Dear Friends and Colleagues,

For the second time in just three short weeks, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is holding a major public meeting in Benton Harbor, Michigan, regarding Holtec’s zombie reactor restart scheme at Palisades nuclear power plant. Palisades is located on the Lake Michigan shore in Covert Township, in Van Buren County, in southwest MI. The restart is unprecedented, unneeded, highly risky for health, safety, and the environment, and insanely expensive for the public. But Palisades’ zombie reactor restart precedent is already spreading to such other supposedly closed for good reactors as the infamous Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania (Unit 2 had a 50% reactor core meltdown on March 28, 1979), and Duane Arnold in Iowa (which had a near-miss with catastrophe in August 2020, after being hit by tornado force straight line winds). Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California also belongs on the would-be zombie reactor list: Unit 1 was supposed to close for good this year, and Unit 2 next year, but now CA Governor Newsom has done a 180, backed by the state legislature, NRC, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE, led by former MI governor Jennifer Granholm) — they are instead throwing billions of dollars at Pacific Gas & Electric, to extend Diablo’s operations indefinitely, despite off the charts earthquake, embrittlement, and other risks.

We need your help to nip this worsening nuclear nightmare of zombie reactor restarts in the bud at Palisades! Please attend this meeting, either in-person or online/telephonically. Please make verbal public comments/ask questions/express concerns. Please spread the word to your networks. The Great Lakes — 21% of the entire world’s surface fresh water — are at risk, due to this “game” of radioactive Russian roulette that Holtec, NRC, DOE, and government officials (elected and appointed) are “playing”! According to the Japanese Parliament’s independent investigation, just such collusion was the root cause of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. But frighteningly, we have such collusion in spades at Palisades!

For those who can attend in-person, NRC is holding an “open house” with posters beginning at 5:15pm ET. Be sure to check out Beyond Nuclear’s information tables in the hall/lobby outside the meeting room as well, at any point from start to finish. Also, please consider making public comments/asking questions/expressing concerns at the microphone — to do so, you need to sign up/in at NRC’s table on the way into the meeting room. Persons attending in-person will be given priority to speak, in the order in which they signed up/in.

But webinar/telephonic participation is also possible, and NRC will turn to those online/on the phone for public comments/questions/concerns as well.

Please see the NRC’s notifications, further down below, for the details on the in-person meeting location, as well as how to take part via webinar or by phone. Note that pre-registration is required for the webinar, at least a half-hour before the meeting begins, that is, by 5:30pm ET on Thursday, August 1st.

Please read on below for more information, take part in this meeting if you can, and spread the word to your networks. Thanks!

Purpose

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff will discuss the NRC’s Restart Panel activities including licensing reviews and inspections for the Palisades Nuclear Plant potential resumption of power operations. Holtec Decommissioning Inc. (HDI) will discuss current and planned activities for the Palisades potential restart. The public is encouraged to ask questions about the NRC’s oversight pertaining to the potential Palisades restart.

Comments

This meeting is hybrid (in person & virtual). The Open House will be held in person only from 5:15 PM to 6:00 PM ET, as it does not lend itself to the hybrid format. Members of the public, who are participating virtually can join the meeting at 6:00 PM ET. Register at least 30 minutes in advance of the meeting by clicking on the link provided above. The link will take you to a new page where you will be asked to provide registration information including an email address, so that the system can send the Microsoft Teams link for the meeting. You can also join the meeting by telephone using the Teleconference number provided. Please note that in-person attendees will be given priority to speak during the public questions and comments session.

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