Nuclear ambitions rise from LILCO’s ashes
“Hypocritical!” That’s how State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele of Sag Harbor describes the recent announcement by the Long Island Power Authority that it is increasing the amount of nuclear power it uses.
LIPA, created as a way to stop the Shoreham nuclear power plant, should “sell its stake” in the upstate nuclear plant, Nine Mile Point II, from which it intends to get more power, “and focus on alternative, sustainable energy sources — not nuclear,” says Mr. Thiele.
Moreover, how LIPA plans to get more power from Nine Mile Point II is fraught with danger. The long-troubled nuclear plant in Scriba would get an OK from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) calls “uprate,” defined by the agency as “increasing the maximum power level at which a commercial nuclear power plant may operate.”
To Long Island native Jim Riccio, nuclear policy analyst at Greenpeace USA, that is a concept inviting disaster. “The notion is to run these old reactors harder and faster than ever — not based on safety but based on maximizing corporate profits,” says Mr. Riccio.
An uprate at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, for instance, has resulted in a series of serious mishaps caused by the severe vibrations from running the plant at an increased power level and a “30 percent increase in radioactivity at its fence lines,” said Mr. Riccio. He was returning last week to Washington, D.C. from Vermont where the uprate and its consequent problems have led to a major new drive to shut down Vermont Yankee.
“It’s too bad the new management of LIPA has forgotten the hard lessons learned about nuclear power as a result of Shoreham,” said Mr. Riccio, an attorney from West Islip.
Not only has LIPA forgotten the lessons of nuclear power from Shoreham, its new leadership is unaware of the facts about atomic energy. When LIPA was established to replace the Long Island Lighting Company in the aftermath of Shoreham, LIPA’s leaders were safe-energy advocates, knowledgeable veterans of the Shoreham fight. The LIPA board was supposed to be an elected body. But that provision was rescinded and LIPA board membership became based on political appointment.
The current LIPA chair, Howard Steinberg, an appointee of former Governor Pataki with no experience in energy, told Long Island Business News that the scheme to uprate Nine Mile Point II by 15 percent is “a good deal for LIPA and the ratepayers” because nuclear power is “the cleanest, cheapest source of energy around.” The all-appointed LIPA trustees unanimously backed the uprate.
Nine Mile Point II has had a terrible record ever since coming on line in 1987. A section of the NRC’s website, postings of inspections at U.S. nuclear plants, tells of finding “Degraded Service Water Pumps,” “Inadequate Maintenance Practices,” and other problems described as “more than minor” over the past two years.
Even Matthew Cordaro, a former LILCO vice president, warned in Long Island Business News of continued LIPA “nuclear plant ownership,” noting: “There could always be an accident.” Among U.S. nuclear plants, Nine Mile Point II, of which LIPA has kept the 18 percent interest LILCO held, is a prime candidate — and what an accident it could be.
The NRC, in its “Calculation of Reactor Accident Consequences-2” report, also on the web, projects the impacts of a major accident at every nuclear plant in the U.S. For Nine Mile Point II, it estimates tens of thousands of fatalities, injuries and cancer deaths and $134 billion in property damage. Who would be liable? If LIPA insists on continuing with Nine Mile Point II, liability would include LIPA and its customers on Long Island.
LIPA should divest itself of Nine Mile Point and fully embrace its original charter of being about safe, clean renewable energy technologies. These technologies are here. The cover article of the current issue of the Scientific American is devoted to “A Plan for a Sustainable Future. How to Get All Energy from Wind, Water and Solar Power by 2030.” The article is based on a 2009 Stanford University study that determines that the “very best energy options” are “wind, solar, geothermal, tidal and hydroelectric power — all of which are driven by wind, water or sunlight … Nuclear power, coal with carbon capture, and ethanol were all poorer options, as were oil and natural gas.”
It declares: “A large-scale wind, water and solar energy system can reliably supply the world’s needs, significantly benefiting climate, air quality, water quality, ecology and energy security … The obstacles are primarily political, not technical.”
And LIPA must have an elected board. Mr. Thiele says, “there’s now bipartisan support in the State Legislature for an elected LIPA board”—for which he has long battled. LIPA must strive democratically for safe, clean energy.