- License denied for proposed Calvert Cliffs nuclear reactor
Baltimore Sun -Federal regulators denied a license Thursday to the French-controlled company for a proposed third nuclear reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear ...
- U.S. Politics Today -
Calvert Cliffs-3 Reactor License Denied; NRC Licensing Board ...
www.prnewswire.com/.../calvert-cliffs-3-reactor-license-denie...13 hours ago – Prohibits Construction/Operating License For UniStar Nuclear ... today denied a license for the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 nuclear reactor on the ...License denied for proposed Calvert Cliffs nuclear reactor | WYPR
www.wypr.org/.../license-denied-proposed-calvert-cliffs-nucle...10 hours ago – Atomic Safety and Licensing Board cites company's foreign ownership. Federal regulators denied a license Thursday to the French-controlled ...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August 30, 2012
Contact: Michael Mariotte 301-270-6477
CALVERT CLIFFS-3 REACTOR LICENSE DENIED
NRC LICENSING BOARD RULES IN FAVOR OF INTERVENORS, SAYS ATOMIC ENERGY ACT
PROHIBITS CONSTRUCTION/OPERATING LICENSE FOR UNISTAR NUCLEAR PROJECT IN
MARYLAND
A three judge Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing
Board (ASLB) today denied a license for the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3
nuclear reactor on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
In a 29-page decision, the ASLB agreed with intervenors that the Calvert
Cliffs-3 project would be in violation of the Atomic Energy Act¹s
prohibition against foreign ownership, control or domination, and that
the project¹s owner, UniStar Nuclear, is eligible neither to receive a
license nor to even apply for a license. UniStar is 100% owned by the
French government¹s Electricite de France.
Said the ASLB, ³For the aforementioned reasons, the Board grants summary
disposition in favor of Joint Intervenors as to Contention 1 and finds
Applicants currently ineligible to apply for or obtain a license. The
license cannot be granted as long as the current ownership arrangement is
in effect.²
This is only the second time in history a reactor license has been denied
by an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. The first was the license
application for the Byron reactor in Illinois in 1984, which was briefly
denied because of quality assurance problems at the site. But that
decision was quickly overturned on appeal as the utility already had
initiated a program to correct the problems.
In this case, the ASLB is giving UniStar 60 more days to find a U.S.
partner that might enable it to meet the foreign ownership restrictions
before the ASLB declares the proceeding concluded. The decision noted
that UniStar already has had nearly two years since it became solely
owned by EDF to find a partner, and has not shown any progress toward
that. UniStar can appeal this decision to the NRC Commissioners.
³This is a great day for Maryland,² said Michael Mariotte, executive
director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, which first filed
the contention on foreign ownership in November 2008 and has been the pro
se intervenor on the issue ever since. ³Marylanders need not fear another
dangerous nuclear reactor in our state, nor the accumulation of still
more lethal radioactive waste on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.²
Mariotte added, ³But this is also a blow to the so-called Œnuclear
renaissance.¹ In the summer of 2007, Calvert Cliffs-3 became the first
new reactor project to submit even a partial application in about 30
years. It was the flagship of the nuclear renaissance and now it is a
symbol of the deservedly failed revival of nuclear power in the U.S. That
UniStar has been unable to find a single U.S. utility to partner with it
in this extraordinarily expensive project speaks volumes about the lack
of genuine interest in new nuclear reactors in the U.S.²
Originally, UniStar Nuclear was composed of EDF and the Maryland-based
Constellation Energy. Even then, NIRS argued the corporate structure was
dominated by EDF and the French government‹that was when our contention
was filed. But Constellation dropped out of the project and sold its
share to EDF in October 2010, after turning down an offered taxpayer loan
guarantee from the Department of Energy.
The original intervention in the Calvert Cliffs-3 licensing in November
2009 was undertaken by NIRS, Public Citizen, Beyond Nuclear and Southern
Maryland CARES. NIRS was the lead intervenor on the foreign ownership
issue and on a separate contention also decided today. That contention
argued that the Environmental Impact Statement for the project
understated the potential contribution of solar and wind power as
alternatives to Calvert Cliffs-3. In a lengthy and complicated decision,
the ASLB ruled that the contention was correct when it was filed, but
that the NRC already has taken sufficient steps to address the
deficiencies.
The ASLB today also declined to admit a separate new contention, filed in
numerous licensing cases, based on findings of the NRC¹s Fukushima Task
Force and its potential implications for U.S. reactors.
A copy of the decision is here:
http://www.nirs.org/
nukerelapse/calvert/ contention1decision.pdf
A copy of the decision on the solar and wind contention (Contention 10C)
is here: http://www.nirs.org/
nukerelapse/calvert/10cruling. pdf
A copy of the decision on the Fukushima Task Force contention (Contention
11) is here: http://www.nirs.org/
nukerelapse/calvert/ cont11ruling.pdf
On July 26, 2012, NIRS held a press briefing to discuss the upcoming ASLB
decision and its implications for Calvert Cliffs and the nuclear industry
generally. That briefing can be heard here:
http://www.hastingsgroupmedia.
com/NIRS/ 072612CalvertCliffsDecisionImp licat
ionstelenewsevent.mp3
Statement of Michael Mariotte, executive director of NIRS, at the July
22, 2012 briefing is here:
http://www.nirs.org/
nukerelapse/calvert/ CC3briefingstatement72612.pdf
A timeline of the Calvert Cliffs case is here:
http://www.nirs.org/
nukerelapse/calvert/ cc3timeline.pdf
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