Palisades’ problem-plagued “containment coatings and sump strainers”

Yard signs created by Michigan Safe Energy Future's Kalamazoo Chapter and Shutdown Palisades Campaign.

[Yard sign design by Michigan Safe Energy Future-Kalamazoo Chapter and Shut Down Palisades Campaign; photo by Kevin Kamps]

MEDIA ADVISORY: 10:30am ET, Thursday, 10/24/24 Public Mtg. between NRC & Holtec/Palisades, with public comment/question session, re: “Containment coatings and sump strainers” at Palisades atomic reactor — yet another long unresolved risk of core meltdown

Dear News Media Reporters who have covered the Palisades atomic reactor,

Yet another very important meeting between Holtec International and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff — relevant to the unprecedented, unneeded, insanely expensive for the public, and extremely high-risk for health, safety, security, and the environment, closed Palisades reactor restart scheme — will take place tomorrow morning, from 10:30am to Noon Eastern Time, on Thursday, October 24, 2024. The subject matter is GSI-191 (Generic Safety Issue #191), involving what previous Palisades owner Consumers Energy called “Containment coatings and sump strainers,” a potential pathway to catastrophic reactor core meltdown (á la Chornobyl, Fukushima, Three Mile Island Unit 2, Fermi Unit 1, etc.) that has remained unresolved for two decades, and still counting.
As Michael Keegan of Don’t Waste Michigan has put it:
“The sumps and the strainers potential clogging with 125 cubic feet of debris could result in Loss of Coolant Accident.  Palisades uses an insulation material known as Calcium Silicate (CalSil), which during accident conditions turns to a consistency of Elmer’s Glue.” [See attached photo.]
This could well slow or even block vital coolant water flow to the overheating Palisades reactor core, as via the Emergency Core Cooling System, during an emergency situation.
Here is a currently working NRC link entitled MEETING INFO:
The link above includes the PUBLIC MEETING AGENDA. Please note that the 11:15 to 11:55 am ET Public Questions/Comments agenda item includes an opportunity for news media reporters to ask questions of NRC staff. Representatives of multiple environmental organizations, including Beyond Nuclear and Don’t Waste Michigan (among the coalition which intervened against the Palisades restart on October 7, 2024), plan to attend the meeting, and to ask questions/make comments.
Here is a second currently working NRC link about tomorrow morning’s meeting, entitled [MORE…]:
Please note that pre-registration for the Microsoft Teams Meeting is required, by clicking on this link and completing and submitting the webform provided:
Webinar
Webinar Link:https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/c767de49-df09-4a10-8187-a04fbb65d59e@e8d01475-c3b5-436a-a065-5def4c64f52e
Webinar Meeting Number:215159897716
Webinar Password:DBfRHe
The meeting can also be attended via telephone conference call at the following coordinates:
Bridge Number: (301) 576-2978
Conference ID: 845846918
Pass Code: 845846918#
Here is a link to the slideshow that Holtec will present: https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML24296B165
If any of the NRC’s links above do not work when you try, alternatively go to the NRC’s homepage <https://www.nrc.gov/>, go to the Public Meetings section on the right hand margin, click on the calendar date Thursday, October 24, 2024, and look for the links to the 10:30am to 12 Noon ET NRC-Holtec meeting about GSI-191 at Palisades there.
The listed NRC staff contacts you can reach out to with questions or concerns are:
Ngola Otto
301-415-6695
[email protected]
and
Justin Poole
301-415-2048
[email protected]
I would also be happy to answer any questions you may have, take part in an interview, etc.:
Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, and board of directors member at Don’t Waste Michigan, representing his hometown Kalamazoo chapter
240-462-3216
Please read on below, for additional background information about this critical safety risk at Palisades.
Sincerely,
Kevin Kamps
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On Mon, Oct 21, 2024, Michael J Keegan <[email protected]> wrote:

Very important meeting Thursday (10/24) morning @ 10:30am ET on GSI-191
The sumps and the strainers potential clogging with 125 cubic feet of debris resulting in Loss of Coolant Accident.  Palisades uses a insulation material known as Calcium Silicate (CalSil) which during accident conditions turns to a consistency of Elmer’s Glue. [Michael Keegan has calculated that 8 gallons of Elmer’s Glue would equal 1 cubic foot. Multiplying this by 125 shows the debris potential at Palisades.]
Links to the meeting in the Meeting Notices immediately below.
Please have a look at the Query Links below the Notices to view related documents.
NRC MEETING NOTICES
and
Document Title: 10/24/2024 Hybrid Public Meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Staff and Holtec Decommissioning International (HDI) Representatives on Palisades Generic Safety Issue (GSI)-191 Closure
Document Type: Meeting Notice
Meeting Agenda
Document Date: 10/04/2024
Palisades Query link for GSI-191 (long list back to origin of problem identification in 2004)
Thank you
Michael J. Keegan
Don’t Waste Michigan
On Wed, Oct 23, 2024, Kevin Kamps <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
See additional relevant documentation provided below…
See this link, especially slide #2 (“page 2”):
May 10, 2006: Consumers Energy’s briefing to State of Michigan regulators regarding its intention to sell the Palisades reactor as quickly as possible, revealing important problems afflicting the plant. Also see notes by Kevin Kamps, NIRS [at that time] nuclear waste specialist, with thoughts/remarks on the briefing.
 
As you can see there, “Containment coatings and sump strainers” was one of a long list of problems with safety-critical systems, structures, and components at Palisades that led Consumers Energy to sell the atomic reactor to Entergy in 2007. The con job they played at that time was that Entergy, a much larger nuclear reactor fleet operator, with all its experience and resources, would fix those many problems. Entergy never did fix a single one of those listed problems, nor many additional ones (such as Control Rod Drive Mechanism seals leakage), during its ownership tenure from 2007 to 2022, including the “Containment coatings and sump strainers.” Why not? Because the long captured, complicit, and colluding U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) did not require it. NRC’s capture, complicity, and collusion continues still, as with Holtec’s zombie reactor restart and “Small Modular Reactor” new build schemes at Palisades, as will very likely be on clear display at tomorrow’s meeting.
 
The sale went through in early 2007, including with the Michigan Public Service Commission’s (MPSC) blessing on a Power Purchase Agreement from 2007 to 2022, that gouged Consumers Energy ratepayers at up to 57% above market rates. The MPSC also blessed a looting of the Palisades Decommissioning Trust Fund (DTF) at the time of the sale. Consumers Energy and Entergy each made off with more than $100 million in DTF funds, as pure, ill-gotten profit. Then-governor (now Energy Secretary) Jennifer Granholm’s MPSC signed off on this. This looting of the DTF in 2007 took place on Granholm’s watch as governor. But HOLTEC’s looting of the DTF at Palisades, since it took over on June 28, 2022, has taken place on Gov. Gretchen Whtimer’s watch. We have alleged that Holtec has looted the Palisades DTF to the tune of tens, and perhaps even hundreds, of millions of dollars as well, redirecting the money, inappropriately and illegally, into the zombie reactor restart scheme. See:
and
Although NRC eventually acknowledged some $53,000 in DTF misspending by Holtec at Palisades on the restart scheme, we have alleged tens to hundreds of millions of dollars have been misspent. NRC has little to no meaningful action on our allegations in the past 1.5 years.
Isn’t it interesting that the $200 million shortfall in the Palisades DTF that MI AG Dana Nessel’s office identified in the 2021-2022 time frame, is nearly exactly the amount looted in 2007 by Palisades’ previous owners?! (We think the shortfall is actually much larger than $200 million, if comprehensive radiological clean up of contamination at Palisades is the requirement, as of course it should be!) The DTF is ratepayer money, collected on electric bills since the 1970s till 2007, intended for facility dismantlement and radioactive contamination clean up. But of course, Holtec has no plans to do any of that, any decade soon — Holtec’s Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report of December 2020 was but a bait and switch trick, to get its hands on Palisades. A week after it took ownership, Holtec secretly applied to the U.S. Department of Energy, for many billions of dollars in bailouts, to restart Palisades and build new “Small Modular Reactors” there instead, which would significantly worsen the radioactive waste and contamination problems there for decades to come.
Lest anyone fall for Holtec’s lies tomorrow morning, that this “Containment coatings and sump strainers” pathway to reactor core meltdown at Palisades has somehow been fixed, or soon will be, just listen to this podcast interview hosted by Roger Rapoport, with guest Alan Blind:
Blind served as a senior engineering manager at Palisades under Entergy’s tenure, for many years. I am thankful to Blind for calling attention to the fact that the “Containment sumps and strainers” problem is still very much a risk at Palisades.
—Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear

Kevin Kamps
Radioactive Waste Specialist
Beyond Nuclear
7304 Carroll Avenue, #182
Takoma Park, Maryland 20912

Cell: (240) 462-3216

[email protected]
www.beyondnuclear.org

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.

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