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Gathering opposition to renewal of nuclear plant license

Other groups that have joined the petition include Beyond Nuclear, based in Takoma Park, Md.; New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution of Brattleboro, Vt.; Seacoast Anti-Pollution League in New Hampshire; Pilgrim Watch in Duxbury, Mass.; and C-10 Research & Education Foundation in Newburyport, Mass………….

Opponents petition NH power plant license renewal,  BusinessWeek, By KATHY McCORMACK 20 Aug 2010, CONCORD, N.H.Citizens’ groups filed a petition Wednesday to protest an application from New Hampshire’s lone nuclear power plant to extend its license for 20 years.

The NextEra Energy Seabrook Station has been operating since 1990. Its existing license runs out in 2030, but it applied in June to extend its license to 2050 under Nuclear Regulatory Commission provisions. The application is about 2,000 pages long.

The petitioners, who plan to testify at a public hearing on the matter Thursday, have asked the commission to suspend the NRC’s lengthy review process, which is not expected to be completed before 2012.

In the meantime, they’ve asked that the license extension process start no more than 10 years before the expiration date. Petitioners also say the license renewal process is premature because it can’t take into account key factors affecting plant maintenance, reliability and safety; climate change; technology; and future power needs.

“To get a permit for an action that actually isn’t going to be implemented for 20 years, in our view, places too wide of a time separation between the permit and the action,” said Raymond Shadis of the Friends of the Coast, based in Edgecomb, Maine.

Other groups that have joined the petition include Beyond Nuclear, based in Takoma Park, Md.; New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution of Brattleboro, Vt.; Seacoast Anti-Pollution League in New Hampshire; Pilgrim Watch in Duxbury, Mass.; and C-10 Research & Education Foundation in Newburyport, Mass………….

Opponents petition NH power plant license renewal – BusinessWeek

August 20, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, USA | antinuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear technology, reactors