CURRENT ACTIONS IN PROGRESS:
October 7, 2024 - Michigan Safe Energy Future is a Petitioning Party to intervene on behalf of local residents regarding the proposed restart of Palisades. Read the details here: https://beyondnuclear.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/10-7-24-Palisades-Petn-Intervene-PalisadesInterventionPetition-2.pdf
Beyond Nuclear and other environmental watchdog groups respond with why you should be very concerned about Holtec taking over the decommissioning of Palisades Nuclear Power Plant.
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Environmental Coalition Condemns NRC Approval of Holtec Takeover of Palisades Nuclear Reactor
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Continues to Ignore Health, Safety, Environmental, and Financial Concerns in Petition from Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste Michigan, and Michigan Safe Energy Future
[WASHINGTON, DC and COVERT, MI – December 13, 2021] -- Nearly ten months after having met the agency’s arbitrarily short 20-day legal deadline last February, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has rejected a petition to intervene and request for hearing to NRC. The petition was submitted on behalf of members of the environmental groups by Toledo, OH attorney Terry Lodge, and backed by expert witness Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. Some of the legal standing declarants live less than a mile from the Palisades nuclear power plant on the Lake Michigan shoreline.
NRC announced its “Notification of Significant Licensing Action” on Dec. 6, stating that its approval for Palisades’ license transfer from Entergy to Holtec would occur “on or around December 13.” NRC issued its official approval today. The license transfer would take effect shortly after Entergy’s previously announced permanent closure of the half-century old Palisades atomic reactor, by May 31, 2022.
“Not only did NRC force us to meet an impossibly short deadline last February, but then it made us wait nearly ten months, without a peep, only to deny us any hearing on our very serious environmental, health, safety, and fiscal concerns,” said Michael Keegan of Monroe, MI, Don’t Waste Michigan Co-Chairman. “We have been denied our due process rights by this rogue federal agency, captured by the industry it is supposed to regulate,” Keegan added.
“In response to this shocking ruling by the NRC commissioners and staff, I will confer with my clients, to seriously consider an appeal to federal court,” said Terry Lodge, the environmental coalition’s legal counsel.
Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, as well as the Office of State of Michigan Attorney General, Dana Nessel, had also petitioned NRC for a hearing, in opposition to the Holtec takeover of Palisades.
The environmental coalition’s legal and technical challenges opposed to current owner Entergy Nuclear's license transfer to Holtec International for decommissioning purposes and high-level radioactive waste management include Holtec's disqualifying bad corporate character, and its unnacceptable bids to drain the already woefully inadequate Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund (NDTF) for non-decommissioning expenses, such as irradiated nuclear fuel management and site restoration.
In fact, as part and parcel of its rejection of the coalition’s hearing request, and its approval of the license transfer, NRC also rubber-stamped Holtec’s waiver request to spend hundreds of millions of dollars from the Palisades NDTF on non-decommissioning expenses.
“NRC’s blank check for Holtec to misappropriate Palisades Decommissioning Trust Funds is an outrage, looting the pocketbooks of hardworking Michiganders,” said Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear, who also serves as a Don’t Waste Michigan board of directors member, representing his native Kalamazoo chapter. “It will undoubtedly shortchange cleanup of radioactive contamination at Palisades, harming current and future generations’ health, safety, and environment downwind and downstream,” Kamps added.
The now rejected intervention also objected to Holtec's large underestimation of both decommissioning expenses, as well as highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel management expenses. For example, the coalition's expert witness, Robert Alvarez, an Institute for Policy Studies senior scholar, and a former senior advisor to the U.S. Energy Secretary, has shown that Holtec has given no consideration to high burnup irradiated nuclear fuel's higher thermal heat load and radioactivity levels, even though it comprises a large percentage of the fuel to be stored on-site, and likely for much longer than Holtec's overly optimistic year 2066 terminus date.
Lastly, the coalition has argued for NRC to undertake a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, to address: the site's radioactive contamination of soil and groundwater; various "low" level radioactive waste streams, such as steam generators and highly radioactive Reactor Vessel Internals; the need for repackaging irradiated nuclear fuel from non-transportable and even defective current containers into new replacement containers; and increasing radiologic risks due to the current historic high, and worsening, Lake Michigan water levels.
Holtec's proposed takeover would also include Palisades' sibling, the Lake Michigan shoreline Big Rock Point nuclear power plant site in Charlevoix, Michigan, as part of the license transfer package deal. Although NRC in 2006 approved the supposedly-decommissioned site's release for unrestricted use, watchdogs remain very concerned about significant documented radioactive contamination abandoned there. In addition, eight casks of highly radioactive waste are still stored there, with nowhere else to go.
"With no ability to unload the high-level radioactive waste from an already known defective VSC-24 cask, and potentially additional faulty casks of this and other models in the future, Entergy and Holtec have teed up a cataclysmic disaster on the shore of Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan will eventually eat Palisades, and this unaddressed problem amounts to 'Criminal Negligence,'" stated Michael J. Keegan, Co-Chairman of Don't Waste Michigan in Monroe, MI.
"We continue to call for a safe and complete decommissioning which requires the removal of all radioactive waste that will likely be stored onsite indefinitely," said Bette Pierman, President of Michigan Safe Energy Future in Benton Harbor, MI. "It must be secured in non-permeable hard casks because of the highly radioactive waste. We strongly question Holtec International's decommissioning proposal with no guarantee of this to safeguard our health and that of our precious Lake Michigan. We also have serious concerns about the current Decommissioning Trust Funds--which were previously raided by Consumers Power and Entergy—to cover the complete costs of cleanup and restoration of the Palisades site. We do not want Holtec to leave Michigan ratepayers with a bill and a radioactive legacy," Pierman added.
"We object to NRC allowing Holtec to drain an initial $166 million, and likely more in the future, from the Palisades Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund for unrelated high-level radioactive waste management expenses, because that will severely shortchange the cleanup of documented extensive hazardous radioactive contamination of soil and groundwater," said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist with Beyond Nuclear, a national watchdog group based in Takoma Park, MD. "Abandoned radioactive contamination will flow downstream over time, into Lake Michigan and inland aquifers, both drinking water supplies. The radioactivity will not dilute, but rather bio-concentrate up the food chain, endangering current and future generations," Kamps added.
“As people who share the same Lake Michigan drinking water supply with 16 million other people, we are deeply concerned with how the Palisades closure and decommissioning is handled,” stated Gail Snyder, Board President of Nuclear Energy Information Service, based in Chicago, IL. “Having witnessed the numerous highly questionable dealings surrounding the decommissioning of the Zion nuclear reactors in Illinois from 2010 to the present, we are highly suspicious of Holtec’s motives and capability to conduct a credible and safe decommissioning, and skeptical that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will do more than a check-box oversight of the project. For those reasons constant and direct oversight from state and federal legislators in Michigan is imperative,” Snyder warned.
Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste Michigan, and Nuclear Energy Information Service have also intervened against Holtec's proposal to target majority minority (Hispanic, Indigenous) New Mexico with the country's high-level radioactive waste dump, a so-called "consolidated interim storage facility" (CISF) for irradiated nuclear fuel that risks becoming de facto permanent surface storage. Terry Lodge serves as legal counsel for Don't Waste Michigan and Nuclear Energy Information Service, and five additional grassroots environmental groups from across the U.S., in that proceeding as well. NRC has rejected all opponents' appeals, and the groups have now appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as well as the 10th Circuit in the Southwest.
"At the very top of the list of CISF non-starters is highly radioactive waste barge shipments, from Palisades to the Port of Muskegon, for offload onto a train for export out to the Southwest," said Terry Lodge, the environmental coalition's legal counsel. "Irradiated fuel sunk to the bottom of Lake Michigan could cause ruinous radioactive releases into the drinking water supply for tens of millions of people downstream in seven states, two provinces, and a large number of Indigenous Nations. Radioactive steam generator barge shipments across Lake Michigan, through Chicago's waterways, and down the Mississippi River could likewise lead to drinking water catastrophes," Lodge added.
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Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org.
--
Kevin Kamps
Radioactive Waste Specialist
Beyond Nuclear
7304 Carroll Avenue, #182
Takoma Park, Maryland 20912
Cell: (240) 462-3216
kevin@beyondnuclear.org
www.beyondnuclear.org
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.
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Environmental Coalition Condemns NRC Approval of Holtec Takeover of Palisades Nuclear Reactor
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Continues to Ignore Health, Safety, Environmental, and Financial Concerns in Petition from Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste Michigan, and Michigan Safe Energy Future
[WASHINGTON, DC and COVERT, MI – December 13, 2021] -- Nearly ten months after having met the agency’s arbitrarily short 20-day legal deadline last February, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has rejected a petition to intervene and request for hearing to NRC. The petition was submitted on behalf of members of the environmental groups by Toledo, OH attorney Terry Lodge, and backed by expert witness Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. Some of the legal standing declarants live less than a mile from the Palisades nuclear power plant on the Lake Michigan shoreline.
NRC announced its “Notification of Significant Licensing Action” on Dec. 6, stating that its approval for Palisades’ license transfer from Entergy to Holtec would occur “on or around December 13.” NRC issued its official approval today. The license transfer would take effect shortly after Entergy’s previously announced permanent closure of the half-century old Palisades atomic reactor, by May 31, 2022.
“Not only did NRC force us to meet an impossibly short deadline last February, but then it made us wait nearly ten months, without a peep, only to deny us any hearing on our very serious environmental, health, safety, and fiscal concerns,” said Michael Keegan of Monroe, MI, Don’t Waste Michigan Co-Chairman. “We have been denied our due process rights by this rogue federal agency, captured by the industry it is supposed to regulate,” Keegan added.
“In response to this shocking ruling by the NRC commissioners and staff, I will confer with my clients, to seriously consider an appeal to federal court,” said Terry Lodge, the environmental coalition’s legal counsel.
Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, as well as the Office of State of Michigan Attorney General, Dana Nessel, had also petitioned NRC for a hearing, in opposition to the Holtec takeover of Palisades.
The environmental coalition’s legal and technical challenges opposed to current owner Entergy Nuclear's license transfer to Holtec International for decommissioning purposes and high-level radioactive waste management include Holtec's disqualifying bad corporate character, and its unnacceptable bids to drain the already woefully inadequate Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund (NDTF) for non-decommissioning expenses, such as irradiated nuclear fuel management and site restoration.
In fact, as part and parcel of its rejection of the coalition’s hearing request, and its approval of the license transfer, NRC also rubber-stamped Holtec’s waiver request to spend hundreds of millions of dollars from the Palisades NDTF on non-decommissioning expenses.
“NRC’s blank check for Holtec to misappropriate Palisades Decommissioning Trust Funds is an outrage, looting the pocketbooks of hardworking Michiganders,” said Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear, who also serves as a Don’t Waste Michigan board of directors member, representing his native Kalamazoo chapter. “It will undoubtedly shortchange cleanup of radioactive contamination at Palisades, harming current and future generations’ health, safety, and environment downwind and downstream,” Kamps added.
The now rejected intervention also objected to Holtec's large underestimation of both decommissioning expenses, as well as highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel management expenses. For example, the coalition's expert witness, Robert Alvarez, an Institute for Policy Studies senior scholar, and a former senior advisor to the U.S. Energy Secretary, has shown that Holtec has given no consideration to high burnup irradiated nuclear fuel's higher thermal heat load and radioactivity levels, even though it comprises a large percentage of the fuel to be stored on-site, and likely for much longer than Holtec's overly optimistic year 2066 terminus date.
Lastly, the coalition has argued for NRC to undertake a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, to address: the site's radioactive contamination of soil and groundwater; various "low" level radioactive waste streams, such as steam generators and highly radioactive Reactor Vessel Internals; the need for repackaging irradiated nuclear fuel from non-transportable and even defective current containers into new replacement containers; and increasing radiologic risks due to the current historic high, and worsening, Lake Michigan water levels.
Holtec's proposed takeover would also include Palisades' sibling, the Lake Michigan shoreline Big Rock Point nuclear power plant site in Charlevoix, Michigan, as part of the license transfer package deal. Although NRC in 2006 approved the supposedly-decommissioned site's release for unrestricted use, watchdogs remain very concerned about significant documented radioactive contamination abandoned there. In addition, eight casks of highly radioactive waste are still stored there, with nowhere else to go.
"With no ability to unload the high-level radioactive waste from an already known defective VSC-24 cask, and potentially additional faulty casks of this and other models in the future, Entergy and Holtec have teed up a cataclysmic disaster on the shore of Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan will eventually eat Palisades, and this unaddressed problem amounts to 'Criminal Negligence,'" stated Michael J. Keegan, Co-Chairman of Don't Waste Michigan in Monroe, MI.
"We continue to call for a safe and complete decommissioning which requires the removal of all radioactive waste that will likely be stored onsite indefinitely," said Bette Pierman, President of Michigan Safe Energy Future in Benton Harbor, MI. "It must be secured in non-permeable hard casks because of the highly radioactive waste. We strongly question Holtec International's decommissioning proposal with no guarantee of this to safeguard our health and that of our precious Lake Michigan. We also have serious concerns about the current Decommissioning Trust Funds--which were previously raided by Consumers Power and Entergy—to cover the complete costs of cleanup and restoration of the Palisades site. We do not want Holtec to leave Michigan ratepayers with a bill and a radioactive legacy," Pierman added.
"We object to NRC allowing Holtec to drain an initial $166 million, and likely more in the future, from the Palisades Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund for unrelated high-level radioactive waste management expenses, because that will severely shortchange the cleanup of documented extensive hazardous radioactive contamination of soil and groundwater," said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist with Beyond Nuclear, a national watchdog group based in Takoma Park, MD. "Abandoned radioactive contamination will flow downstream over time, into Lake Michigan and inland aquifers, both drinking water supplies. The radioactivity will not dilute, but rather bio-concentrate up the food chain, endangering current and future generations," Kamps added.
“As people who share the same Lake Michigan drinking water supply with 16 million other people, we are deeply concerned with how the Palisades closure and decommissioning is handled,” stated Gail Snyder, Board President of Nuclear Energy Information Service, based in Chicago, IL. “Having witnessed the numerous highly questionable dealings surrounding the decommissioning of the Zion nuclear reactors in Illinois from 2010 to the present, we are highly suspicious of Holtec’s motives and capability to conduct a credible and safe decommissioning, and skeptical that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will do more than a check-box oversight of the project. For those reasons constant and direct oversight from state and federal legislators in Michigan is imperative,” Snyder warned.
Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste Michigan, and Nuclear Energy Information Service have also intervened against Holtec's proposal to target majority minority (Hispanic, Indigenous) New Mexico with the country's high-level radioactive waste dump, a so-called "consolidated interim storage facility" (CISF) for irradiated nuclear fuel that risks becoming de facto permanent surface storage. Terry Lodge serves as legal counsel for Don't Waste Michigan and Nuclear Energy Information Service, and five additional grassroots environmental groups from across the U.S., in that proceeding as well. NRC has rejected all opponents' appeals, and the groups have now appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as well as the 10th Circuit in the Southwest.
"At the very top of the list of CISF non-starters is highly radioactive waste barge shipments, from Palisades to the Port of Muskegon, for offload onto a train for export out to the Southwest," said Terry Lodge, the environmental coalition's legal counsel. "Irradiated fuel sunk to the bottom of Lake Michigan could cause ruinous radioactive releases into the drinking water supply for tens of millions of people downstream in seven states, two provinces, and a large number of Indigenous Nations. Radioactive steam generator barge shipments across Lake Michigan, through Chicago's waterways, and down the Mississippi River could likewise lead to drinking water catastrophes," Lodge added.
-30-
Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org.
--
Kevin Kamps
Radioactive Waste Specialist
Beyond Nuclear
7304 Carroll Avenue, #182
Takoma Park, Maryland 20912
Cell: (240) 462-3216
kevin@beyondnuclear.org
www.beyondnuclear.org
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.
Here's the latest from Holtec who will be entrusted with the Decommissioning of Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. This is not good news for Southwest Michigan and the Great Lakes.
NEIS Illinois' Nuclear Power Watchdog since 1981 hosts Congressional Briefing on Lake Michigan Nuclear Issues April 9, 2021.
NRC -- Applicants’ Motion to Strike Portions of Beyond Nuclear et al.’s Reply and Second Declaration of Robert Alvarez -- April 5, 2021
ML21095A342.pdf
ML21095A342.pdf
NRC -- REPLY OF BEYOND NUCLEAR, MICHIGAN SAFE ENERGY FUTURE AND DON’T WASTE MICHIGAN IN OPPOSITION TO APPLICANTS’ ‘MOTION TO STRIKE PORTIONS OF BEYOND NUCLEAR ET AL.’S REPLY AND
SECOND DECLARATION OF ROBERT ALVAREZ’ -- April 14, 2021
ML21104A427.pdf
SECOND DECLARATION OF ROBERT ALVAREZ’ -- April 14, 2021
ML21104A427.pdf
NRC -- MEMORANDUM OF BEYOND NUCLEAR, MICHIGAN SAFE ENERGY FUTURE AND DON’T WASTE MICHIGAN IN OPPOSITION TO APPLICANT’S MOTION TO STRIKE LATE RESPONSES --
April 16, 2021
ML21106A313.pdf
April 16, 2021
ML21106A313.pdf
MSEF WROTE TO MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL DANA NESSEL REQUESTING THAT SHE INTERVENE IN THE DECOMMISSIONING PLANS BETWEEN ENTERGY AND HOLTEC
| michigan_safe_energy_future_ag_letter.pdf |
Press Release: Environmental Coalition Intervenes against Holtec Takeover of Palisades Atomic Reactor
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/decommissioning/
Petition of the Michigan Attorney General for Leave to Intervene and for a Hearing.
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML21055A888
Petition of Beyond Nuclear, Michigan Safe Energy Future and Don't Waste Michigan for Leave to Intervene, and Request for an Adjudicatory Hearing.
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML21055A953
The Environmental Law & Policy Center Petition to Intervene and Hearing Request.
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML21055A914
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/decommissioning/
Petition of the Michigan Attorney General for Leave to Intervene and for a Hearing.
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML21055A888
Petition of Beyond Nuclear, Michigan Safe Energy Future and Don't Waste Michigan for Leave to Intervene, and Request for an Adjudicatory Hearing.
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML21055A953
The Environmental Law & Policy Center Petition to Intervene and Hearing Request.
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML21055A914
IMPORTANT:
Contact Our Governor Whitmer. Ask Her to Intervene in Decommissioning Palisades Nuclear Plant.
Governor Whitmer, please intervene in the decommissioning of Palisades Nuclear Plant. We need transparency and financial accountability from ENTERGY and HOLTEC and the USNRC.
https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/governor-whitmer-please-intervene-in-palisades-nuclear-plant-decommissioning
Governor Whitmer, please intervene in the decommissioning of Palisades Nuclear Plant. We need transparency and financial accountability from ENTERGY and HOLTEC and the USNRC.
https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/governor-whitmer-please-intervene-in-palisades-nuclear-plant-decommissioning
Holtec International and Entergy are proposing the following plan:
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc. gov/webSearch2/main.jsp? AccessionNumber=ML20358A232
The Plan in summary: It is a 19 year long plan that proposes to decommission the Palisades power plant starting no later than May 31, 2022. The fuel will be moved from the Reactor Pressure Vessel before July 2022, and all spent fuel will be removed from the Spent Fuel Pool by July of 2025. All spent fuel casks will be relocated to the East storage pad (farthest from the Lake). The plant will sit idle to cool off from 2026-2035 and for the Trust Fund to grow, then it would be torn down and everything removed from the site (including High Level Nuclear wastes) by Dec. 31, 2041. Holtec proposes that the Decommissioning Trust Fund is adequate to cover the $644 Million cost, but that $0 money will be left over when the project is complete.
We must not trust that Holtec will do exactly what it proposes. For example, it is attempting to build a Small Modular Reactor at the Oyster Creek Decommissioning site!
https://whyy.org/ articles/new-nuclear-plant- could-rise-at-former-oyster- creek-site-in-n-j
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc. gov/webSearch2/main.jsp? AccessionNumber=ML20358A232
The Plan in summary: It is a 19 year long plan that proposes to decommission the Palisades power plant starting no later than May 31, 2022. The fuel will be moved from the Reactor Pressure Vessel before July 2022, and all spent fuel will be removed from the Spent Fuel Pool by July of 2025. All spent fuel casks will be relocated to the East storage pad (farthest from the Lake). The plant will sit idle to cool off from 2026-2035 and for the Trust Fund to grow, then it would be torn down and everything removed from the site (including High Level Nuclear wastes) by Dec. 31, 2041. Holtec proposes that the Decommissioning Trust Fund is adequate to cover the $644 Million cost, but that $0 money will be left over when the project is complete.
We must not trust that Holtec will do exactly what it proposes. For example, it is attempting to build a Small Modular Reactor at the Oyster Creek Decommissioning site!
https://whyy.org/ articles/new-nuclear-plant- could-rise-at-former-oyster- creek-site-in-n-j
This letter is pertaining to the “Post Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) Holtec Plan to Decommission Palisades Rev 12-23-2020 ML20358A232.pdf” found at the following link: https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML20358A232
MSEF-SH January 2017 Statement on Planned Closure of Palisades Nuclear Plant
We, Michigan Safe Energy Future-Shoreline (MSEF-SH) members, support and are glad to hear of plans to permanently close Palisades Nuclear plant on October 2018.
We ask that the following items be addressed and communicated to our community immediately:
1. Entergy/NRC Region III, please provide a detailed plan to be shared with our community that describes the timeline, finances on reserve and actions that will be required to COMPLETELY restore the site to its natively safe and uncontaminated level.
2. We ask that the Palisades Decommissioning Fund be rapidly filled by Entergy Corporation profits to match the dollars required by the NRC in the escrow account BEFORE October 2018. Once the plant is fully decommissioned, any remaining funds in the escrow account may then be returned to Entergy Corp. The Decommissioning Funds must be placed into low-risk, diversified bank accounts to avoid repeating the losses to the fund that occurred during the 2008 financial crisis when the fund was held in the stock market.
3. We ask that the plant be fully decommissioned and not placed into “SAFSTOR” for an indefinite amount of time. Placing a plant into “SAFSTOR”, would push the cost of the decommissioning on future generations who did not benefit from its operation and who may not have the financial or technical resources to decommission it safely.
4. We ask that high level nuclear wastes currently stored at the site be relocated from their current location on the shore of Lake Michigan to a location further from the shoreline in Hardened On-Site Storage. This will allow for erosion of the shoreline over the ensuing centuries to not endanger our community and future generations.
In addition, we will work to educate and support replacing this industry by attracting future fossil-free, renewable energy business such as Solar production to come into the community and help employ and contribute to the area’s economy and tax base.
We, Michigan Safe Energy Future-Shoreline (MSEF-SH) members, support and are glad to hear of plans to permanently close Palisades Nuclear plant on October 2018.
We ask that the following items be addressed and communicated to our community immediately:
1. Entergy/NRC Region III, please provide a detailed plan to be shared with our community that describes the timeline, finances on reserve and actions that will be required to COMPLETELY restore the site to its natively safe and uncontaminated level.
2. We ask that the Palisades Decommissioning Fund be rapidly filled by Entergy Corporation profits to match the dollars required by the NRC in the escrow account BEFORE October 2018. Once the plant is fully decommissioned, any remaining funds in the escrow account may then be returned to Entergy Corp. The Decommissioning Funds must be placed into low-risk, diversified bank accounts to avoid repeating the losses to the fund that occurred during the 2008 financial crisis when the fund was held in the stock market.
3. We ask that the plant be fully decommissioned and not placed into “SAFSTOR” for an indefinite amount of time. Placing a plant into “SAFSTOR”, would push the cost of the decommissioning on future generations who did not benefit from its operation and who may not have the financial or technical resources to decommission it safely.
4. We ask that high level nuclear wastes currently stored at the site be relocated from their current location on the shore of Lake Michigan to a location further from the shoreline in Hardened On-Site Storage. This will allow for erosion of the shoreline over the ensuing centuries to not endanger our community and future generations.
In addition, we will work to educate and support replacing this industry by attracting future fossil-free, renewable energy business such as Solar production to come into the community and help employ and contribute to the area’s economy and tax base.