note NRC has loaded its slides sideways).

On April 11th, Beyond Nuclear is co-sponsoring west Michigan presentations entitled "Preventing an American Fukushima" by David Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists. He will present at 12 noon Eastern at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, and at 7 PM Eastern at the Beach Haven Event Center in South Haven, less than 5 miles north of Palisades. In his annual report of near-misses at U.S. atomic reactors, Lochbaum has included incidents at Palisades (two separate incidents in 2011 alone) for the past two years, making it one of the worst-run reactors in the country.