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Monticello Draft EIS Ignores Climate Change, Federal Law

Xcel Energy’s Monticello Nuclear Reactor on the Mississippi River in Monticello, Minn.
By Nukewatch Staff

Reactor operations expert Paul Gunter at Beyond Nuclear, reports in written comments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) regarding Xcel Energy’s license renewal application for its Monticello, Minn. reactor should be withdrawn because it ignores the likely impact of climate change on nuclear accident risks, particularly the chances of Mississippi River flooding. Ignoring climate issues in the DEIS, Gunter says, violates requirements of the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

NEPA mandates that federal agencies take a “hard look” at environmental impacts for all major federal actions, but the NRC’s DEIS disregards climate risks saying they “are outside the scope of the NRC staff’s … environmental review.”

However, binding NRC regulations now require that, “If new information about changing environmental conditions (such as rising sea levels or potential flooding…) becomes available, the NRC will evaluate the new information.”

Such new information was presented on April 2, 2024, by the Government Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, in its report, “Nuclear Power Plants: NRC Should Take Action to Fully Consider the Potential Impacts of Climate Change.” The report singles out Monticello in an appendix, finding that as the unit is located in the flood plain of the Mississippi River, the reactor’s “Exposure for Selected Natural Hazards” includes “Flood Hazard” which it rates as “High.”

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Environmental Group Issues Demands on Monticello License Extension Process

Trumpeter Swans on the Mississippi River in Monticello, Minn.
By Nukewatch Staff

In June, the Rainbow Warrior Collective filed a 16-page complaint to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Minnesota state regulatory agencies, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Collective calls for the withdrawal of the NRC’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for Xcel Energy’s Monticello reactor license extension, and for an investigation into the 829,000 gallon leak of cooling water. Authored by Kelsey Beaumaster, Vanessa Friedhoff, and John Miller, the comprehensive review of the NRC’s DEIS concludes with these specific demands:

[1] Given the extensive scope of information that needs to be considered and the substantial public interest, we urge the NRC to re-establish and extend the public comment period for the DEIS.

[2] Mandate the creation and enforcement of a legally binding agreement between Xcel and all relevant regulatory bodies to address past, present, and future contamination of drinking water, including a thorough assessment and remediation plan, transparent public reporting, funding for significant research, and independent oversight, with all costs borne by the polluter or the entity applying for a license extension.

[3] Investigate the allegations regarding the evaporation of tritiated water and disclose all relevant dose calculations and health risk assessments. Require funding of independent research to prove such operations are “as safe” as alleged by Xcel Energy.

[4] Ensure accountability for the manipulation of scientific data, silencing of public concerns, and the cover-up of environmental incidents, all of which constitute a deliberate deception of the public.

[5] Consider appointing a Special Prosecutor to handle the investigation into the tritium leak and nuclear moratorium matters, involving the public utilities commission. This ensures transparency and impartiality, aligning with legal protocols in Minnesota.

— For the full report contact nukewatch1@lakeland.ws.

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NRC Froze Data Gathering Same Day Tritium Tests Near Mississippi River Topped Drinking Water Limits

By Nukewatch Staff

To prepare its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) regarding Xcel Energy’s license extension application for its Monticello reactor, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had to establish a formal information-gathering period. The data collection time-frame officially ended on August 18, 2023.

According to Xcel Energy and NRC documents reviewed by Nukewatch, the NRC seems to have coincidentally picked for its end date the very day that radioactive tritium contamination in a groundwater test well near the Mississippi River exceeded the federal EPA safe drinking water limit.

In Xcel’s December 18, 2023 response to an NRC information request on its relicense application, Xcel submitted a table documenting the results of monitoring well tests between November 21, 2022 and August 18, 2023. Xcel’s table notes that the level of tritium in monitoring well (MW)-37A between July 27, 2023 and August 18, 2023 grew five-fold until, on August 18, it exceeded the EPA safe drinking water limit of 20,000 pico-curies-per-liter (pCi/L).

The NRC is currently considering Xcel’s application for a second 20-year license extension which, if granted, would allow the Monticello reactor in Minn., to run until 2050, when it would be 80 years old.

The classic Scream, by Edvard Munch, visits the Monticello nuclear reactor.

The NRC’s data collection cut-off date omits the critical time-frame immediately after August 18, when tritium levels near the Mississippi River were still increasing.

Similarly, Xcel’s “2023 Annual Radioactive Effluent Release Report” fails to provide precise data on monitoring well test results following August 18, 2023, noting only in general terms that tests done after that date found no unsafe levels of contamination. “The NRC should demand that Xcel provide well test results from August 18, 2023, through December 31, 2023, and should then enter these into the Federal Register for public consideration,” said Nukewatch’s Lindsay Potter, who discovered the coincidence. “The DEIS and license renewal process is incomplete without this information and should not move forward without it,” she said.

The reactor caused a leak to onsite groundwater of some 829,000 gallons of tritium-contaminated cooling water beginning in November 2022. In the same reply to the NRC December 18, 2023, Xcel reported that it had doubled its estimated volume of tritium-contaminated cooling water that had leaked to 829,000 gallons, not 400,000 gallons as it first reported.

The NRC acknowledges in its DEIS: “From available sampling data … tritium activity in wells MW-29A and MW-37A, which are near the river, were above the 20,000 pCi/L drinking water standard and trending in an upward direction as of August 2023.”

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen — impossible to remove from water — which crosses the placenta and can cause cancer if ingested or inhaled.

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5th Circuit Vacates Holtec Rad Dump License

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, on March 27, 2024, issued a ruling vacating the license for the construction and operation of Holtec International’s consolidated interim storage site in New Mexico. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had approved the license in May 2023 to store up to 173,600 metric tonnes of irradiated reactor fuel and other highly radioactive waste. An August 2023 challenge to a similar Interim Storage Partners (ISP) dump in Texas also prevailed. The two dumps are only 40 miles apart, on either side of the New Mexico/Texas state line.

A six-group grassroots environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, Don’t Waste Michigan, and Sierra Club, brought their argument against ISP before a 3-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit and were ruled against in January 2023. The same coalition tried once more on March 5 and is awaiting a ruling. Petitioners contend that the Holtec license violates the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and other federal laws. Opening the Holtec facility would trigger unprecedented numbers of shipments of highly radioactive waste reactor fuel across the country. The court’s ruling in the case could prevent the shipments and set a precedent for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste.

— Excerpted from Beyond Nuclear, March 27, 2024

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New Nuke Infrastructure on the Rise

By Lindsay Potter

The Navy is currently constructing a new nuclear weapons storage facility at its Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Called a Weapons Generation Facility (WGF), the $243.1 million, 28-acre project includes a 300,000 square foot WGF. By 2030, the WGF will replace current air-launched cruise missiles with the nuclear Long-Range Standoff cruise missile to be delivered by B-52H Stratofortress heavy bombers housed at the base.

At Barksdale AFB in 2013, a poster features a mushroom cloud and slogan, “We put the FIRE in FIREPOWER.” Image: U.S. Air Force

In other nuclear spending news, the Minot Air Force Base will be given $850 million in upgrades to nuclear weapons and related infrastructure. Included in the Pentagon’s 12-year plan to renovate the nuclear triad are: an order for 100 Northrop Grumman B-21 Raiders to the tune of $700 million per plane; Columbia-class submarines at $9 billion per vessel; and plans to replace the Minuteman III ICBMs with the new Sentinel, a project already 37% over budget. As a part of this upgrade, Minot will receive new launching vehicles and 939 miles of new utility corridors. Construction was expected to begin in 2027 but is now delayed.

To cap it all off, in March, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee submitted a letter requesting the Army brief lawmakers on plans to build “advanced nuclear technologies” — a term often used to refer to Small Modular Nuclear Reactors — on military bases.

— Bismarck Tribune, Apr. 28; Federal News Network, March 25; Federation of American Scientists, Feb. 20, 2024

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