Court Rejects Legal Challenge to Stop Work at San Onofre

Nuclear Shutdown News  January 2021

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear industry in the US and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world.

By Michael Steinberg

Court rejects legal challenge to stop work at San Onofre.

On January 14 Law 360 reported, “9th Circuit Court Denies Advocate’s Nuclear Decommissioning Challenge.” The case concerns San Diego based Public Advocate’s petition asserting that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission “abdicated its safety responsibilities” overseeing the decommissioning of the San Onofre nuclear plant in Orange county, Southern California, which shut down in 2012.

The petition requested the San Francisco-based court to “suspend decommissioning operations at San Onofre.” Decommissioning involves dismantling plant structures and ensuring that radioactive wastes are other toxic wastes are safely taken care of. Many millions of people live within 50 miles of the nuke.

The report stated the “court rejected the petition in a brief memorandum.”

Source:law360.com

Missouri Nuke Plant Shut Down 3rd Time in 9 Months

On Jan 15 the Associated Press reported that a “Missouri nuclear plant shut down for the third time in nine months.” The Callaway nuke plant, located 30 miles north of Jefferson City, Missouri,  shut down as the plant “was ramping up after maintenance” on the 15th, owner Ameren said.

The plant first stopped last year in April of last year, the AP reported, “after a main feedwater valve malfunction, then again in September when a piece of ductwork became detached and caused the generator to trip” (shut down).

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear safety for the Union of Concerned Scientists, commented, “It is unusual for a nuclear plant to have three scrams-sudden unexpected shutdowns-in one year. Most plants average one scram every two years.”

The Callaway plant started up in 1984, making it 37 years old. Nuclear plants are designed to last 40 years, and as they age incidents such as Callaway is experiencing may occur more often. Owner Ameren may be seeing the light. The company recently announced it has purchased two Missouri wind generating electrical farms.

Source: Associated Press, ap.com.

Nuke Plants: Past, Present-And No Future?

Last year at a meeting of the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP), executive director Joseph Mangano, a widely published epidemiologist and author, gave his assessment of the US nuclear industry. His numerous articles have focused on the association of radioactive releases from nuclear plants and their negative effects on human health, such as excess deaths, cancers, and birth defects.

Mangano began his presentation by noting that he’d been he’d been at this work for 30 years. He reported that over the past 7 years 11 nuke plants have shut down. Unfortunately 94 are still operating. But almost all nukes in the Northeast are history. Only Seabrook in New Hampshire and Millstone in southeastern Connecticut, my old home place are still running. and we did get one of Millstone’s 3 reactor shutdown in 1996. Next to shut down will be the remaining Indian Point plant in April, only 30 miles upstream from Manhattan on the Hudson River.

Mangano also reported that, based on discussions with no nukes activists last summer, his organization will be focusing their efforts on shutting down two more nukes.

One is Fermi near Detroit, subject of the Gil Scott Heron song, “We Almost Lost Detroit.” The other is Vogtle in Georgia, whose two new reactors’ construction began in 2006, and are only half done, with millions in cost overruns and” no end in sight.”

Source: Radiation and Public Health Project.radiation.org