Limerick Steps On The Gas, Driving Recklessly Toward The Cliff

Limerick Steps On The Gas, Driving Recklessly Toward The Cliff

The Mercury (http://www.pottsmerc.com)Top of Form

Limerick Plant Heading Over Catastrophic Nuclear Cliff

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Instead of relicensing Limerick Nuclear Plant, the NRC should have revoked its licenses to slow Limerick’s speed as it drives toward a potentially catastrophic nuclear cliff. But from the start, NRC bent its own rules and regulations so it could license Limerick, enabling PECO/Exelon to profit from Limerick’s nuclear energy at the public’s expense.

Limerick’s relicensing has been one of the most heavily contested in the nation. Limerick’s history has included a judicial ruling in favor of public safety concerns, local and national petitions, and individual objections leveled against Limerick, but all have fallen on NRC’s deaf ears. Although NRC claims it “considers” public concerns, in reality NRC just tosses aside evidence of deficiencies and threats to public safety and the environment.

NRC and Exelon don’t really have an incentive to stop Limerick from threatening the public because even if Limerick melts down, the Price Anderson Act caps Exelon’s liability to a miniscule fraction of the estimated trillion dollar cost for a Limerick catastrophe. Taxpayers will end up paying the lion’s share of the costs if Limerick melts down.

Taxpayers will also end up paying for storing Limerick’s massive amount of high-level radioactive waste, unfairly burdening future generations of taxpayers forever. Closing Limerick would end the production of this deadly waste.

Reports show that Limerick’s equipment is aging faster than hypothetical models calculated. Yet, NRC allows Limerick to continue speeding toward potential catastrophe, bending and eliminating inconvenient regulations that the public believes are the “rules of the road”. For instance:

∙ Despite Limerick’s already accelerated reactor aging, NRC irresponsibly approved a Limerick “power uprate”, the packing of its reactors with extra fuel rods, which means the reactors run hotter and as a result, degrade faster. This accelerates Limerick’s speed toward the nuclear cliff.

· The first of Limerick’s reactor components arrived on-site starting in 1972. They were defective upon delivery: earlier that year the same reactor design had caused a nuclear accident at another nuclear plant, exposing the design defect.

· Many of Limerick’s deteriorating systems, structures and components will be half-a-century old by the time its original licenses expire in 2024 and 2029. Limerick could go over the nuclear cliff before then.

When an NRC safety inspection report revealed accelerated corrosion in Limerick’s suppression pools, NRC staff recommended immediate recoating, but Exelon preferred not to. So in deference to Exelon, NRC irresponsibly allowed a delay of 10 years for recoating. This saved Exelon money in the short-term, but increased public safety risks.

NRC’s initial post-Fukushima recommendation to install vents with filters on both of Limerick’s defective reactors was meant to minimize public radiation exposure in a Limerick accident or meltdown. Filtered vents should have been imperative for Limerick from the start. NRC eliminated the requirement for filters from its recommendations to save Exelon money, even though vents without filters become a fire hose of radiation into the sky during a meltdown, exposing the public to massively increased radiation doses. Over eight million people live within 50 miles of Limerick, the second most densely populated evacuation zone in the nation. There have never been workable evacuation plans.

NRC even allowed Exelon to remove a critical safety test of its aging equipment from Limerick’s license renewal application, in spite of the fact that NRC told Exelon how dangerous it would be. Amazingly NRC relicensed Limerick untested.

It is worrisome that Exelon and its nuclear industry lobbyists control the NRC. The NRC should be in control of Exelon, not the other way around. However, it’s not too late for NRC to close Limerick, fulfilling its stated mission “to protect people and the environment.”

NRC could and should revoke Limerick’s licenses now, before Limerick runs off the nuclear cliff, taking the greater Philadelphia Region and beyond with it.

Betty and Charlie Shank

Pottstown

Limerick Relicensing Is A Big Mistake

The Mercury (http://www.pottsmerc.com)

URL: http://www.pottsmerc.com/opinion/20141022/op-ed-limerick-re-licensing-is-a-big-mistakeTop of Form

OP-ED: Limerick Re-Licensing Is A Big Mistake

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

We strongly object to NRC’s preparations for re-licensing Limerick Nuclear Plant (Mercury, Sept. 2, 2014) because public safety has been given a backseat to Exelon’s economic interests. This is especially worrisome because NRC has drastically weakened its own regulations to re-license Limerick, despite Limerick’s aging systems and equipment which are plagued by corrosion, thinning, pitting, fatigue, erosion, leaching, embrittlement and stress corrosion cracking. The list of opportunities for disaster is endless.

Exelon’s records show that some monitors have been out of service at Limerick for more than a year. Automated systems have failed, discovered only after accidents occur. Public statements by NRC and Exelon following such incidents have failed to provide timely, accurate disclosure to the public. The result is that impacted residents have received no more respect than the Schuylkill River which is being destroyed by Limerick operations and the air that it is being polluted for Exelon’s profits.

NRC and Exelon have gone through the motions required for re-licensing, but it’s all for show. The enormous risks that our region faces from Limerick’s ever-growing high-level radioactive waste storage threats have been ignored by NRC. The Continued Storage Rule does not stop the production of Limerick’s high-level radioactive waste which remains lethal, virtually forever.

Hollow evacuation plans, lack of meaningful regulation, perfunctory public inclusion, and NRC’s willful blindness to the consequences of our routine radiation exposure increase public risk. It’s a nightmare, affecting the health of our families and the environmental legacy we leave our children and grandchildren.

Back in the 1980s before Limerick construction was complete, a suit was filed when the public understood that Limerick operations would violate clean air standards and that design alternatives should have been considered. The suit was won in court, but successfully stalled until Limerick construction was complete. Back then, too many officials fell into the trap of weighing economic factors more heavily than public protection. Elsewhere, more enlightened thinking led to cancelled construction plans and closed plants.

We have learned that Limerick’s construction is substandard and that its reactors, fuel pools, control room, turbine building and radwaste storage building actually sit on top of open earthquake fault fractures, filled in with cement.

Exelon has made no secret of the fact that its first concerns are profits and investors. We have been reduced to pawns in a game of nuclear roulette. We get sick. Our drinking water supply is reduced and contaminated. Our air is polluted. And on top of that, we are forced to pay for Limerick’s business costs, as well as PECO/Exelon’s costly mistakes.

It would be the height of injustice for NRC to relicense Limerick Nuclear Plant and allow this corporate abuse to continue, when safer electric power has been proven to be viable and available.

The last step in relicensing depends on the decision of just one person, the director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. We strongly urge that before making a final decision on relicensing Limerick, NRC’s director carefully evaluate Limerick’s unresolved and unfixable issues including:

  • Security concerns like terrorism and cyber attacks
  • Catastrophic earthquake risks due to Limerick’s substandard construction directly on top of fault fractures
  • Unprecedented water pollution and depletion of our vital drinking water supply
  • Lax fire standards
  • Lack of adequate water to deal with potential multiple meltdowns
  • The legal challenge by the National Resources Defense Council related to Limerick’s outdated SAMA.

Our politicians need to open their eyes and see that the safety of millions of people and our environmental future hang in the balance of Limerick relicensing. There is no need to live with so many risks when safer, cleaner, cheaper alternatives are viable, available, and could replace Limerick Nuclear Plant now. We urge all officials to call for the closure of Limerick to protect public interests.

— Betty and Charlie Shank

Pottstown

Terrorist Threats At Limerick Pose Catastrophic Risks

Terrorist Threats At Limerick Pose Catastrophic Risks

ACE wants a safer future for you and your family.

A 2013 Defense Department analysis said NO U.S. nuclear plant is protected against terrorist attacks, and all pose catastrophic risks.

We can avoid a Limerick Nuclear Plant catastrophe if our elected officials and government agencies stop dodging the harsh reality of risk and take action.

To insure a safer future we must transition to safer energy immediately, and close Limerick now before a terrorist attack triggers a meltdown which can be caused by loss of power and/or water.

Millions of people would suffer irreparable health harms from Limerick’s radioactive plume contaminating everything.

We would be financially ruined and permanently displaced. It’s insanity to allow that kind of unnecessary risk to continue.

After 9/11, ACE started investigating Limerick’s vulnerabilities to terrorism, plus security and evacuation problems. For details: www.acereport.org #13 “Terrorists Threats: Precaution Is Inadequate” and Video Blog Series 1-8. The reality is alarming. It’s not fear-mongering to report it in hope of prevention.

On July 30, 2014, the Mercury printed Evan Brandt’s article, “NRC Mum about Security Problem at Limerick Nuclear Plant”. It’s unacceptable for NRC to withhold information about risks from those who would be most impacted by the consequences.

For a year following 9/11, taxpayers paid for Limerick’s air defense. Since then, NRC refused to require Exelon to pay for that, despite extraordinary risks from terrorists’ planes or missiles.. If a plane or missile crashed into a fuel pool, it could result in loss of water, meltdown, and fire.

One expert reported that a fuel pool fire could cause fatal radiation-induced cancer in thousands of people as far as 500 miles from the site. “Spent fuel” rods (among the deadliest materials on earth) are jam packed in Limerick’s extremely vulnerable fuel pools, constructed with substandard cement and without extra containment walls. Like Fukushima’s, they’re directly above Limerick’s reactors.
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On September 24, 2014, a PBS documentary, “Cyber Security, Rise of the Hackers”, revealed the reality of high-stakes cyber attacks. For example: the Stuxnet virus targeted an Iranian nuclear plant in 2010, destroying over 1,000 centrifuges before detection. Stuxnet, capable of spreading, could be a blueprint for cyber attacks on U.S. nuclear plants. Even a cyber attack on the grid could lead to extended loss of power and water, triggering meltdowns at Limerick.

Limerick security and NRC oversight are so lax that an Al-Qaida suspect worked undetected for 5 years (2002-2007) during Limerick re-fueling.

Inexplicably, in 2012, even after lessons from Fukushima, NRC pared down emergency evacuation planning for radiation exposure after meltdowns.

Nearly 8 million people live within 50 miles of Limerick, the evacuation zone that NRC recommended after Fukushima. Millions of people, in all directions, would suffer health harms, financial ruin, and permanent displacement, while Exelon would be liable for only a tiny fraction of the estimated one trillion dollar cost.

We can’t evacuate safely! No workable evacuation plan exists. Escape routes would be completely gridlocked.

The Montgomery County Planning Commission and the Department of Safety both warned NRC about inadequate infrastructure to support safe evacuation. Where would everyone go, with Philadelphia just over 20 miles downwind and downstream from Limerick?

The price of ignoring the public’s health and financial risks are incalculable, yet almost all our elected and agency officials have displayed callous disregard for the extraordinary terrorist threats we face related to Limerick Nuclear Plant and our future.

We can’t afford to elect more politicians like Tom Quigley, who took contributions from Exelon and publicly supported Limerick relicensing until 2049, despite ACE repeatedly informing him of irrefutable catastrophic risks, including terrorism.

Before voting 11-4-14, ask each candidate if they will help close Limerick now to protect your family.

We also encourage you to review just released 2013-2014 environmental voting records of PA state senators and representatives at www.conservationpa.org.

 

Limerick Nuclear Plant Is Polluting Our Drinking Water

OP-ED: Nuclear Plant Is Polluting Our Drinking Water
Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Clean safe water is not a luxury. It’s essential for survival, including personal hygiene, food preparation and cooking. Allowing the intentional destruction of a vital water resource supplying almost 2 million people, for the profit of a multi-billion dollar corporation, is a moral, ethical disgrace.

Why should one business, Limerick Nuclear Plant, be permitted to run the Schuylkill River dry and poison it to such a degree that it can become unusable for other businesses and residents?

It is infuriating and unacceptable that our politicians, agency officials, other leaders, and water companies would allow such injustice to continue. Deafening silence continues, while almost two million people from Pottstown to Philadelphia, face a water and public health crisis.

NRC and DEP might as well be working for Exelon.

• Instead of stopping Limerick’s unprecedented threats and harms to the Schuylkill River, NRC plans to relicense Limerick.

• DEP plans to issue an NPDES water pollution permit with dangerous exemptions and loopholes for Limerick’s radiation and cooling tower toxic discharges, and overheating the river.

PA DEP is allowing Limerick to violate federal protective water law and standards. DEP has the power to deny Limerick an NPDES pollution permit renewal. Instead, DEP plans to approve a permit with shocking exemptions.

Instead of exemptions from compliance, Exelon, Limerick’s owner, should be required to filter Limerick’s dangerous discharges to meet Safe Drinking Water standards.

Exelon is profiting and should be accountable to minimize damage.

Clean water is the law of the land since 1972. Why would PA DEP ignore protective federal clean water laws? Because it saves Exelon the cost of filtration.

Governor Corbett appointed Michael Krancer, a former Exelon attorney, to head DEP. Krancer stayed long enough to assure Limerick’s exemption from federal water laws.

DEP’s unethical negligence has health and financial consequences.

• Suffering and health care costs will increase. DEP plans to allow unlimited amounts of Limerick’s broad range of radionuclides and toxic cooling tower chemicals to be discharged into the river every day with up to 14.2 million gallons of wastewater.

• It’s cost prohibitive for water companies to monitor or filter Schuylkill River water intake for all Limerick’s cancer causing radionuclides and other toxics.

• Increasing costs to water companies for Limerick’s massive Total Dissolved Solids discharges will ultimately be passed on to their customers. Example: Norristown shut down water distribution for four days recently, resulting in costly plant upgrades. Limerick uses two chemicals that can cause brown water (NPDES Permit).

• Rather than requiring Exelon to slow operations when Limerick discharges overheat the river, DEP plans to eliminate river temperature restrictions that protect aquatic life, public health, and safety.

How can NRC relicense Limerick? There isn’t enough water in the Schuylkill River to sustain daily operations, much less for meltdowns.

• Limerick withdraws over two and a half times more water than the combined withdrawal for Pottstown and Norristown water customers, returning just one quarter to the river. The rest goes into the air as steam from the cooling towers.

• Limerick’s cooling towers depleted the river since the late 1980s. By 1999, DEP reported that it reached record low flows. It’s getting worse. Where you once needed a boat to cross, you can now walk across. Tributaries are even drying up.

If your water is coming from the Schuylkill River through PA American Water, Aqua PA, or your municipality, know your risks.

Visit www.acereport.org. Section #6 “Schuylkill River – Limerick’s Operations Threaten A Drinking Water Disaster” and Video Blogs Updates.

Safe drinking water must be the legacy we leave our children.

To save the Schuylkill River and restore an ample, safe water supply for almost two million people and other businesses, Limerick must close. Otherwise, unprecedented threats and harms will increase, expediting a drinking water disaster.

Final permits are pending. Contact elected and agency officials today. For more information: www.acereport.org. To join the fight: aceactivists@comcast.net or (610) 326-2387.

DR. LEWIS CUTHBERT
ACE President

The Mercury (http://www.pottsmerc.com)
URL: http://www.pottsmerc.com/opinion/20140917/op-ed-nuclear-plant-is-polluting-our-drinking-water

Higher Radiation Spikes Detected In Air near Limerick Nuclear Plant

 

Video Blog 1-14 

HIGHER RADIATION SPIKES DETECTED IN AIR NEAR LIMERICK NUCLEAR PLANT

The Alliance for a Clean Environment (ACE) documented radiation spikes in the air for several weeks, after being contacted by concerned residents November 22. 

  • Because radiation is routinely released into the air from Limerick Nuclear Plant, ACE believes Limerick is the obvious source, but the precise cause is unknown.

Average levels of airborne radiation near Limerick Nuclear Power Plant were found to be 20 to 30% higher than normal for several weeks in late November and early December. 

  • Measurement of airborne radiation levels January 6 showed elevated levels have continued.
  • All readings evaluated were taken at a site just four miles from Limerick.

ACE uses RadAlert 50 handheld devices made by International Medcom, to monitor airborne radiation levels on a per-minute basis.

  • This device is used by citizens near other U.S. nuclear plants.
  • A court ruling after the Three Mile Island meltdown ordered placement of 50 of the same devices at sites around Harrisburg to enable citizens to detect further meltdowns.  

Joseph Mangano, MPH MBA, a radiation health expert, examined the data collected by citizens and determined:

  • 11-22 to 12-4, 2569 minutes (nearly 43 hours) were recorded four miles west of Limerick. 
  • Average radiation count per minute (CPM) was about 20 to 30% greater than 15, the typical average.
  • December 2-4, 90 of 300 minutes (30%) were over 20.  Typically, only 2 to 3% reach 20 or more.
  • 31 CPM, the highest count, was more than double the normal level.
  • Unusually high patterns continue; 60 minutes were recorded January 6, 2014.  28.3% showed a level of 20 CPM or greater.

ACE contacted NRC 11-22-13 about higher radiation readings.  

  • After four days NRC finally responded, but failed to explain unusually high measurements.
  • NRC conducted NO MONITORING to attempt to examine citizen findings and to locate the source at Limerick.
  • Instead, NRC “reviewed” Exelon’s data and “looked” for a source of higher radiation levels.
  • The problem: NRC can’t see radiation and shouldn’t trust Exelon’s data.  See: www.acereport.org, # 20 “Why We Can’t Trust Exelon”.

NRC’s negligent oversight on our radiation risks from Limerick!

  • 36% margins of error allowed in Exelon’s reporting for Limerick’s radiation releases to air
  • Radiation monitoring equipment left inoperable for over one year
  • Radiation dose factors were omitted for the last five weeks of 2010.

NRC illogically attributed citizen radiation spikes in multiple locations to 1) natural radiation, and 2) electrical surges.

  • Naturally occurring radiation cannot account for weeks of radiation spikes, since natural radiation changes little over time. 
  • Electrical surges were not to blame, since citizen Rad-Alerts use batteries.

ACE believes radiation spikes are from Limerick starting to use high burnup fuel, which can release 2 to 3 times more radioactive fission gas. 

  • NRC has no credible evidence otherwise.    

Limerick’s aging, corroding, and deteriorating reactors, (already operating 24 and 29 years), could be leaking.

  • Radioactive leaks have become more common as reactors age.

Limerick’s radioactive releases can have harmful health impacts. 

  • Limerick produces over 100 radioactive chemicals.
  • Each is harmful to humans when ingested by breathing or via the food chain, raising the risk of cancer, infant mortality, birth defects, and other serious health disorders.
  • Since Limerick started operating in 1985, cancer rates skyrocketed around Limerick. 
  • Childhood Cancer was 92.5% Higher Than The National Average by the late 1990s
  • Strontium-90 was found in our children’s baby teeth, at some of the highest levels around nuclear plants
  • Thyroid Cancer Increased by a shocking128%.by the mid 90s
  • For Detailed Information:  www.acereport.org    ACE Website Downloads

#1 – Radiation  - Limerick’s Routine Releases

#2 – Cancer – Skyrocketing Increases: Links to Limerick

$3 – Radiation – No Safe Dose

Public Health Risks Could Be Reduced Through Awareness, With Minimal Costs.

  • The public has a right to know about higher radiation in their air. Residents could protect themselves with a radiation alert system, similar to the one for ozone: 
  • Citizen radiation monitoring networks should be funded by state or independent grants.
  • Citizen data could be reliably analyzed by the Radiation and Public Health Project, which currently analyzes electronic data from citizen networks around other nuclear plants. 
  • Montgomery and Chester Counties should establish county-wide alert systems to inform      residents when radiation levels are higher.Ask All Elected Officials To Support Funding For Citizen Radiation Monitoring And County Reporting (Similar to Ozone Alerts).
  • We need and deserve reliable radiation warnings, including for Limerick meltdowns.
  • Radiation risks can be reduced – For details on water filtration and more:              ACE Website Download – #4 Radiation – Reduce Risks

RECENT RAD-ALERT DATA ANALYSIS FROM RADIATION MONITORING BY CITIZENS WITHIN 4 MILES OF LIMERICK NUCLEAR PLANT

Appendix – Radiation Counts Four Miles West of Limerick Plant Since 11/22/13

Total                Minutes            % Mins.           Highest

Date     Minutes            >19 CPM        >19 CPM        Reading

11/22     420                       43                         10.2%                  30

11/23     —                         –                           —                        

11/24     681                       68                         10.0%                  31

11/25     —                          –                           —                         

Elected Officials Must Take Action To Protect Us From Limerick’s Harms Or Be Voted Out of Office

 

 ELECTED OFFICIALS MUST TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT US FROM LIMERICK

NUCLEAR PLANT THREATS OR BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE

WE ARE AT A CROSSROAD!  AT STAKE:
PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY, AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS

 

  • Limerick Is Destroying Vital Drinking Water Resources
  • Limerick’s Radioactive Air Releases Add To Cancer And Other Health Risks
  • Limerick Systems Are Rapidly Aging, Corroding, and Increasingly Dangerous
  • There Is No Safe Solution For Limerick’s Deadly Radioactive Wastes
  • There Is No Safe Way To Evacuate Our Densely Populated Region If Limerick Has A Major Radiation Accident or Meltdown
  • Meltdown Risks Are Increasing!  Millions Could Lose Everything!  That Can Be Avoided If Limerick Closes Now. 

    ACE REPEATEDLY INFORMED ELECTED OFFICIALS

  1. In 2011, your officials failed to speak on the Limerick Relicensing public hearing record
  2. In 2012, your officials failed to speak on the public hearing record to protect our drinking water
  3. In 2013, your officials failed to speak on the record about Limerick’s environmental impacts

    ELECTED OFFICIALS’ SILENCE IS UNACCEPTABLE:

  • SILENCE ALLOWS THREATS AND HARMS TO INCREASE
  • SILENCE CONDONES NRC REGULATORY NEGLIGENCE
  • SILENCE PROTECTS EXELON PROFITS AT OUR EXPENSE

    ELECTED OFFICIALS WHO DON’T SPEAK UP NOW

    SHOULD BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE!

    TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY, AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS,

    LIMERICK NUCLEAR PLANT MUST CLOSE NOW:

  • Stop Limerick’s Radiation Releases Into Our Air and Water
  • Stop Depletion and Overheating of the Schuylkill River, The Vital Drinking Water Resource For Almost 2 Million People, Pottstown to Philadelphia
  • Stop Deadly Radioactive Waste Production. There Is NO SAFE SOLUTION!
  • Reduce Need to Evacuate.  We Can’t Evacuate Safely!
  • Reduce Meltdown Threats That Could Render The Entire Philadelphia Region Uninhabitable.  Millions Could Lose Everything They Own

    ELECTED OFFICIALS’ VOICES MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE!

    NUCLEAR PLANTS ARE CLOSING WHERE ELECTED OFFICIALS SPEAK UP

  • Nuclear Plants In California and Vermont Are Closing, In Large Part Because Their Elected Officials, Including State and U.S. Senators, As Well As Governors Spoke Out Against Risks And Harms To The Public From Their Nuclear Plants
  • In New York, Officials, Including Governor Andrew Cuomo and State Senators Have Pushed For Closure Of Indian Point, Citing Its Location Near A Major Population Center
  • Only U.S. Senator Bob Casey Expressed Public Concern About Evacuation Feasibility 

    YOUR VOICE AND VOTE ARE NEEDED 

    TELL FAMILY, FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, AND ELECTED OFFICIALS WHAT IS AT RISK

    FOR DETAILS ON LIMERICK NUCLEAR PLANT’S THREATS AND HARMS

    WWW.ACEREPORT.ORG

  • TELL LOCAL, STATE, AND FEDERAL ELECTED OFFICIALS YOU PLAN TO HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE IN THE VOTING BOOTH FOR THEIR FAILURE TO SPEAK UP TO PROTECT YOUR FUTURE.

DECADES AGO ELECTED OFFICIALS FAILED TO SPEAK UP

NOW WE FACE LIMERICK’S UNPRECEDENTED THREATS AND HARMS

 

PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY SERIOUSLY JEOPARDIZED!

Limerick Nuclear Plant’s Devastating Assault On The Schuylkill River Is Slowly Destroying This Vital Drinking Water Resource For Almost Two Million People From Pottstown to Philadelphia. 

  • Elected Officials Knew Before Limerick Was Licensed That The Schuylkill River Could Not Sustain Limerick Nuclear Plant operations. They Also Knew Limerick Would Radiate and Overheat The River, Jeopardizing Public Health and The Ecosystem.
  • ELECTED OFFICIALS FAILED TO SPEAK UP IN THE 1970S AND 1980S TO STOP AVOIDABLE DESTRUCTION OF THIS VITAL PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY.
  • By 1999 The River Reached Record Low Flows. Limerick’s Cooling Tower Depletion Was A Major Factor.  By 2003, Exelon Asked To  Reduce and Eliminate Requirements In Place To Protect The River Water and to  Pump Massive Amounts of Toxic Unfiltered Mine Waster Into The River To Supplement The Flow To Operate Limerick.
  • AT THE 2012 PUBLIC HEARING, ONLY ONE LOCAL OFFICIAL, MICHAEL MOYER, OPPOSED LIMERICK’S UNPRECEDENTED THREATS AND HARMS TO PUBLIC DRINKING WATER.RADIOACTIVE WASTES THREATEN UNTHINKABLE DISASTER
  • There Is NO SAFE SOLUTION.
  • Transporting It Offsite Is Too Dangerous Due To Accidents and Terrorist Attacks
  • Storing It In Limerick’s Corroded and Thinning Fuel Pools Makes It Vulnerable To Devastating Meltdowns From Accidents or Terrorist Attacks 
  • The Only Solution – STOP MAKING IT. 
  • Until That Happens, We Must Store Existing Wastes On Site SAFER – In Above Ground Casks
  • ACE Repeatedly Informed Elected Officials About Extreme Threats We Face From Limerick’s Radioactive Waste Storage and Transport.   ACE Also Repeatedly Requested Officials To Comment to NRC In Support Of Recommended Actions For NRC’s Radioactive Waste Study
  • NOT ONE ELECTED OFFICIAL TOOK  ACTION TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC’S HEALTH, SAFETY, AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS RELATED TO LIMERICK’S LETHAL HIGH-LEVEL RADCIOACTIVE WASTES.SAFE  EVACUATION NOT POSSIBLE!
  • In 1980, Before Limerick’s Construction, NRC Admitted The Region Within 30 Miles Of Limerick Had Double The Population That Could Be Evacuated Safely
  • IN 1980 ELECTED OFFICIALS REMAINED SILENT AND ALLOWED  LIMERICK NUCLEAR PLANT CONSTRUCTION TO CONTINUE.
  • At The Same Time, In The 1980s, Based On Population Density and Impossible Safe Evacuation, New York Elected Officials Opposed Shoreham Nuclear Plant
  • NEW YORK OFFICIALS OPPOSED SHOREHAM NUCLEAR PLANT BASED ON INABILITY TO EVACUATE SAFELY.  SHOREHAM WAS CLOSED.
  • By 2010, Population Density Around Limerick Nuclear Plant Skyrocketed Over 4 Times Higher Than Could Evacuate Safely.
  • OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS STILL REMAIN SILENT ABOUT OUR INABILITY TO SAFELY EVACUATE, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF U.S. SENATOR BOB CASEY. 
  • Only Michael Moyer, an East Coventry Supervisor, had the courage and integrity to speak out on  behalf of public interests at the public hearing to relicense Limerick Nuclear Plant.LIMERICK’S RADIOACTIVE RELEASES INCREASE CANCER RATES, INFANT MORTALITY, AND OTHER DISEASES AND DISABILITIES. 

    HEALTH THREATS WILL CONTINUE AND INCREASE AS LONG AS LIMERICK OPERATES

  • Since 1985 Limerick released unknown amounts of radiation into our air, water, soil, food, milk, fish and bodies.  
  • Evidence of harm is clear.  Skyrocketing cancers have been documented since Limerick started operating, especially in children.  Infant and neonatal mortality rates became far higher than the state average, and even higher than Philadelphia and Reading.
  • The best way to reduce cancer rates and other health problems is to close Limerick to reduce radioactive releases into our air and water.
  • NOT ONE STATE OR FEDERAL OFFICIAL ATTENDED THE PUBLIC HEARING TO ASK NRC NOT TO RELICENSE LIMERICK, MUCH LESS TO CLOSE IT NOW TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY, AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS.  SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUES ARE BEING IGNORED BY ELECTED OFFICIALS
  • Earthquake Faults – Under Limerick site.  4 others within 17 Miles
  • Reactors May Not Be Able To Shut Down To Prevent Meltdowns
  • Limerick Follows Lax Fire Safety Regulations
  • Substandard Cement in Reactors and Fuel Pools
  • Fuel Pools Corroding and Thinning At Rates 10 Times Faster Than Anticipated
  • Fuel Rods Taken From Pools Years Before Sufficient Cooling Tim

    CALL  OR  E-MAIL

    ELECTED OFFICIALS TODAY

    URGE THEM TO SPEAK OUT

    TO CLOSE LIMERICK NUCLEAR PLANT

    TO PROTECT

    YOUR HEALTH, SAFETY, AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS

     

    Contact as many elected officials as possible! 

    The list below does not include all elected officials who represent residents impacted by Limerick Nuclear Plant operations, but it is important for you to contact any elected official with constituents within 50 miles of Limerick Nuclear Plant.

    Governor Tom Corbett  (R)

    225 Main Capitol Building
    Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120

    Phone: (717) 787-2500     Fax: (717) 772-8284

    governor@state.pa.us

    High Street, Suite 100
    U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R)
    8 Penn Center
    1628 John F. Kennedy Blvd. Suite 1702
    Philadelphia, PA 19103

    Phone: (215) 241-1090    Fax: (215) 241-1095

    mitch_vidovich@toomey.senate.gov   

     

    U.S. Senator Bob Casey  (D)

    2000 Market Street, Suite 1870
    Philadelphia, PA 19103

    Phone: (215) 405-9660  Fax: (215) 405-9669

    kurt_imhof@casey.senate.gov    

  • U. S. Congressman James Gerlach  (R)580 Main Street, Suite 4

    Trappe, PA 19246

    Phone   (610) 409-2780     Fax (610) 409-7988

    scott.savett@mail.house.gov

    U.S. Congressman Charles W. Dent  (R) PA-15

    701 W. Broad Street, Suite 200

    Bethlehem, PA   18018

    Phone (610) 861-9734            Fax (610) 861-9308   

    vincent.odomski@mail.house.gov

     

    U.S. Congressman Pat Meehan   (R)

    940 Sproul Road
    Springfield, PA 19064

    Phone: (610) 690-7323     Fax: (610) 690-7329

    Andrew.Colket@mail.house.gov 

    U. S. Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz  (D) PA-13

    Montgomery County Office
    706 West Avenue
    Jenkintown, PA 19046

    Phone–215/517-6572        Fax–215/517-6575

    Michelle.Espinal@mail.house.gov

     

    PA Senator John Rafferty  (R)Montgomery County

    Montgomery County Office
    3818 Germantown Pike, Suite B
    Collegeville, PA 19426

    Ph: 610-831-8830       FAX: 610-831-8837
    jrafferty@pasen.gov

    jmunera@pasen.gov 

    PA Senator Andrew E. Dinniman  (D)– Chester County

    One North Church Street
    West Chester, PA 19380

    (610) 692-2112           Fax  (610) 436-1721

    andydinniman@pasenate.com

    MINDARS@pasenate.com

     

    PA Senator Judith Schwank(D)   Berks County

    1940 North 13th Street
    Suite 232
    Reading, PA 19604

    (610) 929-2151   FAX: (610) 929-2576

    Jschwank@pasenate.com 

    PA Senator David G. Argall  (R)   Schuylkill County

    One West Centre Street
    Mahanoy City, PA 17948

    (570) 773-0891

    Dargall@pasen.gov

     

    PA Representative Tim Hennessey  (R)

    Old Elverson Train Station
    P.O. Box 255
    Elverson, PA 19520

    Phone: 610-286-9194               Fax: 610-286-1922
    thenness@pahousegop.com

    PA Representative Mike Vereb  (R)

    3950 Germantown Pike. Suite 101
    Collegeville, PA 19426

    Phone: (610) 409-2615      Fax: (610) 409-2619

    mvereb@pahousegop.com

     

    PA Representative Mark Painter (D)

    600 Heritage Drive, Suite 102

    Sanatoga, PA  19464

    Phone (610) 326-9563   Fax (610) 718-5787

    mpainter@pahouse.net  

  • PA Representative Becky Corbin (R) 315 Gordon Drive
    Exton, PA, 19341

    Phone: (610) 524-5595           Fax: (610) 524-5667

    bcorbin@pahousegop.com