PRESS RELEASE: Lake Michigan Nuclear Threat — Wisconsin group files for a hearing on the license extension of Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant

Wisconsin group files for a hearing on the license extension of Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant

Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin represents ten local members and submits legal contentions to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the nuclear reactors in Manitowoc County citing environmental, structural, and health concerns

Terry Lodge, an attorney based in Toledo, Ohio, serves as legal counsel for PSR WI in this proceeding.

Amy Schulz, RN, President of PSR WI, stated, “As a health care provider and member of PSR WI, I was shocked that NextEra, owners of PBNP, were attempting to extend their operating license from 60 to 80 years. These reactors are plagued with a long history of accidents and embrittlement which make the risk of a catastrophic accident untenable for the safety of Wisconsin residents and the environment. One simply needs to look at the financial, environmental and health costs paid by the people of Japan and Ukraine after the accidents at Fukushima and Chernobyl to recognize the folly of this relicensing proposal.”

PSR WI opposes the pending, subsequent (2nd) operating license extensions by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for Point Beach Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2 that would allow the reactors to operate for a total of 80 years. PSR WI intends to ensure the fairness and integrity of the license extension proceedings and requests the NRC consider all issues bearing on the safety and health of the broader public and the physical environment.

John Duffin, one of ten local intervenors from Menasha, is greatly concerned by the additional nuclear waste that would come from 20 more years of operation at PBNP and sees renewable energy as the way forward. The waste is currently stored onsite in an indoor wet storage pool, and outdoor dry casks. He stated, “Spent nuclear fuel is a menace that won’t go away. Our country needs more wind and solar power as fast as we can build it.”

A local intervenor from Abrams, Aleks Kosowicz, said, “My biggest concern is this project is a hazard to the quality and health of all life that only prolongs our dependence on dangerous energy sources. I care about all beings and our natural world, and I’m of the mind PBNP’s ‘reward’ is just not worth the risk.”

PSR WI has retained Mark Cooper, PhD; Alvin Compaan, PhD; and Arnie Gundersen, ME, Nuclear Engineering, as expert witnesses. Altogether, the three experts represent more than 140 years of combined experience in their various, complementary fields. Their expert witness declarations are posted online here.

Dr. Cooper, Senior Fellow for Economic Analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School, and Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America, said, “The Point Beach purchased power agreement (PPA) is totally uneconomic. The cumulative excess cost imposed on ratepayers is almost $5 billion for the period ending in 2030, which works out to over $3,000 per electricity customer, or $300 per year. With $5 billion and the remaining time before the early-2030s expirations of the current Point Beach 1 and 2 licenses, the net expected power generation from the plant during that period could be completely obviated by construction of renewables and implementation of efficiency. Point Beach would cost ratepayers over twice as much as a least cost, low carbon, low pollution approach. The PPA for Point Beach imposes enormous excess costs on ratepayers and is unconscionable. By 2030 and 2033, but for the PPA, efficiency and renewable energy sources could have expanded and displaced this myopic baseload power plant. By 2030, Point Beach Units 1 and 2 will be completely redundant and obsolescent.”

Alvin Compaan, PhD, is the President of Lucintech Inc., a research and development company with numerous patents in solar photovoltaics (PV) technology, and Professor Emeritus of Physics from the University of Toledo.

Dr. Compaan remarked, “NextEra has considered building 21 Small Modular Nuclear Reactors as an alternative to 80 years of operations at Point Beach, and even considered building a General Electric so-called Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor with a $20+ billion price tag. It also considered solar PV but dismissed it as not viable. However, solar PV and battery storage are the most attractive technologies for grid power in Wisconsin. Not only does solar plus battery storage have compelling economic advantages today, solar plus battery storage has the lowest environmental footprint of any technology. Solar panels can be installed on or along high voltage power line transmission easements, awnings, parking lot canopies, landfills, brownfields, highway rights-of-way, commercial and residential rooftops, as well as non-farmed land from the U.S. Conservation Reserve Program which totals nearly 100,000 acres in Wisconsin.”

Arnie Gundersen is the chief engineer at Fairewinds Energy Associates, with more than 50 years of nuclear engineering experience. He was a former nuclear industry Sr. Vice President, holds both a BS and ME in Nuclear Engineering and was a licensed reactor operator.

Gundersen stated, “NextEra’s Point Beach (PB) Units 1 and 2 were designed and built more than a half a century ago and are an obsolete and unsafe atomic reactor design. If a corporation applied today to build and operate these reactors, their design would not be approved, as the engineering configuration is unacceptable by today’s standards. The reactors do not meet basic licensing requirements that protect the safety of nearby communities.  Moreover, the PB reactors’ continued operation in their aged and unstable condition put nearby neighborhoods and the people who live and work in those communities at an increased risk for significant radiation exposure due to old, outdated, and poorly maintained equipment. In fact, PB is the worst neutron embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the country, at risk of fracturing like glass in an emergency, leading to releases of hazardous radioactivity to the environment. In addition, PB also uses vast amounts of water taken from Lake Michigan to cool its reactors. However, when the reactors finish using Lake Michigan water for cooling, each atomic reactor returns the heated wastewater to the Lake, killing hundreds of millions of aquatic organisms yearly. Such consequences show the Point Beach reactors represent an environmental super-predator.”

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Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin (PSR WI) is an organization of health professionals and other concerned individuals who work to protect human life from the gravest threats to health and survival.  PSR Wisconsin recognizes that the three biggest threats today to human survival are nuclear weapons and power, climate change and environmental degradation. We seek to prevent nuclear war, to reverse our climate change trajectory and to stop further contamination of our environment.

Additional Contacts:

Arnie Gundersen, M.E., Nuclear Engineering, Chief Engineer, Fairewinds Energy Associates
(843) 501-7660

Alvin Compaan, Ph.D., (419) 265-2641

Mark Cooper, Ph.D., (301) 384-2204

Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Specialist, Beyond Nuclear
kevin@beyondnuclear.org
(240) 462-3216


Ann Behrmann, Retired Pediatrician, PSR WI Treasurer
atbehrma@wisc.edu
(608) 669-6809

Alfred Meyer, PSR National Board Member
alfred.c.meyer@gmail.com
(202) 215-8208

NOTE TO EDITORS AND PRODUCERS:  Sources quoted in this release are available for comment.  For a copy of the intervention petition and hearing request filed today, to arrange interviews or for other information, please contact Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, (240) 462-3216, kevin@beyondnuclear.org