GROUPS TO SEEK FULL “THREE MILE ISLAND STYLE” REVIEW OF FUKUSHIMA DISASTER IMPLICATIONS - Call for NRC Licensing Suspension In Keeping with Response to Less Severe TMI Accident in 1979

Organizations from across the U.S. will announce Thursday at 11 a.m. EDT that they are formally petitioning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend, on an emergency basis, all pending U.S. nuclear reactor licensing decisions.  

• Diane Curran, attorney, Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, LLP;
• Sara Barczak, high risk energy director , Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Savannah, GA;
• Jane Swanson, spokesperson, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, San Luis Obispo, CA;
• Mary Lampert, director, Pilgrim Watch, Duxbury, MA; and
• Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), Takoma Park, MD.

The petitioners will contend that before acting on any applications for new reactor construction permits or operating licenses, early site permits, renewed licenses for existing reactors, or design certification rulemakings for new reactors, the NRC should complete a full-“Three Mile Island style” investigation into the safety and environmental implications of the ongoing catastrophic nuclear facility accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Units 1-6 in Okumu, Japan. 

The groups are concerned that the NRC’s  “business as usual” approach to licensing, even going so far as to issue a renewed license for the Vermont Yankee reactor – which has the same boiling water reactor design as the Fukushima reactors – is completely inconsistent with the serious-minded review of U.S. nuclear power that took place after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, when the NRC Commissioners suspended all licensing decisions until it had investigated the regulatory implications of the accident.

If we want to continue to use nuclear power, which I feel we must do to insure our energy needs are met in the future, we must insure that proper design and contingencies are in place.  Why would we continue to push ahead with permitting when we know there are design flaws and contingencies based upon falsehoods in the case of a natural disaster as there was in Japan? 

TO PARTICIPATE: You can join this live, phone-based news conference (with full, two-way Q&A) at 11 a.m. EDT/8 a.m. PDT on April 14, 2011 by dialing 1 (800) 860-2442 in the U.S. Ask for the “U.S. nuclear licensing suspension” telenews event.

CAN'T PARTICIPATE?:  A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web here as of 4 p.m. EDT on April 14, 2011.

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