BREDL Nuclear

BREDL Executive Director Lou Zeller stands next to BREDL's mock nuclear waste cask during Nuclear Waste Roadshow.

The BREDL Nuclear Campaign highlights the issues with nuclear waste. The campaign educates the public on new attempts to further nuclear power via small modular reactors and versatile test reactors. We track attempts to add nuclear reactor units in the southeast.

BREDL comments on Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement-Clinch River Nuclear Site Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technology Park

Mar. 19, 2021: Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League is in opposition to Tennessee Valley Authority going through with the construction, operation, and decommissioning of an advanced nuclear reactor technology park at the Clinch River Nuclear (CRN) Site in Oak Ridge, Roane County, Tennessee for the following reasons: A variety of negative environmental and human health impacts, there are no efficient and practical solutions for nuclear waste, small modular reactors and microreactors are not the future or cost effective, nuclear energy is a struggling industry, and energy demands are decreasing.

Groups Gather at Savannah River Site to Mark Historic Treaty Outlawing Nuclear Weapons, Call for Action

Jan. 22, 2021: Today, people living near the Savannah River Site participated in an historic day in the movement to eliminate nuclear weapons. Joining with scores of similar actions across the nation and around the world, local residents unfurled a 10-foot banner stating that "Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal." At midnight, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force, establishing in international ban on nuclear weapons.

Eugene Lowry, President Richmond County Neighborhood Alliance Association; Charles Utley, Associate Director BREDL; Claude Howard, President Concern Citizens of Shell Bluff; Melvin Stewart, Hyde Park and Aragon Park Improvement Committee; and Richard Colclough, Call To Action.

BREDL and our chapter Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff file Motion to reopen and submit amended contention regarding Plant Vogtle Unit 3

Dec. 29, 2020: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Answer claims that BREDL has relied on predecisional material in this matter. This is incorrect. BREDL is relying on material that was contemporaneous with its intervention yet withheld from public scrutiny. This information, which was used by NRC to reach its decision to approve SNC's license amendment request, was provided to BREDL only after a lengthy FOIA response period.

BREDL and our chapter Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff file motion to reopen proceeding regarding Plant Vogtle Unit 3

Dec. 17, 2020: In a 22-page brief filed on December 7th, BREDL's Lou Zeller stated, "The NRC continues this pattern of non-response to requests for information." He said that vital information used by the NRC staff to change Plant Vogtle's construction license is still being withheld from public view, and that private sessions were held in the company's Electronic Reading Room. "It is tantamount to needing a secret decoder ring to get to the treasure map." Under federal rules of evidence, all documents for the record must be open to examination by all parties.

Group Finds Catch-22 in Georgia's Plant Vogtle License Changes
Legal Appeal Filed Sept. 4

Sep. 09, 2020: Today residents of the Shell Bluff community and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League announced that they had filed a legal appeal of the license changes granted last month to the owners of Plant Vogtle. In an eight-page brief filed on Friday, the opponents of the license identified a ''Catch-22" process used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission