Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen to testify at NRC ACRS mtg. on 8/21 re: Holtec’s Palisades steam generator tube degradation
[Photo of a typical steam generator in a pressurized water reactor like Palisades. The exceedingly thin-walled tubes are shown, looking from the top down.]
| NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR For immediate release Contact: Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist, Beyond Nuclear, Kalamazoo, MI, (240) 462-3216; [email protected] Arnie Gundersen, nuclear engineer/expert witness, (802) 238-4452; Michael Keegan, chair, Don’t Waste Michigan, Monroe, MI, [email protected]; Terry Lodge, environmental coalition co-counsel, Toledo, OH, [email protected]; Wally Taylor, environmental coalition co-counsel, Cedar Rapids, IA, [email protected] |
Thursday, August 21, 2025, 8:30am-1pm ETMedia Advisory — Re: Holtec’s Palisades Atomic Reactor Restart Scheme |
Environmental coalition’s expert witness, nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, to speak at U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Advisory Committee for Reactor Safeguards Plant Operations Subcommittee |
| ROCKVILLE, MD, and COVERT TOWNSHIP, MI, AUGUST 21, 2025–Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer with more than a half-century of experience, has reserved time towards the end of a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Advisory Committee for Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Plant Operations Subcommittee meeting on Thursday, August 21, 2025. Gundersen’s testimony will occur at the public comments section of the meeting, scheduled to begin at 11:45am Eastern Time (ET). See the ACRS subcommittee meeting agenda, here. (Please note: the meeting has been extended, until 1pm ET.) The meeting is scheduled to begin at 8:30am ET.
Holtec’s scheme to restart the closed Palisades reactor is unprecedented, although closed reactors at Duane Arnold, Iowa, and Three Mile Island Unit 1, Pennsylvania, are now following Palisades’ precedent. Palisades is located in Covert Township, Van Buren County, Michigan, on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Gundersen will present the results of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) analysis he undertook regarding Palisades’ severely degraded steam generator tubes, which risk catastrophic reactor core meltdown. He serves as an expert witness for the environmental coalition intervening against Holtec’s Palisades restart scheme in the NRC licensing proceedings. The coalition includes: Beyond Nuclear; Don’t Waste Michigan; Michigan Safe Energy Future; Nuclear Energy Information Service of Chicago; and Three Mile Island Alert of Pennsylvania. Links to Gundersen’s AI analysis, as well as his expert witness declarations from the Palisades restart NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board proceedings, will be shared in an environmental coalition media release scheduled for Wednesday, August 20, 2025, the day before the NRC ACRS subcommittee meeting. The NRC ACRS subcommittee meeting will be hybrid. The in-person meeting will take place at NRC’s headquarters, specifically at Two White Flint North (T2-D10), 11155 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. If attending in person, please leave plenty of time to clear security at the front entrance to NRC’s Headquarters, as well as to be escorted by NRC staff to the meeting room. The Microsoft Teams online meeting can be joined here. The Webinar Meeting Number is: 261 295 717 232. The Webinar Password is: sm9a4DV3. The meeting can also be joined by teleconference at: Teleconference Bridge Number: (301) 576-2978; The NRC staff point of contact for this meeting is: Quynh Nguyen, (301) 415-7360, <[email protected]>. The NRC ACRS subcommittee Meeting Details are also posted here. Beyond Nuclear’s website posts re: Palisades (both Holtec’s zombie reactor restart scheme, as well as its “Small Modular Reactor” new builds scheme) are posted here. ### |
| Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. [email protected]. www.beyondnuclear.org. |
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