Georgia Nuclear: Vogtle – The Atomic Empire Strikes Back
/Vogtle Part 2
By The Fairewinds Crew
Georgia Nuclear: Vogtle Unit 3 Is Sinking! [BREDL Petition], What Does the Leaning Tower of Pisa Have In Common with the Vogtle Nuclear Reactor? If you are a regular reader of our Demystifying Nuclear Power Blog, you know that the Fairewinds Crew posted this article on May 14, 2020, and if you have not read the article, you may wish to do so prior to reading Vogtle Unit 3 – The Atomic Empire Strikes Back.
In our first post in this Vogtle series: Georgia Nuclear: Vogtle Unit 3 Is Sinking! [BREDL Petition], the Fairewinds Crew detailed the legal petition filed before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) alerting the NRC that it has a statutory responsibility to investigate the overwhelming flaws in the ‘sinking foundation’ at Southern Nuclear Corporation’s (SNC’s) Vogtle Unit 3.
There are specific procedures that must be followed for public participation in this type of legal proceeding conducted by the NRC. Initially, after the petition filing the contentions is made by an entity like the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL), the NRC and the energy corporation, in this case SNC, have 25-days during which to research the issue and write responses called reply briefs. On Friday June 5th, BREDL received the reply briefs written by the NRC and Vogtle’s owner, Southern Nuclear Company (SNC) and had to respond with a reply of its own in the procedurally ordained 7-days. BREDL filed its reply brief Friday, June 12, 2020.
When the NRC and SNC created their replies, they made three audacious assertions. So today, we will share with you the absurd nuclear industry responses in: Vogtle Unit 3 – The Atomic Empire Strikes Back.
1) First, the SNC claimed that the citizens of Georgia do not have legal standing to argue that Vogtle is sinking. This is a unique obfuscation by SNC, given that the BREDL members who filed letters of standing all live within proximity of Vogtle Unit 3. These declarants are both ratepayers and taxpayers and are personally facing the astronomical costs associated with the Vogtle Unit 3 & 4 project.
While claiming that these ratepayers had no rights to question the safety of a sinking nuclear reactor, the nuke industry wanted Vogtle constructed so badly that it donated more than $1 Million dollars to one of the Georgia Public Utility Commissioner’s political campaign to make sure he would be re-elected and then the industry and its cronies could keep fleecing Georgia’s residents and many of business owners who are also paying exorbitant electric rates.
Additionally, for readers who are not familiar with the SNC Vogtle Units 3 & 4 debacle, the energy for these nukes is not needed and was not needed when the Combined Operating License Application (COLA) was submitted for the two reactors. Vogtle Units 3 & 4 are now five years behind schedule. The budget for Vogtle Units 3 & 4 has doubled from $14 billion to $28 billion, and is anticipated to increase even further this year with the newly publicly identified flawed nuclear island basemat foundation. Quite simply, mistake after mistake has occurred on this construction project. Moreover, its AP1000 sister plants in South Carolina finally got dumped in 2018 when the buildings were only 40% complete and already had cost more than $9 Billion that now must be absorbed by its ratepayers and SC taxpayers!
2) Secondly, Fairewinds’ chief engineer Arnie Gundersen submitted expert witness testimony to support BREDL’s petition and its legal contentions. SNC launched a personal attack against Arnie, claiming that he is unqualified to understand the data that proves Vogtle Unit 3 is sinking, even though SNC has acknowledged that the nuclear island basemat foundation beneath Vogtle Unit 3 is sinking or what is technically called dishing.
As BREDL executive director Lou Zeller said in BREDL’s reply brief,
“SNC states, “…Petitioner fails to establish how Mr. Arnold Gundersen is qualified to provide expert testimony related to the interaction between the structures and the foundation.” SNC Answer at 11. “And, not surprisingly, Mr. Gundersen’s expertise has been called into question in other NRC proceedings.” SNC Answer at 12 [emphasis added]. Petitioner supplied ample “credentials showing the author is an expert.” Nevertheless, Petitioner provides reply infra.
“SNC’s use of the phrase “not surprisingly” is a pejorative construction which is dismissive and unwarranted in this forum. Petitioner may disagree on many levels with parties to this proceeding, but there is no citation we can find in the rules of procedure which permit ad hominem remarks.”
You may read Mr. Zeller’s defense of Mr. Gundersen’s 50-year career in nuclear power here.
3) Third, the NRC has attempted to claim that even though Vogtle is sinking, Georgia’s citizens cannot argue this fact through an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) hearing process. The NRC is attempting to claim that BREDL will have to use a different process named a 2.206 petition process. The 2.206 Petition Process has never ever provided redress for any citizen stakeholders who have brought their legitimate concerns forward. Not only does the NRC not respond to the 2.206 legal process via the time procedures delineated in NRC regulations, but the NRC sometimes even waits years to respond to the citizens, communities, or businesses impacted, and then it responds that the process is now closed because another issue changed the legal landscape.
Yes, The Atomic Empire Strikes Back! Obviously, those claims could not be left unchallenged, and BREDL responded clearly and thoroughly to bring the hearing process back to where the focus should be. You can read the press release here and the brief here.
FYI, the next legal step in this process is that three NRC appointed personnel called judges, one of whom is a lawyer while the others are usually not, will hold a mini-hearing with NRC, SNC and BREDL to determine if a larger technical hearing is warranted. During the Time of Pandemic 2020 this mini-legal-hearing will be via a conference call, which we have been informed will not be open to the public.
During this quasi-legal-hearing, Fairewinds Energy Education would like to know why Nuclear Regulatory Commission personnel spent 400-hours in a private conference room analyzing Vogtle’s basemat foundation flaws using Vogtle data, yet now claim that Georgia citizens have no right to see the data or to claim Vogtle’s basemat foundation is flawed and sinking. Funny, the NRC also claims that there are no public records of the study or proceedings, yet the NRC had previously claimed that all documentation to these proceedings would be part of the public record as required by regulations.
Welcome to the world of atomic power licensing! While real people live with leaking reactors, waste dumps, and defunct uranium mines (just to name a few of the facilities) the industry and its so-called regulators – the NRC – continue to disregard the surrounding communities and the people who live and work there who are exposed to ongoing radioactivity from poorly designed facilities rushed into operation.
If the NRC and SNC continue to coverup the truth, we may have to rely upon the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi to strike back against The Atomic Empire.
Fairewinds will keep you informed!
