ML15331A276

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LTR-15-0586 Bobby J. Hopewell, Mayor, City of Grand Rapids, Mi, Letter Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, Covert, Mi, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Decisions, June 18, 2015, and July 9, 2015
ML15331A276
Person / Time
Site: Palisades Entergy icon.png
Issue date: 11/06/2015
From: Hopewell B
City of Kalamazoo, MI, Office of Mayor
To: Stephen Burns
NRC/Chairman
Shared Package
ML15331A277 List:
References
50-255-LA-2, ASLBP 15-939-04-LA-BDOI, LTR-15-0586
Download: ML15331A276 (2)
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Text

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR 241 W. South Street Kalamazoo, Ml 49007-4796 Phone: (269) 337-8046 Fax : (269) 337-8182 www.kalamazoocity.org November 6, 2015 Mr. Stephen G. Burns, Chairman U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 Re : Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, Covert, Ml Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel decisions Docket No. 50-255-LA-2; ASLBP No. 15-939-04-LA-BDOI June 18, 2015, and July 9, 2015

Dear Chairman Burns :

It is with pride that I serve as the Mayor of the City of Kalamazoo, which hosts the nationally recognized Kalamazoo Promise college scholarship .* We celebrate three higher learning institutions, two nationally renowned healthcare systems, diverse and affordable housing, and many parks, lakes, and golf courses.

Our City has a vibrant artistic community that offers the wide variety of cultural attractions that you might only expect to find in a large metropolitan area . It is a special place we call home .

Kalamazoo is also positioned within forty miles of the Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Michigan .

In 2007, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NCR) granted ENTERGY, the corporate owner of Palisades, a twenty year extension of its operating permit; despite deep concerns of local and regional citizens and environmental groups about the safety of its "em brittled" reactor pressure vessel (RPV) .

It is of concern that ENTERGY has submitted for "regulatory relief' from nuclear safety standards regulating the reactor pressure vessel at Palisades. The conservative safety protocols adopted in 1985 under 10CFR50.61, should be maintained especially in regard to the Palisades nuclear plant. Palisades' reactor pressure vessel is acknowledged as the most em brittled in the U.S., and one of the oldest in the entire world.

ENTERGY's unprecedented alternative proposal would allow Palisades to circumvent testing actual samples of ~he facility's most critical safety component, the reactor pressure vessel. As proposed, ENTERGY would submit mathematical "interpolations" from other nuclear plants, while omitting any direct analysis of physical data taken from the Palisades reactor pressure vessel itself. Omitting actual testing of physical data from the Palisades plant compromises the integrity of any analysis.

Direct embrittlement testing of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plants reactor pressure vessel provides actual data . No coupon has been pulled from the Palisades plant that holds this critical data since 2003 .

From the information presented the coupons should be pulled and pressure vessel tested as the Atomic Safety Board has mandated, the requested and regulatory relief should denied to ENTERGY.

Without questioning the merits of NRC 's more recent embrittlement protocols (10CFR60.61a), it is my belief that any alternative to physical testing of the pressure vessel at Palisades, built in 1972, should not be allowed.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel on June 18, 2015 found that testimony documented by intervening environmental petitioners demonstrated sufficient doubt as to the integrity of Palisades' pressure vessel. The Atomic Safety Board mandated a full evidentiary hearing regarding the safety or the embrittled pressure vessel at Palisades. As Mayor of Kalamazoo, I strongly concur with this decision and urge the NRC to uphold the ASLBP Memorandum and Order of June 18, 2015 . The Palisades Plant is located on the shores of Lake Michigan, which is part of the largest freshwater system in North America, and the source of drinking water for millions of Great Lake residents.

The safety net which has been built into the construction of and the regulation of nuclear power plants should not be weakened, especially in the case of critical pressure vessels at aging nuclear facilities like Pal isades. Palisades has already exceeded its original expected life of operation, forty years. Scrutiny of the Palisades reactor pressure vessel should be strengthened no iminished, as ENTERGY proposes.

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Office of the Mayor 241 W. South Street r;,~..-¢>~-t.-.

Kalamazoo, Ml 49007-4796 Ceo I!:! Cl) /guz~---

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OFFICE OF THE MAYOR 241 W. South Street Kalamazoo, Ml 49007-4796 Phone: (269) 337-8046 Fax : (269) 337-8182 www.kalamazoocity.org November 6, 2015 Mr. Stephen G. Burns, Chairman U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 Re : Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, Covert, Ml Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel decisions Docket No. 50-255-LA-2; ASLBP No. 15-939-04-LA-BDOI June 18, 2015, and July 9, 2015

Dear Chairman Burns :

It is with pride that I serve as the Mayor of the City of Kalamazoo, which hosts the nationally recognized Kalamazoo Promise college scholarship .* We celebrate three higher learning institutions, two nationally renowned healthcare systems, diverse and affordable housing, and many parks, lakes, and golf courses.

Our City has a vibrant artistic community that offers the wide variety of cultural attractions that you might only expect to find in a large metropolitan area . It is a special place we call home .

Kalamazoo is also positioned within forty miles of the Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Michigan .

In 2007, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NCR) granted ENTERGY, the corporate owner of Palisades, a twenty year extension of its operating permit; despite deep concerns of local and regional citizens and environmental groups about the safety of its "em brittled" reactor pressure vessel (RPV) .

It is of concern that ENTERGY has submitted for "regulatory relief' from nuclear safety standards regulating the reactor pressure vessel at Palisades. The conservative safety protocols adopted in 1985 under 10CFR50.61, should be maintained especially in regard to the Palisades nuclear plant. Palisades' reactor pressure vessel is acknowledged as the most em brittled in the U.S., and one of the oldest in the entire world.

ENTERGY's unprecedented alternative proposal would allow Palisades to circumvent testing actual samples of ~he facility's most critical safety component, the reactor pressure vessel. As proposed, ENTERGY would submit mathematical "interpolations" from other nuclear plants, while omitting any direct analysis of physical data taken from the Palisades reactor pressure vessel itself. Omitting actual testing of physical data from the Palisades plant compromises the integrity of any analysis.

Direct embrittlement testing of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plants reactor pressure vessel provides actual data . No coupon has been pulled from the Palisades plant that holds this critical data since 2003 .

From the information presented the coupons should be pulled and pressure vessel tested as the Atomic Safety Board has mandated, the requested and regulatory relief should denied to ENTERGY.

Without questioning the merits of NRC 's more recent embrittlement protocols (10CFR60.61a), it is my belief that any alternative to physical testing of the pressure vessel at Palisades, built in 1972, should not be allowed.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel on June 18, 2015 found that testimony documented by intervening environmental petitioners demonstrated sufficient doubt as to the integrity of Palisades' pressure vessel. The Atomic Safety Board mandated a full evidentiary hearing regarding the safety or the embrittled pressure vessel at Palisades. As Mayor of Kalamazoo, I strongly concur with this decision and urge the NRC to uphold the ASLBP Memorandum and Order of June 18, 2015 . The Palisades Plant is located on the shores of Lake Michigan, which is part of the largest freshwater system in North America, and the source of drinking water for millions of Great Lake residents.

The safety net which has been built into the construction of and the regulation of nuclear power plants should not be weakened, especially in the case of critical pressure vessels at aging nuclear facilities like Pal isades. Palisades has already exceeded its original expected life of operation, forty years. Scrutiny of the Palisades reactor pressure vessel should be strengthened no iminished, as ENTERGY proposes.

~

Office of the Mayor 241 W. South Street r;,~..-¢>~-t.-.

Kalamazoo, Ml 49007-4796 Ceo I!:! Cl) /guz~---

~:5 :i!'

~ PITNlVBOW£5 o<J 0 2 1M $ 00.439 Cl)t-w~ 0004250486 NOV 12 2015

~

A.I&.

  • MAILED FROM ZIP CODE 4900 7

~ Jl_,,J~ C4a..-Af. {!-efuJr;na;-..

K _f Jk,_.;,..__ ,,,eJ . . ~ft~~ a~ANS.f/4'_

itJC? 5l_/~ h/1 )) e,  ;({) s S'" ~ . ooo /

l A-J2PMB 20555 II 1l\111l1pl1111lll l1llll 1l1l*1' 1* 1ll' 1l'*" l11l*' 11' I' "I** 'lh

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