Joint Petitioners' Respond to TVA's Motion to Strike Supplemental Basis for Contention 6 regarding Bellefonte Nuclear facility
Jan. 25, 2010: Read the Petitioners' Response to TVA filed before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
Rust Never Sleeps: Bellefonte Nukes Would Threaten Tennessee Valley
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.
The accident in the
nuclear reactor's containment area and the history of
prior failures all point to further problems if the
Commission were to allow the completion of the virtually
moth-eaten 35-year old reactors following years of
salvage operations and lack of maintenance and oversight.
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View BREDL's
latest legal filing. | Read BREDL Press Release
BREDL files Brief regarding Dominion-Virgina Power's Appeal of North Anna Decision
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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Two-thirds of the energy generated at every nuclear power plant is not converted into usable electricity. Rather, it is wasted and discharged to the environment. This waste heat can be discharged directly to the air via cooling towers, or it can be discharged to a body of water. Heat discharged to waterways poses a special environmental threat and is subject to the Clean Water Act. For decades Virginia’s State Water Control Board has declined to limit thermal discharges from the North Anna nuclear power plant.
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BREDL Answer Opposing Dominion
Motion to Reconsider
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.
Dec. 17 BREDL reply to
Dominion-Virginia Power's motiion to dismiss our case against the
third reactor at North Anna | Nov. 25 judges' ruling
contested by Dominion
Groups file Petition for Review
regarding Vogtle Units 3 and 4
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.
| Our appeal calls upon the court to
review the site permit and the work authorization issued
by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for Vogtle Units 3
and 4. In the petition for review, filed in the US Court
of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit, we contend that
the NRC violated the Atomic Energy Act, the National
Environmental Policy Act, and other relevant laws. The
appeal states, "Petitioners seek review and reversal
of the issuance of the ESP and the LWA for the Vogtle ESP
site." The appeal was filed by attorneys for the
Center for a Sustainable Coast, Savannah River Keeper,
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Georgia Women’s
Action for New Directions and the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League. |
Read Press Release | Download Petition
for Review
"Love the Bay"
Concert - Saturday, October 10
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.
Free admission ~ Donations Appreciated!
Contests and Prizes for kids of all ages!
More info: View Concert Flyer
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.
BREDL comments to US NRC
Aug. 6, 2009: Citizens Groups Claim Victory - Commission Delays Nuclear Plants at Bellefonte: 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.
BREDL Press Release | NRC Letters regarding delay
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
BREDL comments to TDEC-DRH on
the proposed license amendment to the IMPACT Services incinerator
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
BREDL files amended Contention
Ten regarding the North Anna application
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
June 3, 2009: BREDL files legal brief with NRC.
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
May 14, 2009: GROUPS TAKE AIM AT
BELLEFONTE 1 AND 2 - 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.
| "NRC’s got the cart before the horse.
Contrary to their own procedural requirements, they’re
handing out construction permits for reactors on a 40
year old gutted plant site before new reactor designs
have been approved and before environmental impacts have
been determined." - Sandra Kurtz, a
member of BREDL's Bellefonte Efficiency and
Sustainability Team. |
BREDL Press Release
| BREDL
Petition
April 22, 2009: Nuclear Power in Hot Water - BREDL Earth Day update
April 17, 2009: BREDL Reply
to Answers of Duke Energy and NRC Staff regarding new Contention
Eleven on proposed W S Lee Nuclear Plants
GROUP TAKES BELLEFONTE FIGHT TO A HIGHER
COURT
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
GROUP CHARGES NEW NUKES MUST
WAIT
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
(includes links to filing documents)
Victory in Landmark Clean Water Act
Challenge
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
BREDL members and chapters in Virginia
and supporters of the federal Clean Water Act everywhere hail
landmark court victory.
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!
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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