nuclear-news

The agency’s commissioners overruled a decision by the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to grant a hearing on three issues, or contentions, as regulators call them.

The plant’s operating license expires March 20, 2025.

Three environmental groups — Don’t Waste Michigan, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, and Beyond Nuclear — filed a request for a hearing with four proposed contentions challenging DTE’s application.Another environmental group, Citizens Resistance at Fermi 2, also known as CRAFT, filed a separate hearing request with fourteen proposed contentions.

Requests for the hearing were opposed by DTE and the NRC’s staff.

The NRC said its rules for allowing hearings on such contentions “are designed to ensure that only focused, well-supported issues are admitted for hearing.”

The coalition of groups said it plans to appeal the NRC’s decision in federal court.

The agency’s licensing board had granted a hearing on safety and environmental contentions regarding the common transmission line corridor shared by Fermi 2 and the proposed new Fermi 3 reactor.

Activists warned of a “domino effect” if either of those reactors or their high-level radioactive waste storage pools released radiation. Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.