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  1. #1
    Senior Member Airbornesapper07's Avatar
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    ‘Chernobyl-scale catastrophe’: Coalition warns against restarting Michigan nuclear po

    ‘Chernobyl-scale catastrophe’: Coalition warns against restarting Michigan nuclear power plant

    Friday, March 24, 2023 by: News Editors
    Tags: current events, environment, environmental disaster, Michigan, nuclear power, nuclear power plant, Palisades Nuclear Plant

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    (Natural News) A coalition of 191 individuals and 185 groups representing thousands of people on Wednesday implored the federal government for the third time not to fund the revival of a roughly 51-year-old nuclear power plant that was shut down in May 2022 in Covert, Michigan.
    (Article by Kenny Stancil republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org)
    In a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the coalition warned that providing financial aid to Holtec International, which purchased the Palisades Nuclear Plant (PNP) in June 2022, could lead to a massive public health and environmental disaster that reverberates far beyond the shoreline of Lake Michigan — a source of drinking water for millions of people in multiple states.
    A little over a week after taking ownership of PNP “under the false pretense of decommissioning it,” Holtec secretly applied for funding from the DOE’s Civil Nuclear Credit (CNC) program in July 2022 to reopen the plant, the coalition explained in a statement.
    The company’s application — supported by Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who had been advocating for a “dangerous ‘zombie reactor’ bailout and restart scheme at Palisades” since April 2022 — was made public in September 2022.
    Thanks in part to opposition from the coalition, which sent its first letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in September 2022, the DOE rejected Holtec’s first funding request in mid-November.
    In October 2022, however, Holtec announced it would apply for federal funding during a second round of allocations, prompting a second letter of opposition from the coalition.
    The Holland Sentinel reported earlier in March:
    “Holtec is taking a different route with its second attempt at funding. Rather than applying through the CNC program, the company applied for funds from the U.S. Department of Energy loan office.”
    Terry Lodge, legal counsel for the coalition’s lead groups, Beyond Nuclear and Don’t Waste Michigan, wrote in Wednesday’s letter that “DOE’s recently issued amended ‘guidance,’ which was specifically rewritten to enable Holtec to apply for $1.2 billion of federal taxpayer funds, is not legal under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).”
    “We understand that Holtec … may be applying to DOE for a subsidized loan under a different law, with the intention of using funds from the IIJA to pay off the loan,” wrote Lodge.
    Lodge continued:
    “We question whether such a combined transaction would be lawful under the IIJA. Even if it is, IIJA credits may not be used to support Palisades. Congress intended the IIJA to support only currently operating commercial nuclear reactors that face termination of operations for economic reasons. Palisades does not meet any criteria for eligibility.”
    The coalition once again asked Granholm — a former Democratic governor and attorney general of Michigan — and other high-ranking officials at the DOE to deny Holtec’s request that the non-operational PNP be certified to receive such federal funding.
    Most importantly, PNP is unable “to operate safely due to a litany of chronic and acute problems associated with age-related degradation and neglected maintenance on safety-significant systems, structures, and components,” the coalition argued in its statement.
    The coalition further argued:
    “This includes the worst neutron-embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the country and perhaps the world, at risk of pressurized thermal shock through-wall fracture, which would lead to reactor core meltdown.”
    The coalition continued:
    “But additional pathways to catastrophic meltdown include a reactor lid, as well as steam generators, that have needed replacement for 17 years or longer.
    “Palisades’ control rod drive mechanism seal leaks have been uniquely bad in all of industry, for more than a half-century. Now added to this long list is Holtec’s neglect of vital maintenance, such as of the turbo-generator, bending under its own immense weight, as well as the steam generators, to name but two examples.”
    Holtec has “applied to DOE for a billion dollar federal taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantee under the Inflation Reduction Act, which it would use to promote the reactor restart scheme, hoping to pay it back over time with the CNC program bailout,” said the coalition.
    In addition, Holtec is “seeking a more than billion dollar subsidy from the state of Michigan, as well as yet another lucrative, above-market rate power purchase agreement with an unnamed utility company in the area. Also, Holtec has applied to DOE for $7.4 billion in federal nuclear loan guarantees, authorized under the 2005 Energy Policy Act and congressionally appropriated on December 23, 2007, for the design certification, construction, and operation of four small modular (nuclear) reactors, more than one of which would also be located at the Palisades site.”
    In the words of Kevin Kamps, a radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear and board member of Don’t Waste Michigan, “this more than $10 billion in ratepayer and taxpayer robbery would merely fund an insanely high-risk game of radioactive Russian roulette on the Lake Michigan shoreline.”
    “Both extremes of the risk spectrum would be co-located at the Palisades site, if Holtec gets its way,” said Kamps. “The ever-worsening breakdown phase risks at the old reactor would exist alongside the break-in phase risks of the new reactors, risking a Chernobyl-scale catastrophe, with the potential for Fukushima-style, domino-effect, multiple meltdowns.”
    According to The Holland Sentinel:
    “Holtec has acknowledged there will be ‘a number of hurdles‘ to reopening the plant even if funding is secured. Those include financial commitment from the state, procuring a power purchasing agreement, upgrading the switchyard, partnering with a licensed operator for the restart, rehiring qualified and trained staff, and maintenance and delayed capital improvements of the facility — the plant closed earlier than planned due to failure of a control rod drive seal.”
    Citing comments a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission official made during a public meeting on Monday, MLive reported that PNP “would be the first plant to enter the decommissioning phase and then try to restart.”
    During the meeting, Kamps declared, “over my dead body are you all going to get away with this.”
    Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org

    ‘Chernobyl-scale catastrophe’: Coalition warns against restarting Michigan nuclear power plant – NaturalNews.com
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Airbornesapper07's Avatar
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    Coalition warns against using taxpayer dollars to restart dangerous nuclear power plant in Michigan

    Friday, March 24, 2023 by: Arsenio Toledo
    Tags: badpollution, big government, Dangerous, Ecology, energy supply, environment, Michigan, nuclear, Nuclear Accident, nuclear energy, nuclear power, nuclear power plant, nuclear reactor, Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, power, power grid, radiation

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    (Natural News) A coalition of concerned groups representing thousands of people on Wednesday, March 22, implored the federal government to not fund the revival of the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Van Buren County, southwestern Michigan.
    The administration of President Joe Biden has pledged $1.2 billion to keep nuclear reactors in the United States online. Biden’s environment team claims nuclear power, as a powerful source of clean and renewable energy, is important to preserve and even expand upon as the country attempts to reach the goal of producing 100 percent of its energy needs from clean sources by 2035.
    Some of this money could go to supporting the reopening of the Palisades nuclear plant, which shut down in May last year. But the plant’s owner, Holtec International, had its first attempt to apply for federal funding to reopen the plant rejected back in November.
    With the urging of the state’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Holtec is interested in reapplying. Not only that, the company is also applying for different sources of funding, including from the Department of Energy‘s Loan Programs Office.
    The Palisades plant’s decommissioning was first announced in 2017, and it ceased producing power on May 20, 2022, slightly ahead of schedule. Holtec still employs around 220 people at Palisades, focused on hazard reductions at the plant. Since the dismantling of the plant hasn’t started yet, the company said it could restart operations relatively quickly. (Related: Minnesota nuclear plant leaked 400K gallons of radioactive water in November.)
    Holtec asking government for nearly $9 billion to restart Palisades plant

    In a letter to the Energy Department, a coalition of 107 organizations that represent thousands of people, along with 191 concerned individuals, urged the Biden administration to reject Holtec’s second plea for financial aid.
    The group warned that, if the Palisades plant were to reopen, it could lead to a massive public health and environmental disaster that could contaminate Lake Michigan, a source of drinking water for millions of Americans in multiple states.
    The coalition pointed out that the Palisades plant is unable to operate safely “due to a litany of chronic and acute problems” associated with the fact that the plant is over 50 years old and its current and previous owners have “neglected maintenance on safety-significant systems, structures and components.”
    The coalition further argued that, since Palisades is not a currently operating nuclear power plant, it fails to qualify for any of the Biden administration’s grant programs.
    “The legislative intention was to offer life support to reactors that were struggling to hang on, not those which, for a complex of reasons that may include economic considerations, have lost the race,” wrote the groups. “Please curtail all consideration of a bailout for Holtec’s Palisades Nuclear Plant … and deny certification for the plant to receive subsidies. Thank you.”
    “Over my dead body are you all going to get away with this,” said Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear and Won’t Waste Michigan. Kamps pointed out that Holtec is asking the government for nearly $9 billion in grants and subsidies.
    “This … ratepayer and taxpayer robbery would merely fund an insanely high-risk game of radioactive Russian roulette on the Lake Michigan shoreline,” warned Kamps.
    Learn more about nuclear accidents and nuclear energy use in the United States at Nuclear.news.
    Watch this clip from “The American Journal” on InfoWars discussing how one nuclear power plant in Minnesota leaked over 400,000 gallons of radioactive water.

    This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.
    More related stories:

    We are all going to need anti-radiation pills if our leaders in Washington continue going down this path.
    Reviewing the WORST CHEMICAL DISASTERS on the planet … and most of them could have been easily prevented.
    Y-12 uranium processing facility in Tennessee catches fire, 200 employees evacuated.
    FEMA map shows areas most at risk of being targeted by nuclear warheads in a war.
    HHS buys $290 million worth of radiation sickness drugs in preparation for nuclear emergencies.
    Sources include:
    ChildrensHealthDefense.org
    PowerMag.com
    MLive.com
    BeyondNuclear.org [PDF]
    Brighteon.com

    Coalition warns against using taxpayer dollars to restart dangerous nuclear power plant in Michigan – NaturalNews.com
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