Nuclear News Items
Chronological listing of Nuclear posts
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2022
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Mar. 07, 2022: Working in communities in the Southeast since 1984, we are well aware of radioactive waste initiatives going out to potential waste dump communities. The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League was founded because of one such program, the DOE's Crystalline Repository Project and interim Monitored Retrievable Storage Site. We have continually opposed such radioactive waste dumps wherever they are proposed, including Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Likewise, we oppose so-called consolidated interim storage schemes. |
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Jan. 22, 2022: BREDL requests President Biden to take action to have the U.S. adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to make the treaty a core element of his administration's upcoming Nuclear Posture Review. |
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2021
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 May. 04, 2021: Bill Gates believes he has figured out a solution for combating climate change: a return to nuclear power. We at Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and others around the world know that nuclear energy and power are not the future we should look to. The nuclear industry is a struggling industry as more and more plants get shut down and retire. Since 2012, six reactors have shut down and there are plans that seven others will close. Meanwhile, solar and renewables are growing. |
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Mar. 19, 2021: Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League is in opposition to Tennessee Valley Authority going through with the construction, operation, and decommissioning of an advanced nuclear reactor technology park at the Clinch River Nuclear (CRN) Site in Oak Ridge, Roane County, Tennessee for the following reasons: A variety of negative environmental and human health impacts, there are no efficient and practical solutions for nuclear waste, small modular reactors and microreactors are not the future or cost effective, nuclear energy is a struggling industry, and energy demands are decreasing. |
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Jan. 22, 2021: Today, people living near the Savannah River Site participated in an historic day in the movement to eliminate nuclear weapons. Joining with scores of similar actions across the nation and around the world, local residents unfurled a 10-foot banner stating that "Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal." At midnight, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force, establishing in international ban on nuclear weapons.
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2020
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Dec. 29, 2020: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Answer claims that BREDL has relied on predecisional material in this matter. This is incorrect. BREDL is relying on material that was contemporaneous with its intervention yet withheld from public scrutiny. This information, which was used by NRC to reach its decision to approve SNC's license amendment request, was provided to BREDL only after a lengthy FOIA response period. |
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Dec. 17, 2020: In a 22-page brief filed on December 7th, BREDL's Lou Zeller stated, "The NRC continues this pattern of non-response to requests for information." He said that vital information used by the NRC staff to change Plant Vogtle's construction license is still being withheld from public view, and that private sessions were held in the company's Electronic Reading Room. "It is tantamount to needing a secret decoder ring to get to the treasure map." Under federal rules of evidence, all documents for the record must be open to examination by all parties. |
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Sep. 09, 2020: Today residents of the Shell Bluff community and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League announced that they had filed a legal appeal of the license changes granted last month to the owners of Plant Vogtle. In an eight-page brief filed on Friday, the opponents of the license identified a ''Catch-22" process used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission |
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Jul. 13, 2020: The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is expected to agree to lift a ban on investment into advanced nuclear energy projects for export in July. The proposed change to the agency's Environmental and Social Policy and Procedures that would enable the consideration of support of nuclear power projects. |
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Jun. 15, 2020: BREDL contends that, under the guise of a one-inch change in the seismic gap between two critical walls in the Vogtle reactor, Southern Nuclear Company has admitted to a much more serious problem. |
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May 18, 2020: Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act - Section 102 42 U.S.C. 4332 DOE/NNSA must take a systematic, interdisciplinary approach to environmental impact on the human environment. The draft EIS posits two alternatives: 1) Proposed Action to repurpose the mixed oxide fuel fabrication facility into the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility to produce a minimum of 50 pits per year; and 2) No Action Alternative. Alternative number two is the only acceptable option. |
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May 12, 2020: The Company's License Amendment Request does not comply with the current licensing basis, the applicable statutes and regulations, or the process for modifying the current licensing basis for Vogtle Unit 3 as set forth in 10 CFR 52.98(f). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission cannot approve this license amendment request. Our principal interests are the health and safety of our members living near the plant and the general public. |
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Jan. 24, 2020: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is deciding whether to develop a generic environmental impact statement for the construction and operation of a broad, diverse, and undefined category of advanced nuclear reactors. |
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2019
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Dec. 12, 2019: Today the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League announced the filing of its legal petition opposing renewed construction of the Bellefonte nuclear power plant. The 15-page brief, filed Wednesday, seeks to Intervene to stop the transfer of the construction permits for Units 1 and 2 from the Tennessee Valley Authority to a private firm, Nuclear Development LLC. BREDL's local chapter Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team, or BEST, founded in 2008 to defeat a previous permit, also joined the suit. |
Aug. 26, 2019: BREDL Fact Sheet on Versatile Test Reactors.
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Aug. 12, 2019: We hereby request that The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration do a new EIS as
required under existing statutes and case law. NNSA’s pit production mission was emphasized as a national security imperative by the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. For many reasons, the argument for this mission can be
shown to be specious and ill-advised. On the other hand, if it were shown to be valid, it is a major action for which an Environmental Impact Statement would be required. International treaty obligations and U.S. law prohibit further development of atomic
weapons. The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty compels the United States to end nuclear weapons development.
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July 25, 2019: Before proceeding with its environmental impact review, the US Department of Energy must do what should have been done decades ago; i.e., determine the public health impact of radioactive and toxic air pollutants from Savannah River Site in the Central Savannah River Area. There is an overarching reason for action: the specter of environmental injustice overshadows SRS.
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May 30, 2019: We maintain that the EPD’s inclusion of mitigation in a water withdrawal permit was the wrong measure in the wrong place. It was unfair and contrary to the law for NPDES measures—
accounting for chemical and thermal discharges to waters of the United States—to be allowed through the back door of a water withdrawal permit.
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2018
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Oct. 19, 2018: We oppose the proposed Interim Storage Partners dumpsite for high level radioactive waste in Andrews County, Texas. There have been many attempts to establish centralized interim storage: the Monitored
Retrievable Storage program in east Tennessee, the industry’s privatized storage program
targeting Native Americans, the Mescalero Apache Nation in New Mexico and the Skull
Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah. |
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Aug. 9, 2018: The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and its chapter Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff have filed detailed comments opposing the state’s air pollution permit for Plant Vogtle. In the comments, the groups oppose the excessive levels of hazardous air pollution emitted from the cooling towers and other sources in a community already stressed by power plant impacts. They called upon the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to reject the permit.
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June 5, 2018: Tennessee Valley Authority failed to justify need for a so-called small modular nuclear plant at Clinch River. Without a thoroughgoing assessment of need, the no-action alternative analysis is reduced to pablum. Failure to correct this omission and subsequent approval of the permit by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would present a needless—even thoughtless—risk to the public.
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2017
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Aug. 15, 2017: On Wednesday and Thursday, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
will hold a series of public forums in Atlanta and Augusta detailing the unsafe conditions
at the nuclear power plants now under construction at Plant Vogtle. The meetings will
feature Arnold Gundersen, a certified nuclear power plant engineer and a long-time critic
of the Westinghouse AP1000 reactors.
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June 27, 2017: “First-of-a-kind” means that such a nuclear power device has never been built before; it is an experimental design, untested. This alone should close the deregulatory discussion of having emergency planning zones which do not extend outside the plant fence line.
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June 13, 2017: Reduce global warming? Improve energy security? Neither of these goals is advanced by the siting of modular nukes at the Clinch River Nuclear Site.
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June 2, 2017: Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff advise Burke County Development Authority to request an update on the Toshiba-Westinghouse bankruptcy and its potential impacts on the partially constructed Vogtle nuclear power plants. We also to request that no additional cost increases will be passed along to Burke County ratepayers for this failed nuclear endeavor.
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May 15, 2017: Tennessee Valley Authority seeks to justify its plans for Clinch River on better energy security and reduced global warming. But its plan for small modular nuclear power plants satisfies neither of these goals; in fact, it takes the nation in the opposite direction.
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Jan. 27, 2017: The Department of Energy request contemplates pilot-scale and large-scale facilities. The DOE pointedly refers to potential host and nearby communities, private operators and existing nuclear
waste facility operators responding to this Request for Information. The Department’s integrated waste management systems include both pilot interim storage facilities and much larger consolidated interim storage facilities.
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2016
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Oct. 11, 2016: Hydrogen created during an accident in a nuclear power plant can explode. Hydrogen igniters are supposed to burn the gas before it reaches dangerous levels. But rather than performing a rigorous analysis as required by federal law and common sense, Southern Nuclear chose to modify its design by adding two hydrogen igniters in a “likely area” based on personal “judgment” of its engineers. Reliance on engineering judgment instead of rigorous testing and analysis creates uncertainty and compromises plant safety.
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July 16, 2016: We oppose any weakening of drinking water standards for radioactivity. The Safe Drinking Water Act limits should be complied with. The Protective Action Guides should do what they are supposed to do: provide protective action guidance for authorities on how to treat contaminated water or provide alternative drinking water supplies.
Comment Deadline was July 25, 2016. BREDL Fact Sheet
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June 14, 2016: BREDL responds to the Invitation for Public Comment; specifically, to share our views on why concept of "informed consent" is so problematic with regard to radioactive waste policy.
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June 3, 2016: Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and chapter Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff filed their reply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in an ongoing battle against a license amendment at Plant Vogtle which would increase the potential risk of hydrogen fire and explosion, causing damage to the community living in the shadow of nuclear power plants in Burke County, Georgia.
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May 12, 2016: Today BREDL and the Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff announced a challenge to a license amendment at Plant Vogtle which would increase the potential risk of hydrogen fire and explosion, causing damage to the containment structures of two nuclear power plants now being constructed in Burke County, Georgia. Unaccountably, four years elapsed before the company informed NRC of this risk.
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April 2016: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expecting an application for a site permit from the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a new type of nuclear powered electric generating plant near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The application is expected on or before May 12, 2016. BREDL staff and volunteers attended the NRC’s recent public meeting about the project and is working with local residents who are concerned about TVA’s plans.
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Bellefonte 3 and 4 nuclear reactors Feb. 10, 2016: The Tennessee Valley Authority is wasting tens of millions of dollars annually propping up its twice abandoned Bellefonte plant. Truly, it is a zombie reactor. It is time to face the facts. Today, we presented a fiscal analysis revealing fractured accounting and the staggering debt load which nuclear power has saddled onto TVA, evidence favoring withdrawal of the license application at Bellefonte.
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Jan. 11, 2016: In our legal brief filed January 11, 2016, BREDL and its chapter Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff have demonstrated that safety margins have been reduced at the nuclear reactors now under construction in Waynesboro, Georgia. Southern Company's failure to obtain a license amendment at Plant Vogtle prior to implementing the changes is a violation of federal regulations.
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2015
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Dec. 7: Southern Nuclear Operating Company is seeking to amend its license to relax the construction standards for the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Units 3 and 4. If permitted by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the changes would alter the reactors’ critical radiation shielding walls. BREDL and Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff oppose the license amendment because it would endanger plant safety, plant personnel and the surrounding community.
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Nov. 9, 2015: Southern Company has filed a license amendment request for the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia which would allow the preemptory alteration of the license before a full public review. We oppose the granting of the Preliminary Amendment Request and the License Amendment itself. Our principal interests are the health and safety of our members living near the plant and the general public.
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March 3, 2015: Southern Company seeks a permit to discharge heated radioactive water from Plant Vogtle into the Savannah River. BREDL has identified two issues of major concern: 1) The draft permit contains no effective heat discharge limits, and 2) The draft permit would allow 630 Curies of radioactivity to be discharged into the Savannah River annually. Public comment deadline in March 20, 2015. Call us to find out more.
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Jan. 28, 2015: Contrary to federal law, the required environmental reviews for nuclear power stations proposed by Dominion in Louisa, VA, Duke Energy in Gaffney, SC and a half dozen others omit any reference to the NRC’s recently issued irradiated nuclear fuel storage analysis. Instead, they are directed to environmental analyses that have been outdated; or worse, vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for failure to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. Our petitions call for a full environmental assessment of the safety and public health risks of long term storage at the reactor sites.
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Jan. 6, 2015: Today at a press conference in Augusta, a group launched a new program to protect residents from nuclear power plant accidents. The group, Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff, will be meeting with residents of Augusta, Waynesboro and nearby communities within the emergency zone around the Plant Vogtle nuclear power station. The project centers on one of the most dangerous pollutants, radioactive iodine, which can affect the thyroid gland.
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2014
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Cite Failure to Comply with Court Ruling
Sept. 29, 2014: Today a coalition of 17 public interest groups filed legal actions to halt the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission’s licensing of two dozen power plants. The actions were taken in
response to the NRC’s failure comply with the US Court of Appeals DC Circuit order which held
that the Commission must assess the long-term impacts of radioactive waste storage before
issuing any new power plant licenses. |
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Commissioner Magwood failed to recuse himself on key votes.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 18, 2014 – Today a broad coalition of 34 public interest groups
called upon Commissioner William D. Magwood to resign from his position on the United States
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The groups cited his recent taking of a job promoting nuclear
power while serving on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the cause.
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Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Units 3 & 4, Burke Co., GA
May 15, 2014: Georgia EPD's inclusion of mitigation in a water withdrawal permit is the wrong measure in the wrong place. Proper consideration of such measures is the province of an NPDES waste water discharge permit, which has been applied for but not released by EPD. We believe it would be unfair and contrary to the law if NPDES mitigation measures were allowed through the back door of a water withdrawal permit instead of a discharge permit, the proper place to consider chemical and thermal discharges to waters of the United States.
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April 9, 2014: From the reply of BREDL to the NRC and the power company, quoting Emerson:
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March 2014: After the Virginia earthquake in 2011, BREDL filed new objections to a third nuke at North Anna. After two-years of additional analysis, Dominion-Virginia Power still seems to be unable to build a new plant without departures, exemptions and variances from federal environmental and safety regulations. The company’s inability to meet standards is at the crux of our motion to reopen the license challenge.
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March 2014: The League has requested Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality hold a Public Hearing on the Draft VPDES Permit. Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit is a permit that is required to discharge pollutants into surface waters from a point source.
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Feb. 27, 2014: Today the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League filed a legal challenge to require a full federal analysis of storage of irradiated fuel at the Sequoyah and Bellefonte nuclear power plants. The petition demands that NRC do a complete environmental impact statement on the effects of accidents and leakage on public health and environment. The League also filed a challenges at a power plant in Virginia.
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Feb. 27, 2014: Today the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League filed a legal challenge to require a full federal analysis of storage of irradiated fuel at the North Anna nuclear power plant. The petition demands that NRC do a complete environmental impact statement on the effects of accidents and leakage on public health and environment. The League also filed challenges at two other power plants in Alabama and Tennessee.
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Feb. 27, 2014: Our motion to stay petitions the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend reactor licensing decisions while the agency considers new information on the environmental impacts of used radioactive fuel storage in reactor pools. This new information was detailed in the Consequence Study of a Beyond-Design-Basis Earthquake Affecting the Spent Fuel Pool for a U.S. Mark I Boiling Water Reactor, Oct. 9, 2013. The NRC Staff found that if even a small fraction of the inventory of the Peach Bottom reactor pool were released to the environment in a severe spent fuel pool accident, an average area of 9,400 square miles would be rendered uninhabitable, and that 4.1 million people would be displaced over the long-term. And the NRC concluded for the first time that the likelihood of spent fuel pool fires could be affected by reactor accidents.
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February 18, 2014: Today BREDL and 33 other organizations petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a new environmental impact study that incorporates new and significant information from the agency’s post-Fukushima investigation into the risks of severe accidents in nuclear reactor irradiated fuel pools. We also requested that the NRC should suspend all reactor licensing and re-licensing decisions until the assessment is complete.
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January 2014: The three-year rate plan recently approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission will hit households hard. But the cumulative impact of the rate hikes will take hundreds-of-thousands of dollars out of the local county every year, and hundreds-of millions of dollars annually from the state economy, money otherwise spent on food, clothing, transportation and shelter.
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2013
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Dec. 20, 2013: View BREDL Comments
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Lou is the Executive Director of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. He discussed the human health impacts of nuclear power & the experiences of those who live near radioactive sites. The experiences are similar wherever people are from; they oppose radioactive poisons and the facilities that produce them.
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Sept. 18, 2013: The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's draft study on irradiated nuclear fuel storage at power plant sites should be withdrawn and efforts to incorporate it into the NRCs regulatory framework should be halted. NRC should start a proper investigation of the risks and consequences of pool fires in this nation's power plants based on the lessons learned from the disaster at Fukushima Japan in 2011.
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Unsafe Design, Future Flooding, and Cancer Rates Cited Sept. 5, 2013: League rebuts TVA, presses its case for intervention in license renewal for aging nuke plant.
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Unsafe Design, Future Flooding, and Cancer Rates Cited
July 30, 2013:
In May we raised significant safety and environmental problems with TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Plant license renewal. But the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has abdicated its responsibility to rule on our petition and denied our right to due process. Therefore, we make this appeal to the full Nuclear Regulatory Commission to grant our request for a hearing.
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June 6, 2013: The results of a detailed investigation released today reveal residents living near or
downwind of Browns Ferry are at greater risk for cancer and death than average U.S.
communities. The study found potential links between radioactive emissions from Browns
Ferry and adverse health effects in seven counties near and downwind of the plant.
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Unsafe Design, Future Flooding, and Cancer Rates Cited
May 7, 2013:
BREDL’s petition points out the dangers in Tennessee Valley Authority’s request to extend the license of its troubled Sequoyah Nuclear Power Plant. The most significant risk is a system which depends on baskets of ice to prevent a Fukushima-style explosion of the reactor building. Our petition uncovers a fatal flaw based on aging and the inability to inspect critical parts of the reactor building. BREDL is calling for the early closure of all seven plants of this manufacture in Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.
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Do you live within the 50-mile radius?
DEADLINE: MAY 1, 2013 Folks, there is no time to waste as we work to stop Nuclear Regulatory Commission from extending Sequoyah Nuclear Plant licenses through legal avenues. A Declaration of Standing document link is below. Should you choose to sign it, you allow BEST/MATRR, chapter of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) to represent your concerns. You must be a paid up member of BREDL/BEST/MATRR. Send $20 or what you can afford with your declaration. What's it worth to keep you and yours from unthinkable radiation health risks and a lifetime of nuclear waste in your back yard?
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April 19, 2013: South Carolina’s draft NPDES permit is premature. First, a mandatory environmental review is incomplete. Second, the concurrent plant safety review is also incomplete and no license has been issued. Therefore, the state cannot issue this permit until these matters are decided, engineering and environmental questions are settled, and the construction and operation license is finalized.
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Jan. 31, 2013: The regulatory guidance utilized by both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to evaluate the emergency plans at commercial nuclear power plants was established in 1980 and has remained essentially unchanged for thirty years.
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2012
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On June 8, 2012 the US Court of Appeals nullified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
Waste Confidence Rule, clearing the way for a variety of challenges at scores of
commercial nuclear power reactors in the United States. "Waste confidence" is all about
high-level nuclear waste which is produced by nuclear reactors, generated in the reactor
core and highly radioactive. |
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In February 2012 the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League petitioned the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for improved emergency planning near nuclear power plants. Working with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service and three dozen public interest groups across the nation, we seek to require federal agencies and the power plant operators to prepare for the accident we hope will never happen.
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On June 8, 2012 the US Court of Appeals nullified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
Waste Confidence Rule, clearing the way for a variety of challenges at scores of
commercial nuclear power reactors in the United States. "Waste confidence" is all about
high-level nuclear waste which is produced by nuclear reactors, generated in the reactor
core and highly radioactive. |
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Nov. 27, 2012: The environmental and public health impacts of uranium mining and milling are life-threatening and long-lasting. They include massive amounts of radioactive and toxic rock and sand, or “tailings,” surface and groundwater contaminated with radioactive and toxic pollutants, and airborne releases of conventional, toxic and radioactive pollution.
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Nov. 19, 2012: Today Georgians concerned about Plant Vogtle met with Obama Administration officials to deliver a letter of grievances against the nuclear power plant in their midst. The meeting at the White House conference center included Jon Carson, Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, and Paul Seidler, Director of External Affairs for Environmental Management for the US Department of Energy. Among those at the meeting representing the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League were Rev. Charles Utley, staff Environmental Justice Campaigner, and Board Vice President Rev. Willie Tomlin.
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Shell Bluff area citizens travel all night by bus Nov. 19, 2012:
Today Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff journeyed from Georgia to Washington, DC to witness the oral arguments in our case before the US Court of Appeals. Rev. Charles Utley is Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League’s staff member who helped organize the trip. Emerging from the courtroom, he said, “Our lawyers asked why the new information from Fukushima was not included in Plant Vogtle’s license.” Rev. Utley remarked that the judges seemed to notice the many people in attendance. “We traveled all night to be here today to bear silent witness against our nuclear neighbor, Plant Vogtle.”
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Download Lou's Presentation Document from Oct. 26-28, 2012 APIEL III. |
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Oct. 10, 2012: Today environmental groups in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee called for a government investigation of the principal federal contractor for the Department of Energy’s plutonium fuel program. In comments sent to the US Department of Energy, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League detailed the risks to public health and national security posed by the plutonium fuel program and the actions of Areva, the French government conglomerate which is part of Shaw Areva Mox Services. The group cited a legal dispute between Areva and the Tennessee Valley Authority over a $76 million charge for fuel services. The costs were later reduced to $26 million but without explanation.
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Sept. 4, 2012: For over a decade, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League has opposed the
reprocessing of plutonium as civilian nuclear power fuel because it presents
unsupportable risks to public safety and the environment. |
Interview: Lou Zeller, Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, on how to grow grassroots activism, southeastern U.S. nuke issues, support for the CAN Rally for a Nuclear Free Future.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 7, 2012 – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) acted today to put a hold on at least 19 pending reactor reviews – nine construction & operating licenses, eight license renewal, one operating license, and one early site permit – in response to the landmark Waste Confidence Rule decision of June 8th by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The NRC action was sought in a June 18, 2012 petition filed by 24 groups urging the NRC to respond to the court ruling by freezing final licensing decisions until it has completed a rulemaking action on the environmental impacts of highly radioactive nuclear waste in the form of irradiated, or ‘used’, reactor fuel storage and disposal. |
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July 13, 2012: Quoting the Japanese investigation: Although triggered by these cataclysmic events, the subsequent accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant cannot be regarded as a natural disaster. It was a profoundly manmade disaster – that could and should have been foreseen and prevented.
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The July 9 motions to reopen and motions for leave to file a new argument (or “contention”) are legal steps necessary to hold certain electric power company’s feet to the nuclear fire. These actions follow the recent federal Court of Appeals order striking down the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s patently ridiculous “Waste Confidence Decision,” which should now be enshrined in Blackstone’s dictionary along with other “legal fictions.”
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Court Strikes Down National Nuclear Waste Confidence Rule
On June 8, 2012 the US Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and two other public interest groups on nuclear waste disposal. The court nullified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Waste Confidence Rule, clearing the way for a variety of challenges at scores of commercial nuclear power reactors in the United States. “Waste confidence” is all about high-level nuclear waste, produced by nuclear reactors, generated in the reactor core and highly radioactive.
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June 22, 2012: The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and its chapter Peoples Alliance for Clean Energy petition the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for review of its decision to close the record for the North Anna Unit 3 license proceeding.
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June 18, 2012: Following the landmark Waste Confidence Rule decision of June 8, 2012 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 22 groups and 2 individuals petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure that the environmental analysis directed by the Court is meaningfully incorporated into the licensing of nuclear power plants across the nation. BREDL and its chapters filed petitions at Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bellefonte in Alabama, Duke Energy Carolina’s William S. Lee in South Carolina, and Dominion-Virginia Power’s North Anna. |
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SAFE Carolinas' Laura Sorensen and BREDL's Lou Zeller were interviewed by Ned Doyle of Our Southern Community. They discussed the proposed W S Lee Nuclear Power Plant.
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No confidence!
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Clean Water Act NPDES Permit In Hot Water |
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May 11, 2012: The flagship project of a hoped-for but not-yet-realized “nuclear renaissance,” the Vogtle 3 and 4 reactors under construction near Augusta, Ga., may cost about $900 million more than had been estimated, the Southern Company said in a filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Reverend Charles Utley of Hyde Park in Augusta has pointed out the continued poverty in Burke County after the construction boom that accompanied the first two Vogtle reactors. Considering that Georgia Power has to come up with about $14 billion to build the plant and the NRC charges almost $100 million just to get the license to operate the plant, no wonder monies are not available for additional economic development projects. Yet, with so much money being spent, it would seem that more funds could be directed to economic development in the area. Without it, environmental injustice via disproportionate impacts becomes an issue that should be seriously considered.
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Preservation Virginia Announces 2012 Most Endangered Historic Sites in Virginia |
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April 18, 2012: In 2011 a catastrophic accident destroyed the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station. Early this year, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a construction and operation license to Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle. In doing so, the NRC has attempted to avoid its responsibility to the public by refusing to address the environmental implications of Fukushima or even grant us a hearing. Therefore, we petition the court to suspend the NRC’s license until the court resolves these issues.
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April 16, 2012: An adverse decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
reached today will force parties concerned about the already troubled Vogtle nuclear reactor project in Georgia to
file a motion this week in federal court, according to representatives of nine organizations that are seeking to slow
down the Vogtle project so that necessary post-Fukushima safety enhancements can be taken into account on the
front end, before billions of ratepayer dollars are spent.
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March 2012: The US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office must protect the U.S. taxpayer by not approving defective loan guarantee proposals; specifically, rejecting a $8.33 billion loan guarantee for the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant.
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March 12, 2012: BREDL opposes the US Dept. of Energy’s proposed expansion of plutonium reprocessing facilities either at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina or at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the proposed use of plutonium fuel at commercial electric power plants operated by TVA and other utilities.
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March 6, 2012: “Whatever safety measures are in place can never be sufficient because these facilities are, after all, operated by human beings. We have persistently cautioned against the arrogant notion, promoted by those with a disproportionate confidence in technology, that humanity can completely control nuclear power.”-Gensuikin
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Feb. 22, 2012: A new report by Joseph J. Mangano, MPH MBA finds that in the past decade levels of most types of radioactivity at the Savannah River Site are rising, as are rates of radiosensitive diseases. A new inquiry is needed to understand why these are occurring as cleanup continues at SRS. Mangano directs the Radiation and Public Health Project research group which has assembled epidemiological evidence of a probable causal link between low-level internal radiation from the ingestion of man-made fission products and world-wide increases in immune deficiency diseases and cancer.
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Feb. 9, 2012: 9 Groups Contend That NRC Is Failing to Fully Consider Fukushima Lessons Before Issuing a Final License to Construct and Operate Two New Nuclear Reactors
With the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) expected to consider as early as Thursday whether to issue the final license for two new reactors at the site of the currently operating Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, nine national, state and regional groups will ask the NRC to delay its decision until the groups can file a challenge in federal court.
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Feb. 8, 2012: Today in Atlanta, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League revealed that potential safety problems at Plant Vogtle are being withheld from public view. The group said that for over a year it had received no answer to its formal request for disclosure of information about Plant Vogtle’s ability to withstand earthquakes and other threats. In a statement to be delivered today to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of New Reactors’ public meeting on Plant Vogtle construction, BREDL Vice President Rev. Willie Tomlin asks why the agency is keeping the information from public view and reiterates the request for disclosure.
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Jan. 7, 2012: On this day the inspiring words and visionary leadership of Rev. Dr. Lowery reached out to the local leaders of the campaign to halt the expansion of nuclear power in their community. Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff was founded in March 2010 as a chapter of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.
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 Dr. Joseph E. Lowery Jan. 7, 2012: Today at a church within view of Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle nuclear power plant, civil rights veteran Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery spoke about the issues currently affecting the people this region. In attendance were many local residents from the rural Shell Bluff community in Burke County and many people from the Atlanta area who arrived in a bus chartered by Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions. |
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2011
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Oct. 31, 2011: The glacial pace of the NRC’s safety and security procedures appears to be wholly unresponsive to reality, which threatens to undermine both the agency’s authority and the safety of the plants it licenses. During the last three years we have seen both nuclear and financial meltdowns. Heedless of events, the NRC continues to gamble with sub-prime safety codes and horizontal acceleration default swaps.
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Oct. 31, 2011: The Blue Ribbon Commission must include steps to avoid disproportionate, adverse environmental impacts on low income and minority populations and impacts on important religious, subsistence, or social practices. Finally, it should address the question of ending the production of dangerous materials which cannot safely be disposed.
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Oct. 31, 2011: Today the Virginia Supreme Court will hold oral arguments on Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League’s appeal of an environmental permit for Dominion-Virginia Power’s North Anna nuclear power station. |
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Oct. 20, 2011: Shirking and sharking, in all their many varieties, have been sown broadcast by the ill-fated cause; and even those who have contemplated its history from the outermost circle of such evil, have been insensibly tempted into a loose way of letting bad things alone to take their own bad course, and a loose belief that if the world go wrong, it was, in some off-hand manner, never meant to go right.
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Oct. 7, 2011: The NRC Petition Review Board's public meeting on GE Mark I
reactors was held today. The testimony by the nine
presenters opposed the continued operation of the nuclear plants
in the US similar to those that devastated Fukushima, Japan. Blue
Ridge Environmental Defense League’s testimony centering on
TVA’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. |
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Sept. 26, 2011: This report indicates that any uranium mill
tailings storage operation in Coles Hill, Virginia would create
high risk of chronic and/or catastrophic release of radioactive
contamination into the aquatic environment.
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Special event celebrates river connections - At this free educational and fun event, visitors will be able to learn about water issues and water recreation, participate in water activities and mini-workshops, hear informative speakers and view a mock life-size radioactive nuclear waste cask. Future River Fest View Press
Release/Event Poster
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The History of Dominion-Virginia Power's Seismic Cover-up
The North Anna nuclear power plant is on unstable ground. The potential danger of an earthquake in central Virginia was brought to the attention of regulators by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League in 2005. Our investigative report reveals the events which led to the building of nuclear reactors in an active earthquake zone.
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On
August 11, 2011, the League launched a new initiative to halt the
expansion of nuclear power in Georgia. The campaign is based on
the testimony in the documents filed with the Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Our major
points are: 1) The lessons of the nuclear disaster in Japan, 2)
River floods caused by distant earthquakes and 3) The violations
of environmental justice by the NRC. |
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July 7, 2011: Chemical processing facilities for
reprocessing nuclear fuel create more nuclear waste, contaminate
the environment, are costly and can be used to make nuclear
weapons. We do not believe that new facilities would avoid the
fate of the continuing reprocessing disaster at West Valley. |
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June 23, 2011: It is the duty of the Advisory Committee on
Reactor Safeguards to provide the guidance which the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission plainly needs for a thorough re-assessment
of commercial nuclear power, including the possible phase-out of
all nuclear power plants in the United States |
 Download the BREDL
brochure: TOO MUCH RISK - So they want to mine and
mill uranium in a FEMA flood zone? What’s wrong with
this picture? |
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May 10, 2011: The problems with the AP1000 center on an
inherently unsafe technology. Other problems are political: a
deceitful marketing strategy and an oversight agency which mixes
promotion with regulation. |
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Bellefonte is Not Suitable for Nuclear Reactors
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bellefonte site near Scottsboro, Alabama is in an earthquake
zone. Nuclear Regulatory Commission geologic and seismic regulations detail the requirements
for determining whether a proposed site is acceptable for a nuclear power plant.
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Call For Moratorium On All Nuclear Plans
March 21, 2011: The Bellefonte Efficiency & Sustainability Team (BEST), Mothers Against Tennessee
River Radiation (MATRR), and parent organization Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League (BREDL) issued a statement asking for a review of all nuclear power plants as they
are not immune to the kinds of disasters or accidents that lead to catastrophic releases of
radiation to air, ground, and water. |
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In light of the unfolding tragedy in Japan, the United States
must re-visit all nuclear issues--power, waste and mining.
Earthquakes are not unusual in Japan. If an advanced, industrial
nation with all known safeguards in place can be blind-sided by
such an event, the United States should question all its
assumptions about nuclear technology. This is the least we can do
to honor the brave souls who are sacrificing their lives to
control the disaster in Fukushima, and to commemorate the
terrible loss of life among the innocent.
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March 18, 2011: Dominion’s Federal Consistency Certification
application asserts that the addition of a third water-cooled
nuclear reactor would have no impact on Lake Anna. This is pure
nonsense. |
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On Friday, February 18, 2011, the Blue Ridge Environmental
Defense League, Riverkeeper, Inc. and the Southern Alliance for
Clean Energy filed a petition in US District Court to reverse
decisions by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on high-level
radioactive waste from nuclear reactors. Attorney Diane Curran
based the challenge on NRC's violations of the National
Environmental Policy Act and the Atomic Energy Act. |
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Jan. 10, 2011: Former nuclear Senior VP points to more cracks
found at operating reactors; groups urge advisory panel to force
correction of containment design flaws. |
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Jan. 2011: Listen to radio spots regarding Savannah River Site |
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2010
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Dec. 28, 2010: BREDL's SRS Project Coordinator and
Environmental Justice Campaign Director, Rev. Charles Utley, will
be a guest panelist on "Environmental Perspectives" at
the upcoming meeting of the President's Blue Ribbon Commission on
America's Nuclear Future. |
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Dec. 15, 2010: Today the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
announced that Virginia’s highest court has agreed to hear
their appeal of a Dominion-Virginia Power permit. |
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Dec. 9, 2010: On November 30, 2010 The Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission rejected our
latest petition on Plant Vogtle. In their ruling, the ASLB said
that a statement by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards,
the committee with principal responsibility for reactor safety at
the NRC, was irrelevant. The ACRS statement was at the heart of
our argument. Incredibly, the ASLB said that we should have
realized and acted upon the relevant statement by the ACRS
Chairman two months before he said it. This appeal to the full
Commission is lodged in hope that clearer thinking may prevail. |
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Write to President Obama |
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Nov. 4, 2010: Contentions One and Two present significant
public safety and environmental impact issues to the Atomic
Safety and Licensing Board. As detailed in this legal brief,
there is a significant and genuine dispute between Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League and the NRC Staff and Dominion. |
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Groups Call for Special Investigation of NRC Secrecy
On Tuesday, October 19, 2010 the attorney for the
Center for a Sustainable Coast, Georgia Women’s Action for
New Directions and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
will argue the groups’ case against use of the Westinghouse
AP1000 nuclear reactor design at Plant Vogtle before the Atomic
Safety and Licensing Board. The AP1000 is slated for use in
reactors throughout the Southeast. |
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Sept. 22, 2010: Today in the continuing campaign against the
expansion of nuclear power in Georgia and the Souteast, the
Center for a Sustainable Coast, Georgia WAND and the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League sent the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission a point-by-point argument as to why the Atomic Safety
and Licensing Board should take a closer look at the problems
with the proposed addition of two nuclear reactors at the Vogtle
nuclear power station near Waynesboro, Georgia. PUBLIC HEARING - Plant Vogtle Environmental Impacts ATTEND THE PUBLIC HEARING
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Dominion –Virginia Power at North Anna Change in reactor design forces new hearings
The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League’s ongoing intervention in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing of Dominion-Virginia Power’s North Anna Unit 3 has reached a major turning point. On June 29, 2010, Dominion submitted a new license application, substituting a US Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor design for the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor.
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As taxpayers and as rate-payers, we are paying
for the most expensive and dangerous form of energy on earth -
nuclear power. Please visit the BEST/MATRR
website to printout their 'check' voucher then send it in
with your electric bill payment.
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Aug. 17, 2010: League files new contention with nuclear licensing board regarding inadequacy of containment/coating inspection program for Vogtle Units 3 and 4. Louis Zeller, Science Director for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, explained why the groups took this action. "Southern Nuclear Company has overlooked a major problem which we simply cannot allow to go unchallenged. The fundamental requirement of the operator is to protect public health and safety. Southern Nuclear Company is not doing its job. View Press
Release | BREDL
Supplemental Contention
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Aug. 12, 2010: This week in a bold move, the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League filed a legal challenge to the
proposed air pollution permit at Plant Vogtle. The August 10th
filing was one of the first in the nation under the federal Clean
Air Act challenging excessive radionuclide emissions from nuclear
power. In a petition to the US Environmental Protection Agency,
the League called for rejection of the permit issued by the State
of Georgia because it failed to limit radioactive air pollution,
failed to protect public health and failed to prevent
environmental injustice. |
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Aug. 5, 2010: Tennessee Valley Authority’s
Browns Ferry and Sequoyah nuclear power plants are identified in
the July 19th Department of Energy Notice of Intent as the
reactors designated for plutonium fuel use. The handling of
special strategic nuclear materials requires the highest safety
and security procedures. But the identified problems with fire
protection, over-worked plant employees and site security lapses
at these TVA power plants should eliminate them from further
consideration by the DOE for plutonium disposition. |
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June 18: Lou Zeller, representative for the
League, said, “Dominion’s switching of reactor
technology is like altering the foundation after the walls are
up.” He said that the switch this late in licensing the
plant would make it difficult to regulate. Zeller added, “The
Commission may lack the regulatory duck tape to piece it
together.” He drew a comparison of the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission with the Interior Department's Minerals Management
Service, the agency which oversees offshore oil drilling and
which became too accommodating to its licensees. |
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Westinghouse Reactor Defect Was Missed By Regulators
April 21, 2010: Today the League and other environmental groups
held a national press teleconference to reveal a fatal flaw in
America’s planned expansion of nuclear power. We released a
detailed engineering analysis of a problem with the Westinghouse
AP1000. This marks the launch of a new national initiative. |
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April 6, 2010: BREDL and our chapter Shell Bluff Concerned
Citizens comment on the Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Environmental Protection Division’s operating permit
amendment for Georgia Power Company’s two additional
pressurized water reactors at Southern Nuclear Operating Company
Vogtle Electric Generating Plant. Read
BREDL Comments
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Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League v. the
Commonwealth of Virginia |
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Jan. 26, 2010: BREDL's brief filed on Jan 19 regarding Dominion-Virginia Power's appeal in Circuirt Court. The Dominion-Virginia Appeal is of the February 2009 Virginia Circuit Court's decision that ruled state agencies violated federal law and revoked the water quality permit for the North Anna nuclear station.
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Jan. 25, 2010: Read the Petitioners' Response to TVA filed before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
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Jan. 11, 2010: Joint Petitioners file Supplemental Basis for Previously Submitted Contention 6 - TVA has not and cannot meet the NRC's Quality Assurance and Quality Control Requirements.
View BREDL's
latest legal filing. | Read BREDL Press Release
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2009
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Dec. 19, 2009: For over a year, the Atomic Safety
and Licensing Board judges have allowed our intervention to
proceed. Our argument that the power company has little or no
plan for what to do with its radioactive waste is still not
adequately addressed. In November the Atomic Safety and Licensing
Board agreed that Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League’s
position that Dominion-Virginia Power’s radioactive waste
storage plan needs further study. Unhappy with the ruling,
Dominion filed a motion for the Board to take a second look,
called reconsideration. But Dominion’s Motion for
Reconsideration sets up a straw man argument. Our answer to
Dominion was filed on December 17. The judges could rule at any
time. |
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Oct. 29, 2009: Today organizations concerned with the high costs and environmental risks posed by Southern Company’s plan to build two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Ga. announced their filing of an appeal in federal court to stop the proposed expansion.
Read Press Release | Download Petition
for Review
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People Against A Radioactive Chesapeake (PAARC) is holding its
first "Love the Bay" Concert on Saturday, October 10
from noon to 5:00 p.m. on the Boardwalk on the Chesapeake Bay in
North Beach, Maryland. |
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Oct. 6, 2009: The Tennessee Valley
Authority operates the Watts Bar nuclear power plant 50 miles
northeast of Chattanooga. TVA has one nuclear reactor in
operation there and seeks to open a second. The fundamental
weakness of these plants is the "ice condenser"
containment system which relies on baskets of ice to reduce
temperature and pressure during an accident. If the ice systems
fail, the relatively weak concrete structure is no match for the
pressures created during a meltdown. |
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On September 14, 2009 the Virginia Circuit Court judge issued her
Final
Order stating that Virginia's State Water Control Board
wrongly allowed Dominion-Virginia Power to use part of Lake Anna
as it's private waste lagoon. The Order finalizes the court's
February 20 oral ruling and enters it into law. The decision
means that the company's North Anna nuclear power plants may not
continue to dump heated water into the lake unregulated and the
state must now develop a permit which complies with the federal
Clean Water Act. The Order
Denying Appellees Joint Motion for Stay is another win for
BREDL because the judge rejected the motion by the state and the
company to suspend, or "stay," the effect of judge's
ruling. The filing of the Final Order also sets the clock in
motion for appeals. Stay tuned!
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Aug. 6, 2009: : Today citizens’ groups claimed a victory in their fight against Tennessee Valley Authority’s drive to build four nuclear power plants in northeast Alabama. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, further action on TVA’s proposal is halted until at least 2011. Spokespersons for the citizens’ groups see the two-year delay as vindication of their stand against TVA’s plan to complete two nuclear power reactors and to add two more at its Bellefonte site near Scottsboro.
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July 2009: Since 1987 Plant Vogtle has generated
electric power. Today, two nuclear reactors operate at the site
on banks of the Savannah River in Burke County, Georgia. Now
Southern Company wants to add two more nuclear reactors. But the
two existing reactors have placed an unfair burden on residents.
More would be an environmental injustice. Here’s why. BREDL Factsheet
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July 7, 2009: BREDL comments to Tennessee Dept. of
Environment and Conservation - Division of Radiological Health on
the proposed license amendment to the IMPACT Services
incinerator. Amendment is to their Tennessee Radioactive Material
License to "authorize a pyrolytic volume reduction process
for wastes contaminated with radioactive materials at the
licensee's facility at the U.S. Department of Energy ETTP Complex
on the Oak Ridge Reservation." BREDL
comments
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June 26, 2009: BREDL files amended Contention Ten
regarding the application for a combined operating and
construction license filed by Dominion Virginia Power. In order
to meet its goal to assure NRC that there is space to store Class
B and C radioacive waste material for ten years, Dominion
Virginia Power has reduced its capacity for storage of Class A
material from 6 months to 3 months. This is simply "Robbing
Peter to pay Paul." View BREDL Amended Contention Ten
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June 3, 2009: In short, the law does not authorize the NRC to reinstate a
construction permit that has been terminated. Therefore, the
Commission should vacate its decision and void TVA’s
construction permits for Bellefonte Units 1 and 2. BREDL Legal
Brief
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May 14, 2009: Today three citizens’ groups announced a new lawsuit against TVA’s Bellefonte nuclear site in Alabama. The groups’ effort centers on the mothballed nuclear reactor units 1 and 2. They based their opposition on 14 separate flaws in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recent approval of a construction permit. The lawsuit was filed by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, the Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
BREDL Press Release
| BREDL
Petition
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April 22, 2009: Nuclear Power in Hot Water - BREDL Earth Day update
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April 17, 2009: BREDL Reply
to Answers of Duke Energy and NRC Staff regarding new Contention
Eleven on proposed W S Lee Nuclear Plants
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March 31, 2009: Yesterday the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League filed a Petition for Review in the US Court of Appeals of
the Bellefonte nuclear power plant in Alabama. The League seeks
judicial review of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s
reinstatement of construction permits for two nuclear reactors,
the so-called Bellefonte 1 and 2. BREDL Press
Release | Petition
for Review | NRC's
voting record
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FOR RADIOACTIVE WASTE SOLUTION
March 10, 2009: Yesterday in a
flurry of legal activity the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League filed new arguments opposing nuclear reactor licenses in
Virginia, South Carolina and Alabama. The League acted because of
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's failure to recognize that
high-level radioactive waste storage would pose significant
environmental risks at proposed nuclear power plants at TVA's
Bellefonte, Duke Energy's WS Lee and Dominion Virginia Power's
North Anna stations. Read BREDL Press Release
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League and Lake Residents Overturn Dominion Nuke Permit
Feb. 20, 2009: Today a Virginia court in Richmond ruled that
state agencies violated federal law and that the water quality
permit for Dominion-Virginia Power's North Anna nuclear station
is revoked. Read
BREDL Press Release | Background information | Transcript of Judge's Ruling
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Jan. 2, 2009: BREDL's
reply to NRC and TVA regarding the Amended Contention NEPA-N
at Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant
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2008
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On Thursday morning, December 18th, the
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League’s appeal of the
Dominion-Virginia Power North Anna permit will be argued in
Richmond Circuit Court. More Details: Read BREDL Press Advisory
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Dec. 16, 2008: Today
citizens’ groups announced new cost arguments in their
lawsuit against nuclear power at Tennessee Valley Authority’s
Bellefonte site. The December 15th filing charges that TVA
provided inaccurate cost information in its environmental report.
In an 18-page request to the three-judge licensing board, the
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, the Bellefonte
Efficiency and Sustainability Team and the Southern Alliance for
Clean Energy charged that TVA violated the National Environmental
Policy Act. Read
BREDL Press Release | Read BREDL,
BEST, SACE Dec. 15, 2008 Contention to ASLBP
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The US Department of Energy’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership calls for building special nuclear reactors to use plutonium from nuclear waste for fuel. The plutonium would be separated from used nuclear fuel rods in a complicated process called reprocessing. Backers of the program are trying to sell GNEP as recycling but it is reprocessing, a technology abandoned by the US decades ago. Bobbie Paul, of the Women's Actions for New Directions chapter in Atlanta, rightly renamed GNEP the "Gargantuan Nuclear Expansion Program." Here's why. BREDL GNEP Fact Sheet Attend one of the public hearings: |
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Middle Tennessee State University
Know Nuclear in the Tennessee Valley
- Afternoon panels on nuclear waste, nuclear transport,
and TVA nuclear reactors Know
Nuclear Agenda |
Saturday,
September 27, 2008 |
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September 11, 2008: The legal brief BREDL filed today calls on
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend Tennessee Valley
Authority's request to build and operate new nuclear reactors at
Bellefonte. Contention Twenty details the total failure of TVA to
include Bellefonte Units 1 and 2 with Bellefonte Units 3 and 4 in
its application. In the 1970's TVA had planned to build two
reactors, called Bellefonte 1 and 2, but abandoned the plan after
spending about $4 billion. Earlier this year, TVA requested a
license to build two new reactors, designated 3 and 4, at the
Bellefonte site in Alabama. Last month, TVA asked the NRC to
re-instate the permits for Bellefonte 1 and 2. Our brief details
TVA's illegal attempt to circumvent the National Environmental
Policy Act by failing to include the impacts of four nuclear
reactors at Bellefonte. Read BREDL's
Contention
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On August 25, 2008, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League filed a motion to reconsider with the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission in the Dominion Virginia Power licensing
case. We have one legal argument, or contention, which has been
accepted by the judges, but we think the NRC should do more.
Hence, this motion. Also, we have formalized our opposition to
oral arguments which were held on the telephone. BREDL Motion
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The judges of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board have granted a hearing to the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League on CONTENTION ONE: Dominion Lacks a Realistic Low-level Radioactive Waste Plan. The ASLB order issued August 15, 2008 states:
Read ASLB Memorandum and Order
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On July 22, 2008 both Duke Energy Carolinas and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission staff attorneys filed their answers to our
petition. (Duke
Answer | NRC
Answer) BREDL filed a
motion requesting more time to file our reply and the judges
agreed. (BREDL
Request) Our motion stated: |
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On April 28, 2008 the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
requested that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission grant a new
deadline for the filing of petitions for leave to intervene. (BREDL
request) This motion is based on an inadequate Notice of
Hearing and Opportunity to Petition for Leave to Intervene
published in the Federal Register. Dominion-Virginia Power
responded to us two days later (Dominion Reply) and
the NRC held to its deadline. |
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July 25, 2008: The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League,
its chapter Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team and the
South Alliance for Clean Energy (“Petitioners”) hereby
file this motion to admit all portions of our reply to NRC staff
and the Tennessee Valley Authority filed July 8, 2008. Read July 25 Motion July 18, 2008: In accordance with the Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board Panel’s Memorandum and Order of July 9, 2008
permitting Joint Petitioners to reply to the NRC Staff’s
filing of July 14 regarding the timeliness of intervention
petition, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, its
chapter Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team and the
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (hereinafter “Joint
Petitioners”) hereby file their response. Read
July 18 Response July 15, 2008: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission hereby
responds to the “Applicant’s Motion to Strike Portions
of Petitioners’ Reply” filed on July 11, 2008, by the
Applicant (Tennessee Valley Authority, “TVA”). The
Motion seeks to strike portions of the “Reply of The Blue
Ridge Environmental Defense League, its Chapter Bellefonte
Efficiency and Sustainability Team and the Southern Alliance For
Clean Energy to the NRC Staff Answer to Petition for Intervention
and the Applicant’s Answer Opposing Petition To Intervene,
Both Dated July 1, 2008.” (July 8, 2008). Read
NRC July 15 response July 11, 2008: On July 8, 2008, the Petitioners filed their
“Reply of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defsense League, its
Chapter Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team and the
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy to the NRC Staff Answer to
Petition for Intervention and the Applicant’s Answer
Opposing Petition to Intervene, Both Dated July 1, 2008”.
The Tennessee Valley Authority hereby files this motion to
strike. Read
TVA Motion to Strike
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July 9, 2008: Memorandum and Order - (Initial Prehearing
Conference Schedule; Schedule for Additional Briefing Regarding
Timeliness Issue; Opportunity for Written Limited Appearance
Statements) The participants are advised of the following
information regarding the schedule for the initial
prehearing conference in this proceeding: |
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The League wishes to thank to all who contributed their expertise to this reply: Sara Barczak of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Dr. Shawn Young, Diane D'Arrigo and Mary Olson of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Dr. Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Dr. Ross McCluney and Louise Gorenflo of Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team, BREDL's Duke University Stanback Intern Xuan Chi and others who contributed to the original June 6th petition including Garry Morgan of Scottsboro, AL and Dr. Tom Moss of Huntsville, AL.
On July 8, 2008 the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League, its chapter Bellefonte Efficiency and
Sustainability Team and the Southern Alliance for Clean
Energy filed their reply to Tennessee Valley Authority
and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission according to
administrative procedure rules seven days after their
answer to our petition to intervene in the NRC combined
construction and operation license for a new nuclear
power plant at Bellefonte in Alabama. |
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July 1, 2008: The staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hereby answers the “Petition for Intervention and Request for Hearing” (Petition) filed on June 6, 2008 by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and its chapter Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Read NRC's Answer July 1, 2008: Applicant's answer opposing petition to intervene - The Tennessee Valley Authority (“Applicant”) hereby files its Answer to “Petition for Intervention and Request for Hearing by the Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (“Petition”) and “Supplement to Petition of June 6, 2008 Providing Alphanumeric Designation of Contentions” (“Supplemental Petition”), dated June 26, 2008 concerning TVA’s application for combined licenses (“COLs”) for two AP1000 pressurized water reactors at the Bellefonte site in Jackson County, Alabama. Read TVA's Answer |
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July 1, 2008: The Nuclear
Regulatory Commission is holding oral arguments for the nation's
first adjudicatory hearing on a nuclear power plant construction
and operating license behind closed doors. The nuclear plant is
the proposed North Anna Nuclear Power Station Unit #3 in
Virginia. Despite our request for a face-to-face hearing in
Charlottesville, the judges are holding the oral arguments via
telephone conference call. The judges' decision has implications
for the licenses to follow in South Carolina, North Carolina,
Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and nationwide because this is the
first permitting process for new nuclear power plant license
since the rules were re-written in 1989. We think it sets a bad
precedent. In the past, such hearings were held near the
community where a proposed facility was to be located, at a place
where residents, officials and the media could attend. Read BREDL's Complaint
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The granting of a license to Duke Energy Carolinas would permit the company to construct and operate two nuclear reactors on the Broad River near Gaffney, South Carolina. Nuclear reactors here would endanger over a 2.3 million people in two states living within 50 miles of the plant including Spartanburg, Greenville, Newberry and Rock Hill in SC and Marion, Morganton, Hickory and Charlotte in NC. Download June 27 BREDL Petition
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Do You Live 50 miles from Gaffney, SC?
On December 13, 2007 Duke Energy applied to the
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to build and
operate two nuclear plants on the Broad River near Gaffney, South
Carolina. The application is for two Westinghouse AP1000
Pressurized Water Reactors designated William States Lee III
Nuclear Station Units 1 & 2. The Blue Ridge Environmental
Defense League is challenging this permit for health, safety and
economic reasons. If you are within the 50-mile zone, you may
join in this effort. |
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June 6, 2008: Groups file petition for intervention and
request for hearing before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
regarding proposed TVA Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and
4. The petition is on behalf of the Bellefonte Efficiency and
Sustainability Team, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Read the Petition
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May 16, 2008: BREDL scoping comments on EIS for third nuclear
reactor at the North Anna nuclear power plant. BREDL
Comments
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May 2008: The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and its
Virginia chapter the People’s Alliance for Clean Energy have
filed to halt construction of a third nuclear reactor at the
North Anna nuclear power plant. The petition raises eight major
issues: Dominion lacks a realistic radioactive waste plan, Unit 3
would be located on top of a geological fault, the plant’s
cooling system will violate water quality standards, the plant
will not adequately limit radioactive emissions to the
atmosphere, uranium is an unreliable fuel source, the license
would violate the protections of due process and equal
protection, irradiated fuel would remain on site, and the plant
would be a target for terrorist attacks. |
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Do You Live 50 miles from the North Anna Nuclear Plant? Dominion-Virginia Power has submitted an application to add a
third nuclear power plant at its North Anna Nuclear Station in
northern Virginia. The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League is
challenging this permit for health and safety reasons. If you are
within the 50-mile zone, you may join in this effort.
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May 2008 Factsheet: New Nuclear Power Plants
in South Carolina? - Duke Energy has applied to the US
Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to build and operate
two nuclear plants on the Broad River near Gaffney, South
Carolina. The deadline for comments on
environmental impacts of a nuclear power plant on this
area’s air, water, and public health was May 20, 2008.
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On April 28, 2008 the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
filed a legal motion with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
postpone deadlines for the North Anna Power Station construction
and operation license. Dominion Virginia Power plans to add a
third nuclear reactor at its plant in central Virginia. |
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April 3, 2008: Read
BEST Press Release and see photos
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Action supports
Bellefonte Efficiency & Sustainability Team |
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March 2008: BREDL Chapter Bellefonte Efficiency &
Sustainability Team (BEST) fact sheet: |
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Feb. 29, 2008: BREDL Chapter Bellefonte Efficiency
& Sustainability Team (BEST) letter to NRC requesting a
suspension of the notice of hearing regarding new nuclear power
plants at Bellefonte.
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Feb. 15, 2008: BREDL requests Tennessee Valley Authority Board
of Directors to abandon its ongoing effort to open a new nuclear
power station at the Bellefonte site in Jackson County, Alabama. |
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The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League released a
study in March 2007 which shows that harmful levels of air pollution
from the Savannah River Site are reaching nearby
communities. The group published its results in a report
titled Sow The Wind: Toxic Air Pollution from the
Savannah River Site. |
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Jan. 2, 2008: On Friday, December 28th, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League filed a petition against the Virginia's approval of a water permit for the North Anna nuclear power station (NAPS) located near Charlottesville. |
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2007
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Dec. 28, 2007: Major problems we identified in the
Plant Vogtle draft Environmental Impact Statement: |
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Dec. 5, 2007: Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and the
People’s Alliance for Clean Energy have filed a Notice of Appeal
to Virginia Department of Environmental Quality regarding
reissuance of VPDES (Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System) Permit for Dominion-North Anna Power Station. BREDL Press Release
| Notice of Appeal
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Nov. 6, 2007: Read
U.S. Dept. of Energy Document -
Chemical and Radiochemical Composition of Thermally Stabilized
Plutonium Oxide from the Plutonium Finishing Plant Considered as
Alternate Feedstock for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication
Facility, JM Tingey and SA Jones, July 2005, Prepared for the
U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830
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Nov. 7, 2007: BREDL and Nuclear Watch South file intervenors' response.
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Oct. 9, 2007: Today two organizations announced the filing of a legal challenge that could stop the construction of a plutonium fuel factory at the Savannah River Site. Nuclear Watch South and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League uncovered information that the US Department of Energy plans major modifications to the proposed plutonium fuel factory. Read Press Release
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Oct. 5, 2007 - In 2002 the US Department of Energy
discontinued its vitrification and immobilization plans for
surplus plutonium; on September 5, 2007, the agency issued an
Amended Record of Decision which said, "[e]liminating the
mission for the Plutonium Vitrification process would result in
the MFFF and H-Canyon processing additional plutonium, therefore
requiring some modifications to both facilities." Such
modification of the plutonium fuel factory (MFFF) was not
requested or granted during the construction license process nor
is it covered by the proposed operating license. This failure
forms the basis for our latest challenge. |
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August 30, 2007: Is Nuclear Power Right
for Cherokee County? (Duke Power has selected a site in
Cherokee County, near Gaffney, SC)
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Aug. 02, 2007: BREDL comments to Virginia Department of
Environmental Quality on the NPDES permit for North Anna nuclear
power station. Excerpt: "Unless and until the DEQ can assure
that thermal discharges from Dominion-Virginia Power’s North
Anna plant will not exceed the maximum hourly temperature changes
in Lake Anna, it cannot issue a VPDES permit." Read Lou
Zeller's Comments
|
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June 27, 2007 - The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
(BREDL), Nuclear Watch South, and Nuclear Information &
Resource Service (NIRS) have responded to the June 11, 2007 NRC
Staff and Shaw Areva MOX Services responses to the Groups'
Petition for Intervention and Request for Hearing filed on May
14, 2007.
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June 20, 2007: The data presented in this report detail the increases in
environmental radioactivity and local rises in cancer
rates since the Vogtle reactors began operating. The
parallel between these two trends is to be taken
seriously, as radioactive fission products are
carcinogenic, and are especially toxic to the young. The
addition of two new reactors at Vogtle would double the
capacity of the plant and presumable double the
radioactive emissions. Assuming there is no major
reduction in health risk to the local population –
such as an influx of new medical services or a large
reduction in poverty – the local population will be
at increased risk of cancer, based on the findings in
this report.
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May 22, 2007 At a press conference on the North Carolina-South Carolina line, citizens’ groups from two states released a new report which details the dangers of high-level nuclear waste shipments under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership program. Author John Sticpewich of Commonsense at the Nuclear crossroads used the Department of Energy’s routing criteria to produce the maps and tables in More Than A TAD: A Study of the Problems With the Transport and Reprocessing of Nuclear Waste in the Carolinas. The report lists nuclear power plants in 17 states from which nuclear waste shipments would pass en route to Savannah River, a potential GNEP site. For example, from 2,146 to 4,498 shipments would likely pass through the Charlotte-Rock Hill area on Interstate 77. DOE has already held public hearings on their plans for centralized storage and reprocessing.
Photos and Statements
from representatives of organizations - BREDL May 22, 2007
press conference on dangers and risks regarding transportation of
high level nuclear waste across Carolinas
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On May 14, 2007 the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League,
along with Nuclear Watch South and Nuclear Information &
Resource Service, filed a petition to intervene in the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission's license proceeding for a plutonium fuel
factory at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site in
South Carolina. We have opposed this technology since 1997 and
remain steadfast in our opposition to nuclear reprocessing. |
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How You Can Help
May 2, 2007: The Department of Energy plans to build a factory
near Aiken, SC to convert weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for
nuclear power plants. The mixed oxide fabrication facility (MFFF)
would be built at the Savannah River Site, the nuclear reactors
are located near Charlotte and Rock Hill. BREDL and other groups
oppose this experimental project. If you live within 50 miles of
the Savannah River Site, you would be affected. You can help stop
this threat to public health by signing the enclosed Declaration
and mailing it to us before May 14, 2007. |
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April 20, 2007: BREDL comments
regarding Public Health Assessment, Evaluation of Off-site
Groundwater and Surface Water Contamination at the Savannah River
Site (USDOE) Aiken, SC. - The Agency for Toxic Substances and
Disease Registry has disregarded major pathways for hazardous and
radioactive substances from the US Department of Energy’s
Savannah River Site, improperly narrowed the focus of its
investigation to groundwater and surface water impacts at SRS,
and abrogated its responsibility to take responsive action by
shifting from itself the burden of protecting infants under the
age of one year.
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April 19, 2007: BREDL
Limited appearance statements before the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in the matter of the Dominion Nuclear North Anna, LLC
Early Site Permit. - The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Unless
must assess the impact of terrorist attacks on radioactive fuel
storage at Dominion-Virginia Power's North Anna nuclear power
plant and provide for protective measures. Recent decisions by
the US Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court hold that
environmental impact statements for nuclear facilities should
explicitly address potential environmental consequences of
intentional destructive acts; that is, acts of sabotage and
terrorism.
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2006
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The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League opposes DOE’s
plan, called Complex 2030, which calls for a new generation
of nuclear weapons production, for which we believe the Savannah
River Site is at great risk. Complex 2030, developed
by the National Nuclear Security Administration, is a proposal to
construct new facilities to manufacture plutonium warheads, to
conduct nuclear weapons research and development, and
to store nuclear materials. On October 19, 2006 the US
Department of Energy published the Notice of Intent to Prepare
a Supplement to the Stockpile Stewardship Management Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement—Complex 2030 (Federal
Register vol. 71, no. 202, page 61731). The first public
meeting on Complex 2030 was held on November 9th
in North Augusta, South Carolina, near the Savannah River Site
bomb plant. Further meetings are being held near atomic
weapons sites in Tennessee, Texas, Nevada, New Mexico and
California with a final hearing in Washington, DC on December 14,
2006. The written public comment period extends through
January 17, 2007. |
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October 31, 2006: Help Stop Nuclear Power in Georgia -
Southern Nuclear Company of Georgia wants to build additional
nuclear power plants near Waynesboro. This would increase the
negative health impacts on nearby residents and increase the cost
of electric power. The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League is
joining with other groups who oppose this expansion. Will you
help us? |
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July 25, 2006: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has posted a national forecast of new nuclear reactor licensing activities for 2006 - 2008. The NRC issues updates on nuclear power reactor licensing issues every six months. These reports are available on their website at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/related-documents.html
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April 2006: The
Safe Energy Campaign Factsheet - On March 16, 2006
Duke Power Co. and Southern Co. announced that they had
picked a site in South Carolina for a new nuclear power
plant. Also, the power companies announced plans to seek
early site permits for additional nuclear reactors at
Oconee, SC and at a new site near Winston-Salem, NC.
|
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March 16, 2006: Nuclear
Power Licensing Factsheet - One-Step Licensing of
Nuclear Plants Short-circuits Safety
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2005
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Read BREDL's Oct. 25 letter to Virginia DEQ | View Map Attachment to
letter Dominion-Virginia Power
is attempting to mischaracterize the permit in an attempt
to limit the scope of the state's required coastal zone
review. Dominion states that the existing power plant and
the proposed nuclear site permit (ESP-Early Site Permit)
are not located within Virginia’s Coastal Zone.
However, North Anna Power Station is, indeed, within the
Virginia coastal zone which includes Spotsylvania
County‘s portion of Lake Anna. Dominion downplays
the permit's impacts. But activity permitted by the ESP
would include major construction including clearing and
grading for roads; construction of warehouses, utilities
and concrete mixing plants; excavations for facility
structures; sewage treatment plants; and intake and
discharge structures, water lines, and cooling towers.
Finally, Dominion’s certification is inconsistent
with the National Environmental Policy Act, which
requires consideration of cumulative impacts and
connected actions. The ESP permit and the pending
Combined License are “connected” actions as
defined in the Council on Environmental Quality
regulations at 40 CFR 1508.7.
|
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Sept. 01, 2005: Read BREDL letter to Nuclear Regulatory
Commission On February 17, 2005
at a Nuclear Regulatory Commission public hearing, a man
who identified himself as an employee of
Dominion-Virginia Power falsely accused the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League of misusing public health
data. His allegations not only have no basis in fact,
they do nothing to alter our conclusion that deaths
increased significantly after Dominion's nuclear reactors
began operation. In this letter the League demonstrates
why the allegations are false and asks the NRC for
further investigations into death and disease in the
communities around the North Anna nuclear power station.
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August 30, 2005: BREDL Report on
2005 Southern Energy & Environment
Expo, which was held at
the Western NC Agricultural Center in Fletcher on August
26-28. The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
participated with an information booth, two workshops,
and a parking lot-sized educational display. The
League’s focus this year was nuclear power and
nuclear waste transportation.
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Factsheet: New
Nuclear Plant Sites on the Yadkin River, NC?
|
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July 26, 2005: Read BREDL July 26, 2005 letter
to Jean Sulc, Chair, Savannah
River Site Citizens Advisory Board. Today citizens called
upon the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board to
use its powers to bring an end to a pattern of delays and
waste at the old weapons plant near Aiken, SC. Citing
audits by the Department of Energy’s Inspector
General, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
detailed a ten year environmental cleanup gone wrong and
tens of millions of tax dollars wasted.
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July 12, 2005: Read BREDL July 12, 2005 letter to Robert Meisenheimer, WM Committee Chair, Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board. On March 29th, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League informed the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board that we believe that the Department of Energy provided falsified data to Congress, information which affected federal legislation for the ongoing clean up of atomic weapons waste at SRS. On May 23rd the League presented supporting data to the CAB. Subsequently, we were invited to present this information to the CAB's Waste Management Committee. On July 12th, we made four recommendations.
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May 23, 2005: On behalf of
the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, I request to
present the information requested by members of the SRS
Citizens Advisory Board at the last meeting. As you may
recall, on March 28th I provided federal budget documents
which revealed that the $16 billion in savings promised
during passage of Section 3116 of the 2005 Defense
Authorization for clean up of high-level radioactive
waste tanks was not evident. Further, I said, “We at
BREDL are convinced that the DOE provided falsified data
to gain an exemption so it could add cement to the waste,
leave it underground, and reduce costs.” Some CAB
members took issue with this statement and I am here
today to provide documents which will demonstrate the
accuracy of our contention. - Lou Zeller, BREDL |
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May 9, 2005: Prevent the Reprocessing of Military Plutonium Wastes into Fuel. Statement to the Review Conference of the Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Delivered May 11, 2005 at the United Nations in New York. Excerpt:
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On April 18, 2005 the U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the public version of its final decision on the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League’s legal challenge to Duke Power’s request to test plutonium fuel at the Catawba nuclear power station. In its application to amend its operating license, Duke requested exemptions from post-9/11 federal requirements designed to protect nuclear materials from theft or sabotage. The judges granted the exemption but imposed four conditions that Duke is required to meet before it can receive the fuel at Catawba. They are:
The plutonium fuel tests necessitate the insertion of four lead test assemblies (LTA) into the Catawba reactor for at least two fuel cycles. Duke sought to exempt Catawba Nuclear Power Station from the regulations for Category I facilities which have special strategic nuclear materials such as 2 kilograms or more of plutonium. Duke’s Catawba nuclear station would contain 80 kilograms of plutonium during the proposed plutonium fuel tests.
More info: Read ASLBP
decision (Public
Redacted Version) |
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April 7, 2005:Today at a press conference in Columbia, citizens groups
called on Governor Mark Sanford to halt the impending
plutonium fuel shipments through South Carolina and to
demand terrorism safeguards at the Catawba nuclear
station. |
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Mar. 28, 2005: Sunshine
Campaign Will Allow Public To Have Say - Today at a press
conference in North Augusta, grassroots citizens groups
announced a “Sunshine Campaign” to open up the
process of communication between the Department of
Energy, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board and the general
public. |
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March 09, 2005: BREDL Press Release:
- Today
the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League filed a
petition before the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
revoke the license amendment issued by the staff of the
NRC to Duke Energy Corporation for plutonium fuel tests. BREDL
Petition | Cover Letter | Exhibit 1 | NRC
Original Order
|
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March 01, 2005: BREDL comments on Draft Environmental
Impact Statement for North Anna Early Site Permit
|
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Feb. 17, 2005 Rally and NRC Public
Hearing: Action Alert and more details. RALLY
AGAINST NEW LICENSING for NUKES at NORTH ANNA, Thursday,
February 17, 2005, 6:00 pm, Louisa County Middle School,
1009 Davis Highway, Mineral, VA. This rally precedes the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) hearing scheduled
for 7:00 pm concerning a site permit for two new reactors
at North Anna nuclear power station in Louisa County in
Central VA.
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Feb. 10, 2005: Report by BREDL staffer Charles Utley regarding
the Savannah River Site Health Effects Subcommittee meeting of January 25th. It is a good overview
of the dose reconstruction issue caused by activities at
the bomb plant.
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2004
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Dec. 15, 2004: BREDL letter to NRC Chairman Nils Diaz regarding NRC Predecisional Enforcement
Conference with Duke Energy.
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Nov. 30, 2004: BREDL Report
on Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board Meeting of
November 15-16, 2004, which was held in Augusta, GA.(includes dates for
upcoming 2005 meetings - Next meeting is scheduled for January 24-25,
2005 at Hilton Head Island, SC
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Nov. 3, 2004: Project: Environmental
Pollution at Savannah River Weapons Site | Date of Project: September 4— 11, 2004 |
Host organizations: Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League, ISAR Open World Russia Civic Program |
Administered by: Open World Leadership Center at the
Library of Congress. Associated documents: Dmitri Rybakov’s scientific paper on testing for radionuclides English Version , Russian
Version |
Risk-Based End States at SRS factsheet: Radioactive
Pollution gets a Facelift. English
Version , Russian Version |
Combat Air Pollution with Bucket Brigades factsheet. English
Version , Russian Version
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October 5, 2004: Table slides (in 2 .pdf files below) detailing actual radioactive releases to the air and water from Dominion/Virginia Power's North Anna nuclear station, and the high rates of mortality in the area within 30 miles of the North Anna reactors located near Charlottesville, VA.
BREDL Press
Release: DEATH RATES INCREASED AFTER
NORTH ANNA STARTUP - Group Calls for
Comprehensive Health Study
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July 14, 2004: This is the written testimony of Dr. Edwin S. Lyman, filed July 1, 2004 on behalf of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. This legal action is a part of BREDL's campaign to educate the public about the dangers of plutonium fuel use at the Catawba nuclear power station. Duke Energy seeks a license amendment for its Catawba nuclear power plant to test the experimental fuel which is a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxides (hence the industry abbreviation MOX). Dr. Lyman's testimony supports BREDL Contention I which was admitted for litigation on March 5 by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This filing also includes a list of the exhibits to Dr. Lyman's testimony and Dr. Lyman's curriculum vitae, which is Exhibit A to his testimony.
The July 8, 2004 rebuttal testimony of Dr. Edwin Lyman further addresses safety issues brought up in BREDL Contention 1. In his rebuttal, Lyman states, "Neither the testimony of Duke nor the testimony of the NRC staff offers any experimental evidence to support their claims regarding the ability of MOX LTAs [mixed oxide fuel lead test assemblies] to comply with 10 CFR 50.46 criteria...." Dr. Lyman adds, "In fact, the NRC staff testimony confirms several of the assertions that BREDL has made in the course of this proceeding."
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June 26, 2004: North
Anna information slides in .pdf. (First new reactors
in 25 years, Facts about North Anna, What's wrong with
nuclear power and proposed expansion?, Timeline for
expansion)
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June 8, 2004: May
28, 2004 Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety
& Licensing Board (ASLB) Memorandum and Order
regarding BREDL arguments on security measures at the
Catawba Nuclear Reactor and the proposed plutonium fuel
test. The ASLB wrote: "The original version of this
Memorandum and Order was issued on April 12, 2004, and
was sealed as Safeguards Information. This document is a
redacted version of the original." Redactions are
blacked out sections of the document, removed by the NRC.
BREDL objects to some of these omissions; we will raise
our objections before the ASLB judges.
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June 8, 2004 Notice of the June 15, 2004 hearing in Charlotte, NC on Duke Energy's plutonium fuel test at Catawba. The public will be permitted to attend and speak at what is called a "limited appearance" session with Atomic Safety Licensing Board judges. This is the public's opportunity to present issues centering on opposition to plutonium fuel. The hearing is the result of legal challenges by BREDL to Duke’s request to amend the operating license for its Catawba Nuclear Station to allow the testing of four experimental plutonium fuel assemblies at the station. Note: The nuclear industry calls this new type of nuclear reactor fuel "MOX" because it contains a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxides.
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June 3, 2004: Map of High-Level Radioactive Wastes and
Aquifers in the Southeast featuring Savannah River Site
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June 3, 2004: Map of Drinking Water information featuring
Savannah River Site
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May 27, 2004: BREDL
comments on Draft Site-wide Environmental Impact
Statement for Continued Operation of Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in California and Supplemental
Stockpile Stewardship and Management Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement, February 2004
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May 17, 2004: BREDL
comments to EPA regarding deregulation of low-level
radioactive wastes. BREDL recommends that the EPA
withdraw its Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on
Low-Activity Radioactive Waste; furthermore, we recommend
that EPA undertake no non-regulatory actions which would
have the effect of de-regulating radioactive wastes.
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May 03, 2004: BREDL, NIRS, Public Citizen contentions
filed before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board
regarding Early Site Permit application for North Anna
Nuclear Power Plant site, Louisa County, VA
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April 27, 2004: Read
Press Release and Lou Zeller Statement - Today
at a press conference at the United Nations, the Blue
Ridge Environmental Defense League charged the United
States with violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) and called for international inspections of
weapons facilities in South Carolina.
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April 26, 2004: The Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty has successfully limited the
number of new states armed with nuclear weapons, but for
decades the states which already possess nuclear weapons
have continually avoided their obligation to eliminate
them. Next year the United States of America proposes to
spend $6.57 billion for nuclear weapons research and
development. Also, the United States plans to construct a
new nuclear bomb plant to produce 450 new atomic weapons
per year. We submit that the United States is now the
principal violator of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty. Therefore, we press for full implementation of
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and to bring an end
to the nuclear arms race. We bring this People’s
Resolution to the attention of all delegations attending
the Preparatory Committee Meeting of the States Party to
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at the United
Nations in New York on April 26 - May 7, 2004. Read or
sign onto the resolution
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April 9, 2004: Pictures taken at the
March 25, 2004 rallies in Louisa County and
Charlottesville, Virginia which were held in support of
the BE SAFE Anti-Nuclear Days of Action. PACE, People's
Alliance for Clean Energy, organized the events with help
from the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League to
commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Three Mile Island
nuclear meltdown and to prevent new nuclear plants from
being constructed by Dominion Virginia Power on Lake
Anna. View Pictures
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March 25, 2004: Read Press
Advisory - PACE, a BREDL
chapter, Anti-Nuclear Day of Action: Commemorating Three
Mile Island to be held in Charlottesville, VA (includes a
Talk by Lois Gibbs, BREDL mock nuclear cask)
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March 24, 2004: Factsheet:
Three Mile Island 25 years later, TMI facts - Three Mile
Island VA ?
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March 24, 2004: Factsheet:
Nuclear Waste transport to Nevada? - Don't Bet the Farm
on it
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March 8, 2004: BREDL’s
Lawsuit Against Duke’s Plutonium Fuel Tests Wins
Full Hearing. In a ruling by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, the
three-judge panel agreed to hear three specific
objections to the experimental project. Read Press Release
| Read NRC Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board ruling
|
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Feb. 27, 2004: Factsheet:
North Anna - New Nuclear Power Plants in Virginia?
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February 19, 2004: Post-9/11
Terrorism Measures Not Applicable to Duke’s
Plutonium Fuel | NRC Chooses Secrecy Over Security:
Yesterday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
announced that confidential NRC upgrades to the security
requirements for nuclear power plants and plutonium
processing facilities, imposed after the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001, have “nothing to
do” with a proposed license amendment that would
allow Duke Energy Corporation to use bomb-grade plutonium
at the Catawba nuclear power plant. Read Press
Release
|
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Jan. 26, 2004: BREDL,
NIRS, Public Citizen Opposition to Dominion Nuclear's
Application for new Adjudicatory Process filed before NRC
|
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Jan. 14, 2004: On
Thursday, January 15th, representatives of the
southeastern regional Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League will argue against plutonium fuel testing at Duke
Energy’s Catawba nuclear plant at a second hearing
before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board of the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Read Press Advisory
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Jan. 12, 2004: Plutonium Fuel Factsheet
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Jan. 02, 2004: BREDL,
NIRS, Public Citizen Hearing Request and Petition to
Intervene filed before NRC
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2003
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Dec. 03, 2003: BREDL's second supplemental petition before the
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to intervene to set
forth contentions. | Dr. Edwin Lyman's Declaration in support of
BREDL contentions.
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Dec. 02, 2003: On
Wednesday, December 3rd, representatives of
the southeastern regional Blue Ridge Environmental
Defense League will argue against plutonium fuel testing
at Duke Energy’s Catawba nuclear plant at an
ajudicatory hearing before the Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Read Press Advisory
|
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Oct. 24, 2003: BREDL
requests a new supplemental EIS for surplus plutonium
disposition by DOE based on weaknesses at Catawba and
McGuire and the international shipping of plutonium
questions. Shipping is now
required because the test fuel rods will not be
manufactured in the USA as originally proposed but in
France.
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Oct. 21, 2003: BREDL submits supplemental petition in Duke
Energy Catawba Nuclear Power Plant license amendment
proposing use of mixed oxide Lead Test Assemblies. Duke Energy has requested NRC grant permission
to test plutonium rod assemblies at the Catawba plant.
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Aug. 25, 2003: BREDL requests a hearing
and petitions to intervene in Duke Energy McGuire and
Catawba Nuclear Power Plant license amendments proposing
use of mixed oxide Lead Test Assemblies.
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June 3, 2003: INTERNATIONAL ANTI-PLUTONIUM CAMPAIGNERS
ARRESTED IN RUSSIA |
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May 14, 2003: BREDL
additional comments on Savannah River Site Mixed Oxide
Fuel Fabrication Facility Draft Environmental Impact
Statement.
|
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April 11, 2003: BREDL & NIRS request the Atomic Safety &
Licensing Board to reinstate NIRS contention regarding
environmental impacts of MOX fuel use.
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2002
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Dec. 06, 2002: BREDL additional comments, including letter from
Dr. Peter Rickards on the unreliability of HEPA filters
to control radionuclide emissions, on the draft Title V
permit for Savannah River Site.
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Nov. 22, 2002: BREDL
Press Release | BREDL releases
Don Moniak report: "Does America Need A New Atomic Bomb Plant?: A
Preliminary Review of DOE's Plans to Restore Large-Scale
Plutonium Pit Production"
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Nov. 21, 2002: BREDL additional comments on the draft Title V
permit for the Savannah River Site. | BREDL flyer for Nov. 21,
2002 hearing
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Oct. 29, 2002: BREDL comments on
Supplement to the Programmatic EIS on SSM for a Modern
Pit Facility at Savannah River Site. | Excerpts
from the testimony of Rev. Charles Utley, BREDL staff
and President of the Hyde and Aragon Park Neighborhood
Improvement Association at the DOE/NNSA Scoping Hearing
on Modern Pit Facility held in North Augusta, SC on
October 29, 2002.
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Oct. 29, 2002: U.S. Dept. of Energy
Public Hearing on Supplemental PEIS re: Pit Facility at
SRS. Hearing is scheduled to begin at 6 pm in North
Augusta, SC. BREDL Factsheet with more details
|
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Oct. 12, 2002: New
BREDL factsheet on Savannah River Site
|
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Sept. 17, 2002: BREDL
comments on Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility
Environmental Report. | Sept. 30, 2002: BREDL additional comments on Mixed Oxide Fuel
Fabrication Facility Environmental Report. | COGEMA file attachment for comments, courtesy of our friends at The Safe Energy Communication Council
|
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ALERT:
Plutonium Fuel Factory Public Meetings: Sept. 17, 2002 -
North Augusta, SC; Sept 18, 2002 - Savannah, GA; Sept.
19, 2002 - Charlotte, NC. |
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Sept. 6, 2002: BREDL
submits NRC "Down the Rabbit- Hole" brief
regarding license renewal at Duke Energy's Catawba and
McGuire nuclear power stations.
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Aug. 12, 2002: Citizens for the Preservation of
Valley Beautiful Press Release - Proposal to rezone called ploy to allow
nuclear plant in Eastern Tennessee
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BREDL info on nuclear issues in
Eastern Tennessee
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July 29, 2002: BREDL Comments on a proposed
rule to revise NRC's Part 71 Packaging and Transportation
of Radioactive Waste , and DOT's 49 CFR 171 et. al.
Hazardous Materials Regulations
|
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July 2, 2002: Sample HLNW Ordinance to
prohibit transportation in your community | Letter to Florida Governor
regarding Yucca Mountain | Please join the Powerless Hour
- begins July 7!
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June 19, 2002 - June 28, 2002: Nuclear
Waste Roadshow heads to Florida. Read Press
Advisories and Press Releases
|
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June 11, 2002: BREDL has released a
report which reveals that the US DOE's plutonium fuel
testing program would require tens of thousands of miles
of national and international shipments. BREDL Press
Release and Report
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May 30, 2002: On Thursday, May 30th
the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League will launch
its regional campaign opposing nuclear waste transports
from nuclear power plants in North Carolina and South
Carolina to Nevada. See
Press Release and Press Advisory for details and
locations - updated throughout the Roadshow | Please
see the BREDL Southeastern HLNW
Roadshow page for pictures, reports, letters, and
links.
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May 31, 2002: BREDL letter to NC Governor
Easley regarding Yucca Mountain
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May 30, 2002: Lou Zeller's report - High
Level Nuclear Waste Shipments: Radioactive and Deadly
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April 24, 2002: High-level Nuclear Waste
Transport Fact Sheets for North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia
, Tennessee,
and Virginia.
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Duke Energy
shareholders will meet in Charlotte on April 25, 2002 to
vote on a resolution on Nuclear Risk and Responsibility.
UPDATE: On April 25, 2002 in Charlotte, the majority of
Duke Shareholders voted against "Proposal 7 –
Nuclear Program Study". However, since 10.52 percent
voted for the proposal, the resolution should have
another vote next year. Shareholders who support an open
review of nuclear power were and are encouraged to vote
"for" the proposal.
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March 22, 2002: BREDL reply to DUKE & NRC Briefs in response
to Feb. 27, 2002 BREDL Brief in response to NRC Memo
& Order CLI-02-06.
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Feb. 27, 2002: BREDL response to NRC Memorandum and
Order CLI-02-04 regarding Savannah River Site Fuel
Fabrication Facility.
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Feb. 27, 2002: BREDL response to NRC Memorandum and
Order CLI-02-06 regarding security and NEPA.
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Feb. 27, 2002: Nuclear Cask Safety - an excerpt from a North
American and Prairie Island Coalition report compiled by
George Crocker of Prairie Island Coalition.
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Feb. 23, 2002: Duke
Energy stockholder requests SEC and Duke Energy to
address nuclear risk and responsibility. The shareholders
request the Board of Directors to conduct an open
comprehensive study, utilizing independent public
resources, oversight, and participation (but excluding
proprietary and confidential information), defining Duke
Energy's risk of, and potential responsibility for,
causing public harm due to the company's continued
participation in nuclear energy programs, and to prepare,
at reasonable expense, a report for the next annual
shareholders' meeting in 2003. Duke Energy does not want
to include this resolution. The SEC should make a
decision soon. Read
stockholder resolution and SEC letter.
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Feb. 14, 2002: BREDL
expresses thanks to all who participated in the Nuclear
Insecurity Conference | Pictures from the conference
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Read Keynote Address delivered by NCI's Paul Leventhal.
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Jan. 31, 2002: NRC Atomic
Safety & Licensing Board grants NIRS and BREDL a
hearing on the license renewal of Duke Energy's McGuire
and Catawba Nuclear Power Plants. The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission's judges had never before granted such a
hearing in a license renewal case. Hearing
date to be announced later. Read NRC notification
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Nuclear Insecurity Conference to
be held Feb. 8 & 9, 2002 in Charlotte, NC - Details and Registration
info.
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2001
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Nov. 29, 2001: Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League submittal of contentions in
the matter of the renewal of licenses for Duke Energy
Corporation (DUKE) McGuire Nuclear Stations 1 and 2
[McGUIRE] and Catawba Nuclear Stations 1 and 2 [CATAWBA].
And Support for Motion to Suspend Proceeding Filed by
NIRS 11/29/01.
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Nov. 16, 2001: Janet
Zeller's report from the US
Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee
on Reactor Safety (ACRS) meeting to hear staff reviews of
the key issues in Duke Cogema Stone & Webster’s
(DCS) Construction Authorization Request (CAR) for the
plutonium fuel factory proposed for the Savannah River
Site.
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Nov. 15, 2001: Despite U.S. government knowledge that terrorists were
targeting nuclear plants, security risks have been
downplayed for years by both industry and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, according to a Greenpeace report
released Thursday. The report, Risky Business: The
Probability and Consequences of a Nuclear Accident,
co-released locally with the Blue Ridge Environmental
Defense League, analyzes each of the 103 nuclear reactors
operating in the U.S. and includes detailed maps of the
consequences and fall out for the 12 worst reactor
sites. The Catawba reactors and McGuire reactors north
and south of Charlotte figure prominently in the lists. BREDL Press
Release and link to report
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Oct. 23, 2001: Today
at a press conference in Rock Hill, SC, the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League (BREDL) announced the filing
of a legal petition to block the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission's proceedings for the extension of licenses
for Duke Energy’s Catawba and McGuire nuclear power
plants. BREDL
Press Release ; Petition
to NRC
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Tue.,
Oct. 9, 2001 at 1 pm: BREDL's
Don Moniak will appear on Armstrong Williams' nationally syndicated radio talk show. He will
discuss nuclear security. Please check your local radio
listings.
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Sept. 14, 2001: BREDL files
petition with NRC for leave to intervene in the license
renewal proceedings for Duke Energy's Catawba
1&2 and McGuire 1&2 nuclear power plants in
Rock Hill, SC and Charlotte, NC.
Duke has requested 20-year renewal of their licenses to
operate the four reactors. The licenses for the
four units are set to expire in 2021-2026.
Therefore, if the renewals are granted, Duke could
operate the reactors until 2041-2046.
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September
21, 2001 - The re-licensing public hearing for Catawba
nuclear power station will be held at the Rock Hill
Council Chamber at the City Hall, located at 155 Johnston
Street, Rock Hill, South Carolina, on Tuesday, October
23, 2001. The NRC will
hold the hearing in two 3-hour sessions:
from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 7:00
p.m. to 10:00 p.m. NRC will
record a transcript of the hearing.
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September
10, 2001 - The first re-licensing public hearing for
McGuire nuclear power station will be held at the
North Campus of Central Piedmont Community College
(in the auditorium) on Tuesday, September 25, 2001. CPCC is on 11920 Verhoeff Road,
Huntersville, North Carolina, about 15 miles north of
Charlotte. The NRC will
hold the hearing in two 3-hour sessions:
from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 7:00
p.m. to 10:00 p.m. NRC will
record a transcript of the hearing.
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Aug. 30, 2001: Groups Warn South Carolina
Governor Jim Hodges not to fall for MOX. Press
Release
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Aug. 29, 2001: BREDL
letter to Dept. of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
requesting information regarding the Department of
Energy’s (DOE) program for long-term storage of
plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU), and the
related transportation of non-pit plutonium, at
DOE’s Savannah River Site (SRS).
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Aug. 29, 2001: A Report on the Plutonium (Pu) Situation,
Promise To "Delay" Made In Bad Faith - The
decision this week by the Department of Energy (DOE) to
"delay" plutonium shipments to the Savannah
River Site (SRS) involved several omissions of
information and was another act of bad faith by an Agency
with a long tradition of bending federal law and
misleading the public. Read Media
Advisory
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Aug. 27, 2001: New York Times reports
that the Bush Administration may abandon Plutonium Fuel
(MOX) program. Meanwhile, Plutonium shipments to Savannah
River Site have been put on hold while DOE formulates a
disposal plan.
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Aug. 23, 2001: Documents obtained this week by the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League (BREDL) indicate that
funding for the Department of Energy’s (DOE)
Plutonium/MOX fuel program contract is nearly exhausted. BREDL Press
Release , Plutonium Fuel Factory facts
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Aug. 9, 2001: BREDL files motion to
intervene in Duke Energy's request for liability relief.
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June 25,
2001: BREDL comments on the Supplement to
the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic
Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and
High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye
County, Nevada
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May 24, 2001: BREDL May 17, 2001 letter requesting NRC
to hold hearing on Construction Authorization Request
(CAR) for a Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication facility at
Savannah River Site in South Carolina. | BREDL
Press Release
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May 8, 2001 - BREDL comments regarding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Plutonium (MOX) Fuel Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) scoping period (Charlotte Public Hearing)
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May 3, 2001: Press
Release In Charlotte, NC today BREDL releases a new
plutonium fuels transportation report outlining past
problems with the U.S. Department of Energy's handling of
plutonium. Link to reports : |
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more info on
meetings. |
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April 18, 2001 - BREDL comments
regarding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC)
Plutonium (MOX) Fuel Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
scoping period.
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The April 11, 2001 response to BREDL's
March 23, 2001 letter to NRC Chairman Meserve requesting
for NRC denial of MFFF Construction
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April 16, 2001:
Today, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
(BREDL) released documents challenging the plutonium fuel
factory proposed for the Department of Energy’s
(DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South
Carolina. In a letter written to the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC), BREDL contends that the Duke
Cogema Stone and Webster (DCS) plutonium factory license
application is fatally flawed and should be rejected. The
group also contends that DOE must complete a supplemental
Environmental Impact Statement. read
BREDL Press Release
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April 10, 2001 - Read GCE/BREDL Press
Release - Georgians for Clean Energy and the Blue
Ridge Environmental Defense League will sponsor an
informational Open House regarding the Department of
Energy's ongoing plans to construct and operate a
plutonium (MOX) fuel factory at the already heavily
polluted Savannah River Site, approximately 90 miles
upstream from Savannah. If built, the plutonium factory
will generate millions of gallons of liquid radioactive
waste and increase the potential of creating more
permanent nuclear weapons and power production missions
at SRS and the region. |
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BREDL March 23, 2001
letter to NRC Chairman Richard Meserve requesting for NRC
denial of MFFF Construction Authorization Request. The April 11, 2001 response to BREDL's
letter
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March 22, 2001 - An international coalition of environmental, social
justice, and nuclear weapons groups have petitioned the
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hold a formal
licensing review of government plans to build a factory
to make nuclear fuel from plutonium. Today, Georgians
Against Nuclear Energy (GANE) and the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League (BREDL) released a letter
signed by 142 organizations requesting a full public
process including testimony, written comments, discovery,
subpoena, cross-examination, appeals, and the possibility
of a hearing before the Atomic Safety and Licensing
Board. More info: BREDL Press
Release , February 22, 2001 letter to NRC Chairman
Richard Meserve
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Feb. 15, 2001 - American Sea Shore Underwater Recovery Expedition
(ASSURE) will present its recommendations regarding the
missing thermonuclear bomb in Savannah River harbor on 7
p.m. Thursday evening, February 15th, at the Tybee Island
City Hall; 403 Butler Avenue; Tybee Island, Georgia.
ASSURE recommends that the missing nuclear bomb be
located as soon as possible, and discussion and analysis
begin immediately to determine the feasible alternatives
for addressing the radiation and explosive hazards posed
by the bomb. Read ASSURE
Press Release
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Feb. 6, 2001 - Aiken, SC: The Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League will commemorate the 5th
Anniversary of former Secretary of Energy Hazel
O’Leary’s last “openness” press
conference at which DOE released its publication
“Plutonium, The Last 50 Years.” More info: BREDL Press Release,
BREDL MEDIA
ALERT , Download .pdf file or view html files of
report.
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Jan. 24, 2001 - Yesterday in a letter to the Canadian Nuclear Safety
Commission (CNSC), twenty-five organizations from three
countries urged the CNSC to take immediate action to
suspend a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) test--called
Parallex--of mixed oxide (MOX) plutonium fuel planned in
Canada’s National Research Universal (NRU) reactor. BREDL Press Release,
Groups' letter to
CNSC
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"On January 22, 2001, at approximately 9:17 p.m.,
McGuire Unit 1 initiated a unit shutdown due to an
increase in identified reactor coolant system (RCS)
leakage from approximately 1.7 gallons per minute (gpm)
to an estimated 4.5 gpm." - from NRC preliminary
notification
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Jan. 10, 2001 - Today in a letter to US
Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Bill Richardson, the
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) urged
immediate action to halt the plutonium fuel factory
project at the Savannah River Site. The group charged
that the recently released Environmental Report reveals
that the project’s Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) was incomplete and incorrect. BREDL
Press Release, BREDL letter to US
Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Bill Richardson
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2000
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The
Dangers of Plutonium Transportation: a report
delivered by Lou Zeller at the People's Forum on
Plutonium Fuels which was held Nov. 9, 2000 at Winthrop
University, Rock Hill, SC
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Oct. 2000 - People's Forum on Plutonium
Fuels will be held on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2000 from 7 p.m.
- 9 p.m. at McBryde Hall , Winthrop University , Rock
Hill, SC.
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Sept 29, 2000 - BREDL comments on
the proposed harmonization of USNRC and USDOT regulations
and standards for the transport of radioactive materials
with international regulations and standards
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September 28, 2000 - NIX
MOX Day
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July 23, 2000 - The G8 nations failed to finalize
the financial assistance agreement for plutonium fuel
which they had hoped to reach in Okinawa.
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July 22, 2000 - Russian
and American NGOs Blast G-8 Secrecy. Plutonium
Plans are a Danger to All Nations.
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July 20, 2000 - PRESS ADVISORY - JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE BY RUSSIAN AND
AMERICAN NGOs AT G-8 SUMMIT - 12 Noon , July 22, 2000
NGO Center
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July 17 - 24, 2000
- Reports from
BREDL's Lou Zeller in Okinawa, Japan at the G-8 Summit.
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July 3, 2000 - Letter to Heads of State of
Nations of the G-8 From Non-governmental Organizations
Opposing Plutonium Fuel
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Map of
transport routes analyzed for shipments to Yucca Mountain
through North Carolina and South Carolina.
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June 5, 2000 - Russian and
American Plutonium agreement draws fire.
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Reports from BREDL' s Lou and
Janet Zeller in Russia as they travel with the
American Delegation on Plutonium Fuel. May 21 - June 11, 2000
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April 20, 2000 - At its annual meeting,
Duke Shareholders voted in favor of burning plutonium
(MOX) fuel. They rejected a proposal to refuse plutonium
fuel for Duke reactors.
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April 7, 2000 - Virginia Power
drops out of Plutonium Fuel Consortium. Virginia
Power has announced that it's dropping its plans to burn
Plutonium fuel at its North Anna Nuclear Power Plant in
Louisa County, Virginia. Duke Energy has said it will
stay in the Plutonium fuel program.
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April 7, 2000 - A federal judge has
rejected an anti-nuclear coalition's motion to block an
American-funded shipment of Russian plutonium to Canada,
saying he lacked the jurisdiction to act.
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March 21, 2000 - Press Release ,
Excerpt from injunction
motion/filing - On Tuesday, March 21,
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Physicians for
Social Responsibility and Nuclear Information and
Resource Service joined the plaintiffs who sued the US
Department of Energy to stop a U.S.-Russian-Canadian plan
to use nuclear weapons plutonium as fuel in nuclear power
reactors. UPDATE:
April 7, 2000 - A federal judge has
rejected an anti-nuclear coalition's motion to block an
American-funded shipment of Russian plutonium to Canada,
saying he lacked the jurisdiction to act.
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March 17, 2000 - Public
Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project Press Release
- More than 100 environmental organizations and
grassroots citizen groups today asked the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) to halt efforts to limit the
public's rights in hearings on decisions that affect
families, homes and communities. Sign-on letter sent to
President Clinton
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Feb 15, 2000 - Indian
Point, NY radiation steam leak - emergency declared A
leak in a steam generator at a Hudson River nuclear power
plant resulted in a brief release of radioactive steam.
Operators manually shut down the reactor and declared an
"Alert" following indications of a steam
generator tube leak.
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Jan 29, 2000 - Reversing a position held
for decades, the government has concluded for the first
time that many workers who built America's nuclear
weapons likely became ill because of exposure to
radiation or toxic chemicals. The findings, based on a
review of dozens of studies and raw medical data covering
an estimated 600,000 workers at 14 nuclear weapons sites,
could lead to compensation to the families of some of the
workers. Many were unaware that they were being exposed
to such health risks. This includes the Savannah River
Site.
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Jan 7, 2000 - Reaction to the Department
of Energy decision that it is safe to use weapons grade
plutonium as fuel for Duke Energy's Catawba reactors was
as mixed Thursday as the fuel itself. The Department of
Energy issued a "record of decision" Tuesday
saying the proposal to convert up to 33 metric tons of
surplus plutonium into mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel was
environmentally sound.
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Jan 6, 2000 - The U.S. Department of
Energy will move forward with plans to use weapons-grade
plutonium at the Catawba Nuclear Station. The DOE issued
a "record of decision" that said the process of
using the mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel was environmentally
safe. With that announcement, the program will begin
immediately with construction at the Savannah Nuclear
Site in Georgia for a plant that can convert plutonium
from decommissioned nuclear weapons into a fuel that
would power nuclear reactors.
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Jan 6, 2000 - Federal regulators have
again cited the largest contractor at the Savannah River
Site nuclear complex for failing to follow safety
procedures. The latest problems occurred in a facility
that recovers useful materials from radioactive and
chemical wastes, and in a plant that stabilizes plutonium
left over from other operations.
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Jan 4, 2000 - The
Department of Energy issues Record of Decision for
Surplus Plutonium Disposition at Savannah River Site.The
Department of Energy today announced its decision to
dispose of up to 50 metric tons of surplus plutonium from
the United States in a hybrid approach and to construct
and operate three new facilities at its Savannah River
Site (SRS).
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1999
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Oct. 15, 1999:
BREDL and SEER hosted French Delegation on
Plutonium fuel
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Tokai
Accident on September 30, 1999.
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Connecticut
Yankee: The Haddam Neck Plant began active
dismantlement of large radioactive components the week of
September 13, 1999.
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ACTION
ALERT : International NIX MOX
DAY - MAY 17, 1999 TO OPPOSE PLUTONIUM FUELED
NUCLEAR POWER REACTORS. This is the second annual
NIX MOX DAY, an opportunity to educate the
public, the news media, decision makers,
and our elected officials.
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Institute for Energy and Environmental
Research (IEER)
unveils a comprehensive alternative to current
official US government plans for management of highly
radioactive wastes.
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From Synergy - Plutonium
in the Piedmont: The MOX
program - Duke Power contracts with
DOE to use plutonium-based mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) in
reactors at McGuire and Catawba nuclear stations.
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Community leaders from
Russia and North Carolina create coalition
to stop the use of plutonium fuel in nuclear power plants
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NRC wants closed
meetings
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DOE contracts with Duke Engineering &
Services, COGEMA, Inc., and
Stone & Webster to provide mixed oxide fuel
fabrication and reactor irradiation services in support
of the department's mission to dispose of surplus weapons
plutonium.
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Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research (IEER) says DOE Plutonium
fuel contract award is inappropriate and premature.
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Savannah River in D.O.E. budget
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