I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission photo
The board that oversees the licensing of nuclear power plants has ordered a hearing on concerns raised by opponents of a new reactor planned by DTE Energy.
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled July 31 that four of the concerns raised by environmental groups and people who live near DTE energy’s Fermi complex in Monroe County warrant further examination.
One issue that must now be addressed is how DTE plans to manage low-level radioactive waste produced at the plant.
The Barnwell disposal facility in South Carolina used to take most of the low-level waste generated at nuclear power plants but will no longer accept waste from Michigan, the board stated, and DTE has acknowledged that its plan involves only six months worth of storage capacity though it is requesting a 40-year license for the reactor.
“[T]he closure of Barnwell will force DTE to store its Class B and C wastes onsite unless it can develop an alternative solution, such as entering into a contract with an offsite facility to store the wastes indefinitely,” the ASLB wrote. “However, the [Environmental Review] neither discusses the need for extended onsite storage during the license term, nor analyzes the environmental consequences of extended onsite storage. It also does not reveal any plan for an alternative to extended onsite storage.”
The board ordered a hearing on the environmental and public health consequences of the need for extended onsite storage of low level radioactive waste.
The board also ordered further review of how DTE’s plans will impact the watershed.
Specifically, it ordered further examination of the possibility that releases from the plant could lead to “increasing algal blooms and the proliferation of a newly identified species of harmful algae in the western Lake Erie basin.”
The board ordered further review of what impact a new nuclear reactor at the Fermi complex might have on the local Eastern fox snake population.
The Eastern fox snake is listed as a threatened species by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
In testimony to the board DTE argued that no Eastern fox snakes are living at the site of the proposed project, however, a statement submitted to the ASLB by Michigan Department of Natural Resources biologist Lori Sargent said that MDNR records from 2008 show “a viable population of Eastern fox snake at the site of the proposed project.”
The board noted Sargent’s warning that “going forward with the construction would not only kill snakes but destroy the habitat in which they live and possibly exterminate the species from the area.”
The board dismissed concerns related to the possible health effects of radiation from the plant.
Issues such as “incidences of childhood cancers near nuclear power plants,” they said, do not “fall within the scope of this proceeding” and are not “material to a decision that the NRC must make.”
ASLB also rejected arguments that declining electricity demand in Michigan may render the project unnecessary.
Michael Keegan of the group Don’t Waste Michigan lives near the Fermi complex and is among those working to block new reactor construction.
Keegan said that his group plans to “vigorously argue” the contentions allowed by the ASLB and will appeal the many contentions that the board denied.
However, he said, “because the process is skewed heavily in favor of the facility we cannot appeal anything until after the hearing.”
The date for the hearing has not been set.
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