{"id":27,"date":"2013-03-16T11:38:33","date_gmt":"2013-03-16T15:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/david-defeats-goliath-calvert-cliffs-3-nuke-license-denied-first-ever-by-nrc.html"},"modified":"2013-03-16T11:38:33","modified_gmt":"2013-03-16T15:38:33","slug":"david-defeats-goliath-calvert-cliffs-3-nuke-license-denied-first-ever-by-nrc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/david-defeats-goliath-calvert-cliffs-3-nuke-license-denied-first-ever-by-nrc.html","title":{"rendered":"David defeats Goliath: Calvert Cliffs 3 nuke license denied, first ever by NRC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\n<\/a>\nDavid (tiny five-person activist group NIRS with no lawyer)\ndefeated Goliath (the world’s biggest nuclear reactor manufacturer, Areva, and operator, EDF).\nPreviously\n\na committee terminated the licensing process<\/a>\nbut the proposed operator wanted NRC review for the Calvert Cliffs 3\nnuclear reactor.\nFor the first time ever, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied\na nuclear license, closing the book on Calvert Cliffs 3 for good,\nand probably taking down\nwith it half a dozen or more other proposed reactors.\n<\/p>\n

\nENENEWS posted a roundup 12 March 2013,\n\nNIRS: Victory! License denied for U.S. nuclear reactor \u2014 First time in history NRC has upheld denial<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nWho is this proposed nuclear operator?\nThe\n\nNIRS press release explains:<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n

\nUniStar Nuclear is wholly owned by Electricite\nde France, which itself is 85% owned by the\ngovernment of France. Calvert Cliffs-3 was to\nbe an EPR reactor manufactured by the French\nfirm Areva, also 85% owned by the French government.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nAreva, the French nuclear manufacturer for whom\n\nFrance just fought a war in Africa<\/a>.\nI don’t think the U.S. needs to go down\n\nthe Uranium Highway in the Uranium Province in Niger<\/a>,\nso I call this license denial a good thing.\n<\/p>\n

\nEven better: when I asked\n\nMichael Mariotte of NIRS<\/a> about this licensing\nprocess a few months ago, he noted that NIRS had not even used a lawyer\nin its intervention in this case.\nHe spelled that out in\n\na briefing statement:<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nThis truly has been a David vs Goliath case. NIRS, with five staff\npeople, took on one of the largest nuclear utilities in the U.S.\n(Constellation) and the largest nuclear utility in the world (EDF)\nand the largest nuclear reactor manufacturer in the world\n(AREVA)\u2014(Areva was not an official party in the case).\n\nNIRS did not have a lawyer representing us\u2014this was done pro\nse, while UniStar was represented by mega nuclear law firm Winston\nand Strawn. We hope this case and these pending decisions will prove\nto be an inspiration to grassroots activists and people everywhere:\nthe nuclear industry\ncan<\/span> be defeated. And the corollary is true too:\nwe can<\/span> achieve a clean energy future.\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSometimes justice does not require megabucks.\n<\/p>\n

\nSome projections from\n\nMichael Mariotte<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nIt will also be a blow to the nuclear industry generally, which is\nseeing viable new reactor orders fade away into the horizon. The\nfirst applicant affected will be Nine Mile Point 3, also owned by\nUniStar. That project has been on hold pending the outcome of the\nCalvert Cliffs-3 proceeding. It will not proceed.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSo this is really a defeat for two nukes at the same time.\nBut wait, there’s more:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe two other Areva projects, Callaway and Bell Bend, are also not\ngoing to happen. And a key avenue of financing contemplated by many\nin the nuclear industry\u2014loans from foreign export-import\nbanks like Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the French\nCoface\u2014are extremely unlikely to materialize.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSo it’s four or five or six nukes down at the same time.\nPlus:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nAlso greatly affected will be the South Texas Nuclear Project,\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat’s not South Texas 2,\n\nthe nuke that caught on fire in January<\/a>\nand has been down ever since.\n\n<\/a>\nThat’s the proposed\n\nSouth Texas Project Units 3 and 4<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n

\nOn February 24, 2011, 174 organizations worldwide sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Japan and key Cabinet officials warning that funding for the South Texas project from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation would be an extraordinary financial risk.\n\nCopy of the sign-on letter to Japanese Prime Minister and Cabinet<\/a>,\nFebruary 24, 2011.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nIn a further analogy between Japan and the U.S.,\nSteven Mufson wrote for the Washington Post 11 March 2013,\n\nIn U.S., nuclear energy loses momentum amid economic head winds, safety issues,<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nTwo years after the tsunami that crippled Japan’s Fukushima power\ncomplex, the U.S. nuclear industry is facing fundamental and\nfar-reaching challenges to its own future.\n<\/p>\n

\nOnly five years ago, industry executives and leading politicians\nwere talking about an American nuclear renaissance, hoping to add 20\nor more reactors to the 104-unit U.S. nuclear fleet.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut today those companies are holding back in the face of falling\nnatural gas prices and sluggish and uncertain electricity demand.\nOnly five new plants are under construction, while at least that\nmany are slated for permanent closure or shut down indefinitely over\nsafety issues.\n<\/p>\n

\nOn Monday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reiterated its\nrefusal to issue a license for a new unit at Calvert Cliffs, Md.,\nthat a French company had hoped to make the model for a fleet of\nreactors. A pair of reactors in Southern California are under\nscrutiny over whether a major contractor and a utility there\nconcealed concerns about potential cracks in the tubes of a steam\ngenerator. And nuclear plants in Wisconsin and Florida are closing\ndown because their owners said they cannot compete with less\nexpensive natural-gas-fired electricity.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat’s right: at least as many reactors are closed\n(Kewaunee<\/a> in Wisconsin),\n\nCrystal River 3<\/a> in Florida)\nor shut down (South Texas 2<\/a>,\n\nSan Onofre 2 and 3<\/a> in California, and\n\nothers<\/a>)\nas are being built, and with this Calvert Cliffs decision,\nfewer will be built (probably not the one in Levy County, Florida<\/a>\nand more will be shut down and closed.\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nPlus: NIRS didn’t just oppose the licensing, it also filed\n“Contention 10C, which challenges the adequacy of the wind and solar\npower contribution estimates contained in the Final Environmental\nImpact Statement (FEIS’s) alternative based on a combination of\nenergy sources (the combination alternative)”, resulting in a ruling\nby the NRC’s ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD Before Administrative\nJudges\n\n30 August 2012<\/a>\nsaying in part:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nAfter considering all of the evidence and arguments presented, we\nfind that, in the FEIS, the NRC Staff (Staff) unreasonably limited\nthe wind and solar power contributions to the combination\nalternative by adopting an unrealistic completion date for the\nproposed action and excluding all wind and solar power sources not\nphysically located in Maryland.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat board then weaseled and said the FEIS was technically adequate\nand declined to change it. Nonetheless, this is not just a defeat\nfor a nuclear license, it is a win for wind and solar power, and for\na smart and distributed grid.\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nGeorgia Power and Southern Company, are you paying attention? Nuke\nis over. It’s time to end\n\nthe Vogtle 3 and 4 three-legged nuclear regulatory-capture boondoggle<\/a>.\nIt’s time for\n\nsolar on schools and businesses and houses across Georgia<\/a>\nand\n\nwind off the Georgia coast.<\/a>\nArizona State University told us two years ago that\n\nGeorgia is the #3 state that could benefit most from solar power<\/a>,\n\n<\/a>\ninternally, for energy independence, and for profit by export to\nother states.\nLet’s get on with solar and wind power for jobs,\nenergy independence, and profit, plus\n\nfunding education<\/a>, and plenty of clean air and water!\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David (tiny five-person activist group NIRS with no lawyer) defeated Goliath (the world’s biggest nuclear reactor manufacturer, Areva, and operator, EDF). Previously a committee terminated the licensing process but the proposed operator wanted NRC review for the Calvert Cliffs 3 nuclear reactor. For the first time ever, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied a nuclear license, […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,14,18,2,20,104,21,22,23,73,24,36],"tags":[8701,8702,7,6],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-economy","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-law","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-politics","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-solar","category-wind","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-county","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-r","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}