ML15224B492

LTR-15-0421 George Heartwell, 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

ML15224B492
Person / Time
Site:	Palisades
Issue date:	07/30/2015
From:	Heartwell G City of Grand Rapids, MI, Office of the Mayor
To:	Stephen Burns NRC/Chairman
Shared Package
ML15224B493	List: ML15224B492 ML15265A523
References
LTR-15-0421
Download: ML15224B492 (2)

Text

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR GEORGE K. HEARTWELL MAYOR July 30, 2015 Mr. Stephen G. Burns, Chairman U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555-0001

Dear Chairman Bums:

Re: Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, Covert, MI Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel decisions Docket No. 50-255-LA-2; ASLBP No. 15-939-04-LA-BDOl June 18, 2015, and July 9, 2015 It has beeri'myprivil'ege fo***s~~e'rh~.GftY.~fGrahd Rapi<ls*for *thelasi'eieven year~. Grand ...

a Rapids is thrivinfmodem city of 200,000 citizens, wlfose*industry and imagiiiation have made

~l1r economy the most robust in the State of Michigan.

Grand Rapids is also located within fifty miles of the Palisades nucl~ar power plant in Covert, Michigan. In 2007, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted ENTERGY, the corporate owner of Palisades, a twenty year extension of its operating permit; this despite deep concerns of local residents and environmental groups about the safety of its badly "erribrittled" reactor pressure vessel (RPV). ENTERGY has now applied 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 embrittled in the U.S., and one of the oldest in the entire world.

ENTERGY's unprecedented alternative proposal would allow Palisades to avoid testing actual samples of the facility's most critical safety component, the reactor pressure vessel. Instead, ENTERGY would submit mathematical "interpolations" from other nuclear plants, while omitting any direct analysis of physical data taken from the P~lisades reactor pressure vessel itself.

Without questioning the merits ofNRC's inore recent embrittlement protocols (1 o'CFR60:61a), I feel any alternative to physical testing of the pre~sure ~essel at Palisades; built in i 9*72~ do:es not pertain to Palisades and sh()uld not be allowed.

300 MONROE AVENUE, N.W. *GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 49503 * (616) 456-3168 *FAX (616) 456-3111

• gheartwe@grcity.us

July 30, 2015 Page 2 Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel decisions The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel on June 18, 2015, found that testimony docu-mented 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 Grand Rapids I strongly concur with this decision and urge the NRC to uphold its ASLBP Memorandum and Order of June 18, 2015. The Palisades Plant is located on the shores of Lake Michigan, the largest body of freshwater in North America, and the source of drinking water for millions of Americans.

Margins of Safety which have been built into the construction of and the regulation of nuclear power plants for many decades should not be weakened, especially in the case of critical pressure vessels at aging nuclear facilities like Palisades' pressurized water reactor. Palisades has already exceeded its original expected life of operation, forty years. Scrutiny of the Palisades reactor pressure vessel should be strengthened not diminished, as ENTERGY proposes.

I support the r cent ASLBP decision calling for evidentiary hearings into the embrittlement of the ressure vessel.

Senator ie Stabenow Senator Gary Peters Ronald M. Spitzer, ASLBP, Chief Administrative Judge Ronald. spitzer@nrc.gov Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative Mark Muhich, Sierra Club Nuclear Free Michigan

@Hu nf (lf)rano ~apios Cl~

U.S POSTAGE)) PITNEY BOWES

~ir~iBmt RETURN SERVICE ~<

r.x: _J t.,~~.~*

P'~=:::tJ-

• "~~~

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR REQUESTED 00 rn r-UJ II) Z!P 49503 $ 000 416 a:: D::: 02 rn

• 300 MONROE AVENUE, N.W. a.. u: 0001402641 JUL 31 2015 GRAND RAPIDS, Ml 49503 Mr. Stephen G. Burns, Chairman U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 FblM-S3E  :'20555 jlll 1l 1i 111'11 1l 11lll pll Ii 1ll* 111l 111l 11l 1IItl*1IIJ1lll 111l 1lhl