Nuclear

Report Reveals 21% Higher Death Rates
Near Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant

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.

Read Press Release | View Report: Radioactive Emissions and Health Hazards Surrounding Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama

Nuclear - Sequoyah

Citizens Intervene to Halt Sequoyah Plant Relicensing
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.

BREDL Press Release | BREDL Petition

Safe Energy | Clean Air

People For Clean Mountains Urges Moratorium
on Biomass Facility

People For Clean Mountains (PCM) has called on Transylvania County Commissioners to enact a moratorium for 18 months on any further development of the proposed Penrose biomass facility.
“There is an emerging body of evidence that a facility like the one proposed can pose significant public health risks while also hurting the county’s economic recovery and development,” says Danna Smith, a PCM volunteer.

PCM Press Release | DRAFT Moratorium
The Asheville Citizen-Times story: Group seeks halt to biomass plant

BREDL Fact Sheet: Penrose Biomass Technology
Brevard, NC

An application has been submitted to the North Carolina Utilities Commission by RD-Penrose 1, a subsidiary of RENEWable Developers, LLC for a certificate of convenience and public necessity for an electric generating plant near Brevard, NC. If approved, the plant would use up to 100 tons per day of household trash and wood waste to generate up to 4 megawatts of electricity.

BREDL Fact Sheet

Hydrofracking | NC Healthy Communities

BREDL In the NEWS: Fracking North Carolina:
What Do We Do With The Waste?

April 23, 2013: BREDL's Therese Vick was recently interviewed for a WUNC 91.5 NC Public Radio story.

“You can model anything the way you want to,” she says. “And who’s watching? Who’s monitoring it? Is the testing gonna ever be adequate? Are they ever going to be required to test for every substance?”

Check out the WUNC story for more of Therese's comments

Nuclear - W S Lee

The League comments on W S Lee water permit

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.

Read BREDL Comments

Hydrofracking | NC Healthy Communities

League joins in the call for a
comprehensive health assessment prior to fracking

April 17, 2013: Raleigh- Today, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) joined over 90 medical professionals and 25 organizations calling on the North Carolina General Assembly and Governor Pat McCrory to require that a health assessment be conducted before any fracking is allowed in North Carolina. A letter requesting the health assessment will be sent to Legislators and the Governor. At the press conference, health care providers spoke of the necessity of the health assessment and others held signs saying, “First Do No Harm,” and “An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure”.

Read Full BREDL Press Release

Nuclear

BREDL Fact Sheet: (no)waste confidence! Nuclear Waste Rule

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Waste Confidence Rule generic approach remains utterly inadequate to satisfy the requirements of both the Atomic Energy Act and the National Environmental Policy Act for the licensing decisions on nuclear power.

BREDL Fact Sheet

Nuclear Waste Rule? No Confidence!

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.

The process for a new rule is now underway. Sometime in 2013, the NRC will prepare a draft environmental impact statement. Then a draft Waste Confidence Decision and proposed Rule would be issued for public comment. However, the NRC must first resolve many technical issues including long-term waste integrity, vulnerability, deterioration and accidents. But the NRC’s approach is utterly inadequate to assure public safety and the Commission is in danger of abrogating its responsibility to allow public to participate in a decision which affects them.

BREDL Jan. 2 Comments

Safe Energy | Clean Air

BREDL Fact Sheet - North Star Jefferson biomass and tire burner proposed for Wadley, Georgia

Used tires are a dirty fuel. Up to 20% of the power from the proposed facility in Jefferson County would be provided by scrap tires. Even with pollution control devices in place, burning tires create toxic air pollution.  

BREDL Fact Sheet

Forests

BREDL Comments on Grandfather Restoration Project and Linville Gorge Wilderness Area Impacts

March 12, 2013: We oppose the practice of prescribed burns in the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area because of their negative impact on public health and their incompatibility with the area’s federal wilderness designation.

BREDL Comments to U.S. Forest Service

Safe Energy - North Carolina Integrated Resource Planning

BREDL Chapter Leaders testify at
NC Utilities Commission Hearing

February 28, 2013: Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League chapter leaders Julius Kerr and Laura Sorensen testified at the North Carolina Utilities Commission hearing in Charlotte. They joined the chorus of opposition to wasteful, costly pollution generators and money sinkholes proposed by the electric utility companies. For example, the League revealed that to date Duke Energy has reported over $300 million in spending on its proposed Lee Nuclear Station in South Carolina with no license approved or construction started.

BREDL Press Release | NCUC WSLee Expenditures Report
Julius Kerr Testimony | Laura Sorensen Testimony

Hydrofracking | Land Use

Presentation on Split Estates

Feb. 13, 2013: Therese Vick's powerpoint presentation, which was presented in Lee County, about split estates. Over time, Split Estate has come to be defined as a situation in which a property owner is not the same party who owns the rights to extract minerals from underneath the property.

Download Presentation: Powerpoint | PDF

Safe Energy

North Carolina Integrated Resource Planning

Feb. 11, 2013: The general statutes of North Carolina which require the analysis of the long-range need for electricity and least-cost considerations (NCGS 62-110 and 62-2) compel the Commission to require a full cost accounting of all electric generation sources. However, Duke Energy, Progress Energy and Dominion Energy are pursuing most-cost energy policies which are both expensive and reckless.

More Details: BREDL Comments | BREDL Slide Presentation | BREDL Article

Clean Air

BREDL's questions and concerns about exemptions from
North Carolina's health based Air Toxics standards

"The changes in North Carolina's health-based air toxics regulations will mean increased illness and decreased quality of life. Thousands of citizens across the state will be exposed to more toxic air pollution due to a decision made to benefit industry's bottom line. BREDL's over twenty year support of these standards has not ended because of changes made during last years legislative session. We will continue to stand our ground, to monitor how the rules will be implemented, and to expose those who stand to gain from this assault on public health."

Read BREDL's Jan. 26 Letter to NCDAQ

Nuclear

Nuclear Safety Expert to Inform Local Leaders

SCOTTSBORO, AL - On Monday, February 4, Mr. David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) Director of Nuclear Safety, will bring a Nuclear Safety - Nuclear History presentation to the Jackson County Commission, at 5PM Central Time at the Jackson County Courthouse. His presentation will be repeated at the Scottsboro City Council, Scottsboro City Hall at 6PM Central Time. Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer, is one of the nation’s top independent nuclear power experts.

Read Press Release

Nuclear

Emergency Planning Zones for Nuclear Accidents

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.

BREDL Comments

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.

BREDL Dec. 12 Memo to chapters | Feb. 2012 Petition to NRC | April 2012 Federal Register Notice

The League Line

BREDL's Sping 2013 newsletter available online

The LEAGUE LINE: Spring 2013

- Cover: On Thin Ice: Nuclear Power in the Southeast by Louis Zeller
- Director's Report: Beyond Business As Usual by Louis Zeller
- (no)waste confidence! Nuclear Waste Rule Update by Louis Zeller
- Welcome BREDL 2013 Duke Stanback Interns
- "It's not all that it's cooked up to be" by Rev. Charles Utley
- Hardworking BREDL Chapter Inspires ... by Laura Sorensen, SAFECarolinas
- Heavy Handed Authorities Overreact ... by Julius Kerr, N.E.W.
- BEST and MATRR stepped up ... by Sandy Kurtz
- Uncontrolled Public Health Experiment in Fracked Communities by Therese Vick
- Victory Over Uranium Mining and Milling in Virginia? by Anne Cockrell, PRIDE
- Holding up a Mirror by Dr. Michael Noll, W.A.C.E.
- Community Organic Gardens by Therese Vick