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.

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.

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

Jul. 13, 2020: The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is expected to agree to lift a ban on investment into advanced nuclear energy projects for export in July. The proposed change to the agency's Environmental and Social Policy and Procedures that would enable the consideration of support of nuclear power projects.

Jun. 15, 2020: BREDL contends that, under the guise of a one-inch change in the seismic gap between two critical walls in the Vogtle reactor, Southern Nuclear Company has admitted to a much more serioius problem.

May 18, 2020: Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act - Section 102 42 U.S.C. 4332 DOE/NNSA must take a systematic, interdisciplinary approach to environmental impact on the human environment. The draft EIS posits two alternatives: 1) Proposed Action to repurpose the mixed oxide fuel fabrication facility into the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility to produce a minimum of 50 pits per year; and 2) No Action Alternative. Alternative number two is the only acceptable option.

May 12, 2020: The Company's License Amendment Request does not comply with the current licensing basis, the applicable statutes and regulations, or the process for modifying the current licensing basis for Vogtle Unit 3 as set forth in 10 CFR 52.98(f). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission cannot approve this license amendment request. Our principal interests are the health and safety of our members living near the plant and the general public.

Jan. 24, 2020: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is deciding whether to develop a generic environmental impact statement for the construction and operation of a broad, diverse, and undefined category of advanced nuclear reactors.

Dec. 12, 2019: Today the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League announced the filing of its legal petition opposing renewed construction of the Bellefonte nuclear power plant. The 15-page brief, filed Wednesday, seeks to Intervene to stop the transfer of the construction permits for Units 1 and 2 from the Tennessee Valley Authority to a private firm, Nuclear Development LLC. BREDL's local chapter Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team, or BEST, founded in 2008 to defeat a previous permit, also joined the suit.

Aug. 12, 2019: We hereby request that The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration do a new EIS as required under existing statutes and case law. NNSA’s pit production mission was emphasized as a national security imperative by the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. For many reasons, the argument for this mission can be shown to be specious and ill-advised. On the other hand, if it were shown to be valid, it is a major action for which an Environmental Impact Statement would be required. International treaty obligations and U.S. law prohibit further development of atomic weapons. The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty compels the United States to end nuclear weapons development.

BREDL Comments

May 30, 2019: We maintain that the EPD’s inclusion of mitigation in a water withdrawal permit was the wrong measure in the wrong place. It was unfair and contrary to the law for NPDES measures— accounting for chemical and thermal discharges to waters of the United States—to be allowed through the back door of a water withdrawal permit.

BREDL Comments