Citizens opposed more nuclear reactors at South Texas Project

By Eliza Brown

Oral Hearing Set for June 23rd-June 24th in Bay City, TX

Citizen opposition to more nuclear reactors in Texas continues. On June
23rd-24th an oral hearing will be held before the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on the Citizens
Petition to Intervene in South Texas Project (STP) Nuclear Power Plant
Units 3 and 4.

SEED Coalition, Public Citizen and South Texas Association for
Responsible Energy are petitioners seeking to intervene in the proposed
expansion of South Texas Project.

Building two more nuclear reactors at STP is not in the best interest
of the local community, said Susan Dancer, a local wildlife
rehabilitator. Pursuing the most expensive and most water intensive
energy source in a time of extraordinary drought and economic recession
makes no sense. The local community will get stuck with more
radioactive waste and bear heavy infrastructure costs if the proposed
reactors get built. The existing reactors have not solved local
economic problems. Dancer chairs the Bay City based organization South
Texas Association for Responsible Energy (STARE).

Attorney Robert V. Eye will represent the petitioners before the
designated Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel and argue the
admissibility of the 28 contentions citizens filed with the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission on April 21st. These
contentions point out the
inadequacies and the incompleteness of South Texas Project Nuclear
Operating Company s (STPNOC) combined operating license application
(COLA) to construct and operate South Texas Project Units 3 and 4. NRG
Energy and San Antonio s municipal utility CPS Energy are both
applicants for the proposed reactors, which fall within STPNOC.

NRG has failed to comply with new federal regulations regarding
aircraft impacts, stated Mr. Eye. These new regulations are very
specific and require the applicant to plan for catastrophic fires
and/or explosions that would cause the loss of major critical
functional components in the plant. After 9-11, an aircraft attack on a
nuclear power plant is a real and credible threat. Moreover, fire
hazards represent about half of the risk of a nuclear reactor meltdown.
NRG s noncompliance with these regulations puts citizens around South
Texas Project in a dangerous position, which is completely
unacceptable.

Nuclear power is dangerous, expensive and obsolete, said Karen
Hadden, Executive Director of Sustainable Energy and Economic
Development (SEED) Coalition. A recent study by Clarence Johnson for
Public Citizen predicted the real costs of this two unit plant would be
$20- $22 billion, or twice NRG s most recent estimate of $10 billion.
CPS has estimated the cost of energy efficiency would be 1/3 to 1/420of
what the study predicted these new nuclear units will cost. Wind
energy is booming and the cost of solar is coming down, while the costs
of proposed nuclear plants is skyrocketing. Although they re required
to do so, NRG and CPS failed to fully consider safer, more affordable
alternatives to nuclear in their license application.

With Units 3 and 4, STP would increase forced evaporation by an
additional 23,169 gallons per minute and could withdraw that amount
from the Colorado River to replace evaporated water, said Dr. Lauren
Ross of Glenrose Engineering. STP s reliance on groundwater would more
than double with STP Units 3 and 4. The addition of two nuclear powered
generators would increase the average groundwater pumped by 1,242
gallons per minute Dr. Ross s report entitled Water Quality and
Quantity Impacts from Proposed South Texas Plant Expansion can be
found at: http://nukefreetexas.org/downloads/ross_report.pdf

NRG has no clue what they re going to do with the radioactive waste,
said Tom Smitty Smith, Director of Public Citizen s Texas office.
The United States Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, has stated that
Yucca Mountain is no longer an option as a high level radioactive waste
repository. Without a federal repository, spent fuel will be stored
onsite indefinitely. Why would we generate more
radioactive waste
without first solving the problem of where to put it?

The oral hearing begins Tuesday, June 23rd at 9 AM in Main Hall Room
100 of the Bay City Civic Center, 201 7th St., Bay City, TX 77414. The
hearing is open to the public.