Palisades nuclear plant watchdogs warn about earthquake risks

Published 1:18 pm Monday, April 21, 2008

By Staff
Friday's early morning 5.2 magnitude earthquake, originating in southeast Illinois but felt in southwest Michigan, revived concerns of atomic watchdog groups that a powerful enough earthquake jolting the Palisades atomic reactor site could spell radioactive catastrophe for Lake Michigan and communities downwind and downstream.
Due to the earthquake, Entergy Nuclear's Palisades atomic reactor reportedly declared an unusual event to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at 6:03 a.m. Two years ago, Don't Waste Michigan and Nuclear Information and Resource Service filed an emergency enforcement petition against the NRC, alleging that the high-level radioactive waste storage facilities at Palisades, on the Lake Michigan shore near South Haven, violate governmental earthquake safety regulations. After NRC rejected the petition, citizen groups appealed to the federal Circuit Court for the District of Columbia. Late last year, that court ruled against the citizens' appeal. Palisades now has nearly three dozen concrete and steel silos holding deadly irradiated nuclear fuel rods. The silos, called dry casks, rest upon two concrete pads. The concrete slabs are located upon loose sand amidst the dunes of the Lake Michigan shoreline. Some containers of radioactive waste are just 150 yards from the water.
The earthquake is yet another reminder that Palisades' mounting radioactive wastes put precious Lake Michigan and the drinking water supply at risk.