Groups File Petition to Stop Nuke Relicensing

Three New England activist groups have joined a national petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the attempt to "halt all decisions" in the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant and other reactor relicensing proceedings until the NRC complies with a federal court decision about nuclear fuel waste.

New England Coalition of Brattleboro, Vt., Friends of the Coast of Edgecomb, Maine, Pilgrim Watch of Duxbury, Mass., and 24 other nuclear interveners have filed the petition demanding the NRC comply with an appeals court decision requiring the NRC "to evaluate impacts and prospects for high level nuclear fuel waste storage on a site-by-site basis."

The NRC recently rejected the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League as an intervener in Seabrook Station's , which would extend the plant's 40-year license from 2030 to 2050.

Doug Bogen, SAPL's executive director, said the national petition covers Seabrook Station, though, as the New England Coalition and Friends of the Coast are the sole interveners in the Seabrook case.

The interveners cite the "" from the spent fuel pools in Fukushima, Japan, and other factors have "effectively set aside" the NRC's "confidence" in safely stored fuel release in the national petition, which calls for the NRC to take the following steps if the petition is granted:

• Suspend all final decisions in pending reactor licensing proceedings pending conclusion of the remanded proceeding to evaluate the environmental impacts of spent fuel storage and disposal;
• Declare that any EAs or EISs issued by the NRC will be published in proposed form with a reasonable opportunity for public comment; and
• Provide a period of at least 60 days for raising site-specific concerns relating to the remanded proceedings in individual licensing proceedings. 

and other issues have recently been discovered at Seabrook Station, and are among a the plant must address and remedy, according to the NRC. The plant also recently failed part of a .