INDIAN POINT SAFE ENERGY COALITION (IPSEC)

Letter to the Editor: Senator Joe Manchin on nuclear power

Dear Editor,

Imagine a world with no stoplights, safety belts, speed limit enforcement, and no requirements for the auto industry.  The death toll would be astronomical.  That is the effect of what Senator Joe Manchin and some other Senators who are nuclear advocates want for the nuclear industry.

We have been down this road before.  The NRC was established in 1974 after the accident at Three Mile Island because its predecessor was guilty of promoting the nuclear industry over public safety.  My 25 year observation with NRC regulations and enforcement at the Indian Point nuclear reactor  have convinced me that this agency is already a captive of the industry.

Manchin’s promise to block the reappointment of  the last NRC Commissioner concerned about public safety — Jeff Baran or  anyone else concerned with public safety is disgraceful.

“We’re just looking for people who understand that we have to have nuclear energy in the mix,” he said.

Public safety does not start with what is good for the industry.  It starts with what is good for the millions of people who live near a nuclear power plant. Clever people solve problems.  Smart people and smart regulators avoid them.  We need a smart Nuclear Regulatory Agency that sticks to its original mission – protecting public safety, not industry profits.

Marilyn Elie
Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition
Cortlandt Manor, NY

Source: https://midhudsonnews.com/2024/02/03/letter-to-the-editor-senator-joe-manchin-on-nuclear-power/

The post Letter to the Editor: Senator Joe Manchin on nuclear power appeared first on Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

Jun San will once again be making her annual Peace Walk to Indian Point in commemoration of the Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami which triggered the nuclear tragedy at Fukushima on March 11, 2011.

She  will meet people at the Peekskill Train station at 1:00 PM and then walk to Indian Point. Those who do not wish to walk can meet up with the walkers at the old gate to Indian Point at Bleakley and Broadway where we have met so many times before.

There will be a simple peace crane ceremony in remembrance of those who died and to reaffirm our opposition to nuclear power. Lunch at the diner will follow.

For those coming from New York City; please catch the 11:50 AM Metro North train headed to Poughkeepsie, arriving at Peekskill at 12:56 PM. Tickets are $13.50 off peak and $9.00 for seniors.

If you would like to attend the ceremony but do not want to do the walk, call Marilyn and we will arrange transportation. For a ride back to the station after lunch call Marilyn at 914-954-6739.  

Marilyn Elie
www.ipsecinfo.org
914-954-6739 

The post Peace Walk to Indian Point, March 10, 1:00 PM. Meet at Peekskill Train station. Save the date and tell your friends! appeared first on Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday cited Holtec International for dipping into ratepayer funds meant for the teardown of the Indian Point nuclear power plant for $63,000 to sponsor baseball and softball teams, a golf outing and a high school fashion show.

The NRC said the payments “do not constitute legitimate decommissioning activities” and gave Holtec 30 days to respond to a violation notice.

Holtec has been told to reimburse the money taken out of roughly $2 billion in decommissioning trust funds it inherited after buying the lower Hudson Valley nuclear plant from Louisiana-based Entergy in May 2021.

The money in the funds come largely from fees collected from ratepayers during the plant’s 60 years of operation.

The payments turned up during an NRC review of financial records and interviews with company officials between July 2021, when Holtec took over the plant, and June 2023.

Closing:Why Indian Point nuclear plant won’t close until 2041

Where the $63,000 went

Among the organizations that received funding were a little league team, a girls softball team in the Town of Cortlandt, a fashion show at Hendrick Hudson High School, a golf outing and a parade.

“We take our responsibility as watchful stewards of the trust fund very seriously,” Holtec spokesman Patrick O’Brien said. “We are also deeply committed to our local communities we serve as part of the decommissioning process. It is in that spirit as a strong community partner that these charitable expenditures were made, as part of our regular community outreach and engagement activities. We take any violation very seriously and have already taken corrective actions to ensure the amount was restored to the trust fund, with interest, and that this issue does not recur with our future community and charitable contributions.”

The NRC also turned up an unspecified amount of decommissioning funds spent on lobbying New York state lawmakers, but chose not to issue a violation.

“The NRC determined that the lobbying efforts associated with keeping New York State legislators informed and educated about decommissioning issues at IPEC (Indian Point Energy Center) fall within the objectives in accordance with the definition of decommissioning…,” the NRC writes in a letter to Holtec president Kelly Trice.

Similarly, the NRC allowed Holtec to spend decommissioning funds for legal expenses associated with the U.S. Department of Energy’s spent fuel settlement efforts.

The DOE has agreed to pay the owners of nuclear power plants to store steel-and-cement canisters loaded with used nuclear fuel on their sites until an underground repository for the nation’s radioactive waste is built.

Critics:Indian Point shutdown was supposed to quiet anti-nuclear critics. Not a chance

More bad news for Holtec

This is the latest setback for Holtec, which last month agreed to pay New Jersey $5 million in penalties to avoid prosecution over alleged misstatements made on tax-credit applications linked to its Camden, N.J. manufacturing hub.

The tax credits for Holtec and a related real estate firm were valued at $1 million.

Holtec denied wrongdoing, noting it agreed to settle the dispute “under threat of unfounded retaliatory criminal prosecution.”

And last year, the company sparred with environmental groups over its plan to discharge millions of gallons of radioactive water recovered from the plant’s spent fuel pools into the Hudson River.

Radiation:Hochul inks Indian Point bill but radiological waste debate rages on

In November, after Gov. Kathy Hochul sided with environmental groups by signing a law banning the release, Holtec said it would need more time to finish the teardown. Instead of demolishing the plant’s three reactors and other buildings on the 240-acre site by 2033, Holtec said it will need until 2041.

The radioactive water will remain on the site while Holtec weighs a legal challenge.

By Thomas C. Zambito
Source: https://www.lohud.com/story/news/2024/02/23/indian-point-owner-holtec-used-ratepayer-funds-for-sports-teams-golf/72713984007/#:~:text=The%20Nuclear%20Regulatory%20Commission%20on,a%20high%20school%20fashion%20show.

The post Misuse of money from Decommissioning Trust Fund appeared first on Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

BEACON- Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, America’s Environmental Flagship organization, will honor Dr. Stuart Findlay, Manna Jo Greene, and Xiell Owens at its annual Spirit of the Hudson Gala on April 7, 2024, at the Garrison, in Garrison, NY.  The Gala will celebrate 55 years of inspiring lifelong stewards of the Hudson River and its tributaries and will raise critical funds for the continuation of Clearwater’s unique education and advocacy programs.

Clearwater is pleased to honor Dr. Stuart Findlay, of the Cary Institute, with the Spirit of the Hudson Award.  Findlay is being honored for his over 30 year commitment to the recovery of the Hudson through research on sensitive wetlands, shoreline restoration, and environmental monitoring, as well as his work with the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Clearwater will also bestow the Lifetime Contribution to Clearwater Award on retired Clearwater Environmental Action Director, Manna Jo Greene. Greene drove Clearwater’s engagement in environmental issues for over 20 years, including the campaign to close the Indian Point nuclear power plant and advocacy work around the remediation of the Hudson River from General Electric’s PCB contamination.

Xiell Owens will be honored with the first ever Next Generation Environmental Leader Award.  This new award celebrates the efforts of a young person or group of youth (under age 30) who are actively working to protect or steward the ecological world.  Owens, an Albany high school student, has demonstrated his commitment to environmental sustainability through his work at the Radix Ecological Sustainability Center, an urban ecological literacy and just sustainabilities advocacy non-profit organization based in the South End of Albany.

This year’s gala will feature both a live and silent auction, and live music by the Judith Tulloch Band.  Members of the public are welcome to attend and/or participate in the silent auction online.

Source: https://midhudsonnews.com/2024/02/13/clearwater-announces-award-recipients/

The post Clearwater announces award recipients appeared first on Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

Controversial Camden-based nuclear parts maker to pay $5M fine This article details the many transgressions Holtec has done to increase their profits and the fines they must pay.


“This is a company that continues to face questions about its actions and transparency,” Steinborn said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “Do we really want to trust this company with the nation’s spent nuclear fuel?”

Controversial Camden-based nuclear parts maker to pay $5M fine

Holtec International, the Camden firm behind controversial nuclear power projects in New Jersey and four other states, has agreed to pay a $5 million penalty to avoid criminal prosecution connected to a state tax break scheme.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced Tuesday that  Holtec has been stripped of $1 million awarded by the state in 2018 under the Angel Investor Tax Break Program. Holtec will also submit to independent monitoring by the state for three years regarding any application for further state benefits, Platkin said.

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

NJ company awarded license to build private nuclear waste dump in U.S.The agreement, which also covers a real estate company owned by Holtec founder and CEO Krishna Singh, came after a lengthy criminal investigation that discovered Holtec had submitted false information to the state in seeking the Angel tax breaks.

Holtec’s use of misinformation for private gain, as detailed by the state attorney general, closely parallels allegations that have followed the company for years as it sought public subsidies to finance international ambitions in the nuclear field.

“Today, we are sending a clear message,” Platkin said. “No matter how big and powerful you are, if you lie to the state for financial gain, we will hold you accountable — period.”

Denies wrongdoing

Holtec, in a statement, denied any wrongdoing and called the non-prosecution agreement a “settlement” that would prevent years of costly litigation.

“This resolution allows Holtec and its over 500 employees in New Jersey to continue their important work on the forefront of the green-energy revolution in America and beyond,’’ according to the statement.

Patrick O’Brien, a company spokesman, declined to discuss details of the criminal investigation and did not comment when asked if the agreement with New Jersey was part of a pattern of ethical issues that continue to dog the company as it expands into decommissioning and the construction of advanced nuclear reactors.

Previously fined

In 2010, the Tennessee Valley Authority fined Holtec $2 million and ordered company executives to take ethics training after a bribery investigation involving Singh’s dealings with a key subcontractor.

The TVA also banned Holtec from federal work for 60 days, the first ever such debarment in the agency’s history.

In 2023, Holtec’s former chief financial officer filed a federal lawsuit claiming that he had been fired after refusing to sign off on false financial information the company was allegedly sending to potential investors. Kevin O’Rourke alleges that Holtec intentionally sought to inflate revenue projections and hide millions in expected losses.

‘This is a company that continues to face questions about its actions and transparency.’ — New Mexico state Sen. Jeff Steinborn

Those allegations, which Holtec has denied, include the company’s effort to mask $750 million in potential losses for its controversial proposal to build a consolidated nuclear waste storage facility in southeast New Mexico. That project, which was approved by federal regulators last year, faces a federal court challenge lodged by private groups and New Mexico state officials, who say Holtec lied about key information on its applications to build the storage facility.

The alleged false information, New Mexico officials say, included Holtec’s representation that it had obtained property rights from mine owners and oil drillers who are active near the 1,000-acre plot of desert land where Holtec would eventually place up to 10,000 spent nuclear fuel canisters with some 120,000 metric tons of radioactive waste.

New Mexico lawsuit

New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, who is suing in federal court to stop the Holtec plan, told NJ Spotlight News in an earlier interview that Holtec’s “false claims” could have profound potential impact on her state. There are more than 50 oil, gas and mineral wells within a 10-mile radius of Holtec’s site, she said, and the potential for underground contamination is real.

New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, who is suing in federal court to stop Holtec’s plan to build a consolidated nuclear waste storage facility in southeast New Mexico

“I understand we need to find a [nuclear waste] storage solution, but not in the middle of an active oil field, not from a company that is misrepresenting facts,” Garcia Richard said in an earlier statement.

New Mexico state Sen. Jeff Steinborn, whose law to ban the facility is now part of that federal lawsuit, told NJ Spotlight News that questions about Holtec’s character should be a deep concern for the public. Holtec, he pointed out, plans to transport dangerous spent fuel from retired power reactors across the nation to the site.

“This is a company that continues to face questions about its actions and transparency,” Steinborn said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “Do we really want to trust this company with the nation’s spent nuclear fuel?”

So-called dry casks manufactured by the company have long been used at nuclear reactor sites from New Jersey to California to store spent fuel that was initially segregated in water-filled fuel pools.

Decommissioning operations

Over the past half-decade, Holtec has moved aggressively forward from its manufacturing roots to take ownership of closed nuclear plants that are in the process of being retired. The company runs decommissioning operations at the retired Oyster Creek generating station along Barnegat Bay at Lacey Township, and three other sites, including New York’s Indian Point and the Pilgrim plant in Massachusetts.

The company has informally discussed starting up some of the new reactors at Oyster Creek and the Palisades site in Michigan, and is also pursuing plans to bring the next-gen nukes to Ukraine, Great Britain and other countries overseas.

Holtec now controls billions in public money that was set aside by utility users in each state for the safe decommissioning of nuclear reactors, a process that regulators have estimated could take 60 years for most reactors. Holtec, instead, has claimed it could dismantle the old plants and restore the land for public use in a fraction of that time.

Despite approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, public interest groups worry that Holtec, a private limited liability company, may drain the decommissioning trust funds and go bankrupt in its effort to complete expedited closure of some of America’s oldest nuclear plants.

Legal settlements elsewhere

Attorneys general in Massachusetts and New York were so worried that taxpayers could be left high and dry, they filed lawsuit pointing out multiple inconsistencies in Holtec’s plans. Both states have won legal settlements designed to stop Holtec from depleting the trust funds.

In addition to controlling the public trust funds, Holtec has also received or applied for billions in taxpayer subsidies and federal grants and loans. Some of those subsidies would help the firm finance its proposed storage dump in the New Mexico desert, as well as construction of a new generation of so-called SMRs, or small modular reactors.

The company has informally discussed starting up some of the new reactors at Oyster Creek and the Palisades site in Michigan, and is also pursuing plans to bring the next-gen nukes to Ukraine, Great Britain and other countries overseas.

Holtec runs decommissioning operations at the retired Oyster Creek generating station along Barnegat Bay at Lacey Township, and three other sites, including New York’s Indian Point and the Pilgrim plant in Massachusetts.

No such small nuclear reactor has ever been brought online in the U.S., as they face significant costs and regulatory hurdles despite the support  of some policymakers who argue that nuclear power can help reduce atmospheric carbon. A plan to build SMRs in Idaho collapsed last year after its cost more than doubled, to $9 billion.

It is unclear how the fine and criminal investigation announced Tuesday by New Jersey might affect Holtec’s plans to develop a new fleet of reactors.

The NJ case

According to the attorney general’s office, Holtec’s false tax break application concerned its partnership with a battery manufacturing firm named Eos Energy Storage. Holtec had planned on using Eos to help develop SMR technology at a manufacturing plant in western Pennsylvania.

Holtec and Singh Real Estate, a subsidiary owned by the company’s owner, invested $12 million in Eos in exchange for six million shares in the company. Holtec, however, manipulated its tax break application to hide information about the investment and double its tax award from $500,000 to $1 million, according to the attorney general.

Krishna Singh, center, the founder, president and CEO of Holtec International, pictured in July 2014

Investors in EOS have brought a class-action lawsuit against the battery manufacturer, citing unspecified financial fraud. Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed by the firm show Singh was briefly a member of the company’s board of directors before resigning.

“We have entered the battery industry to provide the means to store large quantities of electrical energy from nuclear, solar and other renewable energy generation facilities and deliver power to the user on demand.,” Singh said in a Sept. 2019 press release. “The availability of a suitably sized battery-powered energy storage plant will make our SMR-160 reactor even more valuable.”

O’Brien, the Holtec spokesman, said Singh made “a personal decision based on business interests” to cut ties with Eos and said plans to develop small reactors are on schedule. He said he knew no further details about Eos’s issues with investors.

‘Unfounded retaliatory criminal prosecution’

In his statement, O’Brien accused New Jersey of engaging in “unfounded retaliatory criminal prosecution” and payback for closing an earlier legal attempt to rescind  $260 million in state tax credits awarded to Holtec in 2014. The state sued to delete that tax award after discovering that Holtec had apparently concealed its 2010 debarment from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

BUDGET

Holtec’s $260 Million Tax Break Frozen by EDAState courts ruled in favor of Holtec after finding that the state regulators who administer the tax break program failed to perform adequate due diligence on applicants with spotty ethical backgrounds.

Public interest groups and nuclear safety experts who continue to oppose Holtec’s plans around the country, however, say the New Jersey fine is another warning sign. They said federal regulators, including the Department of Energy, must redouble scrutiny before awarding more public subsidies to the company.

“Clearly, Holtec lies habitually for fraudulent financial gain,” said Kevin Kamps, a radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, a leading watchdog group that is suing to stop Holtec’s New Mexico plan, as well as efforts to collect billions in subsidies to restart the retired Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan.

“The State of Michigan, and U.S. Department of Energy, must… not hand over hundreds of millions of dollars in state, and multiple billions of dollars in federal, taxpayer money for Holtec’s unprecedented, extremely high-risk zombie reactor restart scheme at Palisades.”

The post Holtec’s Legal Problems appeared first on Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

Biden supports nuclear power and the nuclear industry has been very effective in lobbying Senators and contributing to their campaigns. All of which, coupled with the vast amount of government money available through the Inflation Reduction Act, has set the stage for some Senators to push for relaxing nuclear safety regulations. 

Relaxing safety standards is a non partisan effort and about the only thing Democrats and Republicans have been able to agree on for this whole term. There has been very little in the news as this is all part of a larger “must pass”  appropiations bill. 

Now is the time to call both of your Senators and demand that they do whatever they can to stop this dangerous move. Hopefully, by now you have their phone numbers and emails in your contacts; you will need it as we get closer to November.

Please help amplify the message that we need nuclear safety, not dangerous, industry friendly regulation for something tremendously expensive, costs more per kilowatt hour than renewables and won’t be ready until we have passed the climate change deadlines.

You are welcome to use the letter below in anyway that is helpful to you.

Please amplify this message in any way you can and send it on to anyone else who might be interested.

In Solidarity,
Marilyn Elie
Senator Joe Manchin on Nuclear Power

Imagine a world with no stoplights, safety belts, speed limit enforcement and no requirements for the auto industry. The death toll would be astronomical. That is the effect of what Senator Joe Manchin and some other Senators who are nuclear advocates want for the nuclear industry. 

We have been down this road before. The NRC was established in 1974 after the accident at Three Mile Island because its predecessor was guilty of promoting the nuclear industry over public safety. My 25 year observation with NRC meetings, regulations and enforcement dealing with the Indian Point nuclear reactor  have convinced me that this agency is already a captive of the industry.

Manchin’s promise to block the reappointment of  the last NRC Commissioner concerned about public safety — Jeff Baran or  anyone else concerned with public safety is disgraceful and endangers us all.

“We’re just looking for people who understand that we have to have nuclear energy in the mix,” he said.

Public safety does not start with what is good for the industry.  It starts with what is good for the millions of people who live near a nuclear power plant. Clever people solve problems. Smart people and smart regulators avoid them. We need a smart Nuclear Regulatory Agency that sticks to its original mission – protecting public safety, not industry profits.

Marilyn Elie
Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition
www.ipsecinfo.org

The post Senator Joe Manchin on Nuclear Power appeared first on Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

25 SMR license applications expected by 2029, plus six other takeaways from FERC, NRC joint meeting

“Even though a lot of politicians in California wanted to close [Diablo Canyon], they faced the reality that they could not close it and keep their lights on,” FERC’s Christie said.

Vogtle nuclear Unit 4 with Unit 3 in the background. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a joint meeting on Jan. 25, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Courtesy of Georgia Power

Grid reliability and small modular reactors were key topics at a biennial meeting between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday.

Here are seven takeaways from the meeting.

Many SMRs in the pipeline. The NRC expects it will receive 25 licensing applications in the next five years for small modular reactors and advanced reactors, according to Andrea Kock, deputy office director for engineering, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. The planned SMR units will likely be up to about 200 MW in size, she said.

More utilities look to extend the life of existing nuclear plants. The NRC is reviewing applications for license extensions for 16 nuclear reactors “with more to come,” said John Wise, senior technical advisor for license renewal aging management in the NRC’s Division of New and Renewed Licenses. The United States has 93 licensed nuclear reactors.

Nuclear is a critical tool for reliability and decarbonization. FERC Commissioner Mark Christie touted the benefits of nuclear power. “Number one, it’s carbon free and that’s great. Number two, it runs all the time,” he said. “So basically, any future where you want to have reliable power and reduce carbon emissions it’s got to include nuclear.”

Christie commented on Pacific Gas & Electric’s 2,250-MW Diablo Canyon power plant in California, which had been slated for retirement but is in the process of having its life extended.

“Even though a lot of politicians in California wanted to close it, they faced the reality that they could not close it and keep their lights on,” Christie said. “So one lesson there was ultimately reality wins.”

NERC sees risks in the nation’s changing resource mix. The North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s just-issued long-term reliability assessment anticipates 83 GW of fossil-fueled and nuclear power plants will retire by the end of 2033, according to a presentation given at Thursday’s meeting by NERC Senior Vice President and Chief Engineer Mark Lauby. In the same period, NERC expects 62 GW of solar, 29 GW of gas, 21 GW of batteries and 5 GW of wind to come online, for a gain of 34 GW of nameplate capacity.

But those risks can be managed. The shift to inverter-based resources creates risks, but they can be managed, according to Lauby. “We see more resources, especially around solar and battery support, and those are certainly good resources to have, but they create more uncertainty.”

The uncertainty can be dealt with in a number of ways, including by having enough transmission to move power to where it is needed and having energy storage, Lauby said.

Reflecting those energy supply risks, one day in September, Germany’s 60 GW wind fleet produced only 2 GW, according to Lauby. “So we gotta make sure for those days that we have a place to go to back those systems up,” he said.

Load-following nuclear offers flexibility. Some nuclear power plants are able to follow changing load patterns, according to NRC Chairman Christopher Hanson. “That flexibility is going to be really important,” Lauby said.

Critical black start units are vulnerable to cold weather outages. During Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022, 155 designated black start units — generating units that can be used to restart the grid system after a wide-spread power outage — were hit with outages themselves, according to Heather Polzin, reliability enforcement counsel and attorney advisor in FERC’s Office of Enforcement. They totaled 19,000 MW, she said.

“It cannot be overstated the importance of black start resources,” FERC Acting Chairman Willie Phillips said.

By Ethan Howland
Source: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ferc-nerc-joint-meeting-smr-nuclear-black-start/705708/

The post More SMRS in the pipeline appeared first on Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

Tritium-at-Nuclear-Power-PlantsDownload

Tritium is a naturally occurring radioactive isotope that is found in the upper reaches of the
atmosphere and rarely occurs naturally on the surface of the Earth. It is produced as a
byproduct of the normal operations of nuclear reactors and is found in the fuel pools of reactors
where the highly radioactive rods are stored at many reactor sites once they can no longer be
used to produce energy.

Tritium has a half-life of 12 years. That means that half of it will decay in 12 years and the half
left will still be fully active.

https://g.co/kgs/gPTJbu.

Tritium is a beta emitter. The weak radioactive emissions from tritium can be blocked by the
skin. However, if it is inhaled or ingested its emissions disrupt cell functions during the ten days
it takes to be excreted from the body. Gordon Edwards, a noted Canadian scientist explains it
this way:

“Each radioactive particle is like a tiny time bomb that will eventually “explode” (the industry
uses the word “disintegrate”). When an atom disintegrates, it gives off projectiles that can
damage living cells, causing them to develop into cancers later.”

Reactors require regular and routine releases to the air and water to continue to operate.Tritium,
along with other radioactive contaminants, has been released into the body of water wherever
the plant is situated since nuclear power plants have been operating.

The NRC has regulations that were adopted in the 70’s that govern standards for these
releases. The standards are based on the limited knowledge available at the time – at least 50
years ago. The EPA also set standards but did not rely on any health studies since there were
none at the time. Instead, the EPA back-calculated acceptable levels of tritium in water from the
radiation exposure delivered by existing radionuclides from nuclear weapons testing in surface
waters.

New scientific research now paints a different picture of this radioactive isotope.This new
evaluation is likely to prove challenging, as tritium is difficult to evaluate because of its relatively
short life span compared to other radioactive isotopes. On the one hand, there is evidence that the risk from tritium is negligible and current standards are more than precautionary. On the
other, there is also evidence that tritium could be more harmful than originally thought.
As health physicist, David Kocher, from the Oak Ridge Center for Risk Analysis, who has
studied tritium for 30 years observes,

“It’s not a health-based standard, it’s based on what was easily achievable.”
There is ongoing research on this topic. Some say that the practice of dumping radioactive
isotopes into the waters where the reactors are located has been going on for decades and has
never done any harm. The unanswered question is, how do we know that no harm has been
done? A health study that will be done at the Pilgrim reactor site before any more radioactive
isotopes can be dumped is seeking an answer to this question.

There are other options to dumping.

The water can be evaporated, which takes a lot of electricity and releases tritium to the air.
It can be shipped off-site which means a lot of truck traffic and creates environmental justice
issues that come with contaminating another community.

It can be stored on site and allowed to naturally decay along with other radioactive waste
already stored there. Japan has held large tanks of irradiated water on site at Fukushima, so it
can be done.

The cumulative results of this kind of contamination have not been considered. Only recently
has the EPA released a Cumulative Research Impacts study that talks about the necessity of
“co-exposure to determinants of health” for communities. It now suggests that individual acts of
pollution need to be taken in a larger context and community voices listened too. This is what
happened at Indian Point when a massive public outcry initiated a law which prohibited the
dumping of the last batch of spent fuel water into the Hudson River, much to the dismay of
Holtec, the corporation decommissioning the reactors.

Cumulative Impacts Research (Final Report_FINAL-EPA 600-R-22-014a.pdf. p.8, 20, 27).
Communities may differ in their approach to the best way to solve the problem of tritium
disposal, which is usually commingled with other radionuclides, during the life of the reactor and
also during decommissioning. Given all of the questions surrounding the disposal of this

radioactive waste, the least harmful and most prudent way forward is a program of storage on
site along with the high level radioactive fuel rods until the tritium can decay or new scientific
treatments are discovered.

Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds is a renowned expert on this topic. He will make a presentation
to the New York Decommissioning Oversight Board on February 29th at 6 PM in person.The
meeting will be held at Cortlandt Town Hall, 1 Heady Street, Cortlandt, New York. This is a
hybrid meeting, so people can watch it on Zoom. Go to New York Decommissioning Oversight
Board closer to the meeting date for the link to register.

In the meantime, here is a video of Arnie making a presentation about tritium at:

https://youtu.be/pegnC60e0cQ

Marilyn Elie
Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition
www.ipsecinfo.org
914-954-6739

The post Tritium at Nuclear Power Plants appeared first on Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

The Pilgrim nuclear power plant has always been ahead of Indian Point in decommissioning.  Their call for a health study before going forward sounds like a good idea.  Perhaps it is something we need to think about for Indian Point.

Marilyn Elie

https://www.capeandislands.org/local-news/2023-12-19/physicians-say-pilgrim-nuclear-decommissioning-should-wait-for-health-studies

Physicians say Pilgrim Nuclear decommissioning should wait for health studies

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station is pictured on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in Plymouth, Mass. (Raquel C. Zaldívar/New England News Collaborative)

CAI | By Jennette Barnes

Published December 19, 2023 at 3:12 PM EST

A statewide physicians’ association, the publisher of the New England Journal of Medicine, says further decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station should be put on hold to wait for research into the public health consequences.

The governing body of the Massachusetts Medical Society passed a resolution Dec. 9 calling for scientific studies to evaluate the health effects of decommissioning on workers, residents, and the environment.

Dr. Brita Lundberg, who was instrumental in drafting the policy, said the group even voted to make it stronger than what was originally proposed.

“They said that, indeed, it is extremely important to collect that data, but that that data must be collected prior to proceeding with the decommissioning of the plant,” she said.

In an interview with CAI, Lundberg said relevant data could include monitoring of radiation, along with biological measures, such as contaminants in breast milk.

“We need data,” she said. “And so, until then, it’s a black box. And that is not an acceptable situation.”

The decommissioning includes the proposed discharge of about a million gallons of radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay. Local activists have called for the water to be shipped to a specialized disposal facility out of state, but Pilgrim owner Holtec International is seeking regulatory approval to release the water into the bay.

Right now, water from the plant is evaporating into the outdoor air, which Holtec and others have said likely increases the possibility of human exposure when compared with water discharge.

Holtec spokesman Patrick O’Brien said the company is following scientifically established limits on radiological discharges from all pathways, including air and water, and has done so for more than 50 years.

“The decommissioning of Pilgrim is being done following the strict state and federal regulatory requirements,” he said in an email.

Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said monitoring of airborne radiation at Pilgrim is ongoing, and releases are well within research-based exposure limits for workers and the public.

But Lundberg contends that the United States has a long history of accepting irresponsible disposal of nuclear waste.

“Ninety percent of uranium is mined, was mined, on Indigenous lands,” she said. “Much of it is also disposed there and in other low-income communities. And that’s not just harmful to health, but it’s deeply unjust.”

The resolution indicates that the Massachusetts Medical Society plans to advocate for funding for the research.

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