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No confidence in Seabrook nuclear plant environmental report

“..report appears to take a page out of the environmental report of the applicant,” … “That does not generate public confidence that you are doing anything other than promoting the (nuclear) industry.”….

Locals lambaste nuke officials on Seabrook plan, Seacoast Online, By Shir Haberman, September 16, 2011  HAMPTON — Officials from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission visited town Thursday to hear public input about possible environmental effects of extending the operating license for the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant until 2050.

The report, which the agency called preliminary, concluded, “The environmental impacts of license renewal for Seabrook Station are not great enough to deny the option of license renewal.”…

Some of the most specific complaints came from Thomas Saporito, a former nuclear instrument control technician and recent nuclear whistleblower. Saporito has previously spoken out against the extension of the operating license for the Turkey Point nuclear power plant in Homestead, Fla., as well as plants in Arizona and Texas.

On Thursday, he again leveled the accusation that the NRC is fast-tracking the process to get it done before Congress forces a shutdown of that activity in the wake of the nuclear disaster that struck Japan earlier this year.

“The NRC is in a footrace to rubber-stamping these renewals,” he said via a telephone conference call on Thursday.

Saporito also called on the NRC to require NextEra Seabrook LLC, the local plant’s operator, to do destructive testing on the metal components of the containment vessel the houses the nuclear reactor. He alleged that, without the testing, the agency could not make a judgment on the vessel’s long-term viability.

He also called the NRC’s review of energy alternatives that could make Seabrook obsolete by the year the license extension begins, 2030, “a joke.” Saporito said upgrades to area furnaces alone could reduce the need for the 1,250 megawatts of electricity produced by the local nuclear plant.

The whistleblower also asked that a new seismic study be performed for the area, in the wake of the recent earthquake in the region. He noted that seismic activity has affected other U.S. nuclear plants.

Doug Bogen, executive director of the Exeter-based Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, and Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear in Washington, D.C., chided the NRC for not taking into account information that has been supplied concerning alternatives to the extension of Seabrook’s license. Both organizations are interveners in the license renewal process.

“The world has changed after Fukushima (Japan), just as it did after Three-Mile Island (the near meltdown of a reactor in Pennsylvania) and just as it did after Chernobyl (the nuclear disaster in the Ukraine), but from everything I read in the (Environmental Impact Statement) it seems that, at the NRC, it’s business as usual,” Bogen said.

Gunter also chastised the agency for failing to take into account published studies that show a growth in alternative energy sources that could make Seabrook obsolete. He alleged that the NRC staff wrote a report that mirrored the one submitted by NextEra.

“Your report appears to take a page out of the environmental report of the applicant,” he said. “That does not generate public confidence that you are doing anything other than promoting the (nuclear) industry.”….

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110916-NEWS-109160399

September 17, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, USA