"Japan’s nuclear watchdog will indefinitely suspend the use of the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor over the operator’s disregard for safety that continued even after the Fukushima nuclear crisis raised concerns across the nation," writes Hideki Muroya in the Asahi Shimbun. "

"In the latest case, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, operator of Monju, was found to have skipped inspections of nearly 10,000 pieces of equipment since 2010, including crucial devices in the safety and emergency systems at the plant, based in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.

"The company also violated its own safety regulations, according to the NRA.

"'Even when the reactor is offline, things stand in such a state,' an NRA official said after an on-site inspection of the reactor in February. “We cannot possibly approve a restart.” Read more. (Picture shows a still from video footage inside Monju during the 1995 sodium fire).

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; 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.

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

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 shut down. 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.

Industry plans for four new reactor projects in Texas and North Carolina have collapsed.

Reports the Dallas News: "Plans to build two new reactors at the South Texas Project nuclear facility outside Bay City hit a road block Tuesday. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled that a partnership between NRG and Toshiba Corp. through the holding company Nuclear Innovation North America violated a U.S law prohibiting foreign control of nuclear power plants." The holding company will appeal. The case appears similar if not identical to the situation at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland. There, Électricité de France was left as sole owner of a proposed third reactor after U.S. partner, Constellation Energy pulled out, leaving the French utility flying solo in the umbrella corporation they had created, UniStar. Foreign ownership and domination of a US reactor is prohibited under federal law via the Atomic Energy Act. Meanwhile, back at NRC Headquarters, federal officials are making a "fresh assessment" of the foreign ownership prohibition and how it might be modified for a voting paper to be handed over to the Nuclear "Railroad" Commissioners.

In North Carolina, the nuclear retreat continues apace. Duke Energy suspended its application for two new reactor units at its Shearon Harris site in North Carolina. The company said it saw no resource need for two new reactors based on the likely electricity needs of its customers for at least the next 15 years.  Although Duke continues to pursue plans for new reactors at Levy, FL and Gaffney, SC it has no firm commitment to either plant.

The report also notes that "Key drivers include changes in the price of natural gas as well as the possible future operation of existing nuclear power plants beyond the 60-year period for which most units are currently licensed." With nuclear construction costs high and natural gas prices low, new nuclear construction is unattractive. More.

An additional reason to abandon the reprocessing plan is that "the project to develop fast breeder reactors, which are supposed to play a central role in the recycling system, has been stalled for years due to a series of problems at the Monju fast breeder prototype reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. There is little prospect for commercialization of the technology."

Groups like Green Action have been fighting for years to prevent the start-up of Rokkasho. Victory now looks a step closer.

Gregory Jaczko, a former chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, recently grabbed news headlines when he called for the “phase out” of all 103 reactors with operating licenses in the United States. His candid remarks came prior and during a session on the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe at the April 8-9, 2013 Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in Washington, DC.  When asked why he had not considered such action while Commission Chairman, Jaczko offered “I didn’t come to it until recently.” He realized that all of the nuclear power plants in the US have a “fundamental design problem” even when the reactor cores are shut down a tremendous amount of residual heat must be cooled to prevent them from melting down and releasing catastrophic amounts of radioactivity.  Jaczko cited a short list of nuclear accidents including Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima where industry and regulators are “always chasing the previous problem” and an approach of “Band-Aid on Band-Aid” cannot eliminate this “fundamental design challenge.” Jaczko had earlier told one news source, “  The next accident is going to be something no one predicted.”

However, Jaczko says that perhaps “the solution” would be to design and build a replacement fleet of “more distributed” smaller modular reactors with “low energy density.” Such designs might be safer he argues if that residual heat generated following the shut down the nuclear reaction could not push the reactor core temperature to the melting point and an uncontrolled nuclear accident. 

Typically, as here, “solutions” are offered piecemeal without addressing the myriad of other routine and unresolved hazards that would still be emanating from your local mini-nuclear waste factory. 

More broadly and still unaddressed is the overarching issue of the industry’s “Nuclear Regulatory Capture" of the agency. All things considered, the nuclear industry forced Chairman Jaczko’s resignation in May 2012 for not sufficiently facilitating their financial and expansion agenda. To Jaczko’s credit, a number of his pursuits, decisions and actions as Chair were decidedly in the interest of the public health and safety at industry expense and image. His executive decision to advise the US State Department on the immediate evacuation of all US nationals in Japan within 50 miles of the Fukushima accident became an industry tipping point and fueled a witch hunt for his ouster.

You can support Mr. Jazcko's call to start closing dangerous nukes by signing the Beyond Nuclear petition to revoke the NRC operating licenses for Fukushima-style reactors here in the United States.

NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Monday, March 11, 2013

CONTACT: Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear, 301-523-0201 (mobile); 301.270.2209 (o)

On Fukushima Day, another door slams shut on US nuclear expansion plans

Beyond Nuclear lauds decision not to green light third Maryland reactor

Takoma Park, MD — On a day when thousands around the world are protesting nuclear power to mark two years since the deadly Fukushima nuclear accident began in Japan, another door has slammed shut on nuclear expansion plans in the US.

Beyond Nuclear hailed Monday’s decision by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to deny an appeal by UniStar, wholly owned by French utility, Électricité de France (EdF), for a third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant site on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

“Électricité de France sank into the financial quicksand that is new reactor construction,”  said Paul Gunter, Director of the Reactor Oversight Project at Beyond Nuclear, an environmental advocacy group based in Takoma Park, MD. “US nuclear corporations are clearly unwilling to join EdF in nuclear energy’s economic quagmire, a pattern that has been only too evident at EdF’s other reactor projects in Europe.”

EdF had hoped to build an Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR), a French Areva design originally targeted for six US nuclear sites. But the EPR, a new, untested design, already has a lamentable history in Europe. 

The EPR reactors under construction in Flamanville, France and Olkiluoto, Finland, are years behind schedule and enormously over-budget and the design has been challenged by safety authorities in France, Finland and Britain. Olkiluoto may now not be operational until 2016 — four years later than the original target date — and its price has more than doubled, soaring to $10 billion. Flamanville’s original budget has tripled. EdF’s UK reactor plans have been marked by the departure of a series of business partners.

“This decision could not be more timely, coming on the second anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear accident and on the heels of the recent decision of the Maryland State Legislature to adopt and invest in the development of offshore wind energy,” Gunter added. 

The NRC Order denied the EdF appeal on two grounds: on the agency’s policy  regarding foreign ownership, which is based on longstanding language in the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), which prohibits foreign ownership and control of US nuclear reactors; and that the applicants “continue to look for a U.S. partner, and have not amended their application.”

The applicant for a third Calvert Cliffs reactor was in trouble as soon as EdF’s US partner, Constellation Energy, withdrew. On August 30 2012, the NRC had given UniStar 60 more days to comply with the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) in order to be granted a license for a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs. 

After the 60 days expired, the NRC put the application on indefinite review. But when no US company stepped up to partner with EdF on the project, the NRC opted on Monday to deny the appeal. EdF could continue to search for a US partner but would need to start a new application for the Calvert Cliffs site.

“The nuclear retreat continues unabated,” Gunter pointed out. “Everywhere you look, new nuclear projects are either being canceled, or are encountering cost over-runs, and aging reactors are failing and permanently closing.” Gunter noted Duke Energy’s permanent closure of Florida’s Crystal River nuclear station and the Dominion Energy announcement of the permanent closure of Wisconsin’s Kewaunee nuclear station later this year.

In November 2008, three national safe energy groups — Beyond Nuclear, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and Public Citizen — and the local citizens group Southern Maryland Citizen Alliance for Renewable Energy Solutions — formally petitioned the NRC licensing board for a hearing opposing the Calvert Cliffs 3 application. The joint petition included the contention that EdF, as the dominant owner of the third proposed reactor, was in violation of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as amended and NRC licensing regulations, which prohibit controlling foreign ownership of a US nuclear plant. 

To read the full NRC Order, see: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/storage/calvert-cliffs-cola/cc3_order_03112013_denying_petition-for-review.pdf

To view a compilation of the Nuclear Retreat, see: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/the-nuclear-retreat/