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Michael Butkiewicz

14560 Lakeside Circle, Apt. 132

Sterling Heights, MI 48313

Hi there!


I’m hoping to inspire current and future business owners to make their businesses more sustainable.


My thinking, if you’re interested, is that I can put together a guest article for your website. The article will discuss the most feasible and profitable opportunities available to business owners looking to make a positive environmental impact. Essentially, it will teach readers how to find (and utilize) sustainability-boosting practices for their businesses.


What do you think? Any interest in sharing this content with your readers?


All the best,

Brenda Kirby

https://greenstillmatters.com/


Reply with “New topics, please,” if you’re open to receiving an article but didn’t like the above suggestion. And just let me know if you don’t wish to hear from me again.

Great climate voter information. QUESTION: Does the blue bar before the name identify the candidate as a Democrat?

https://www.miclimateaction.org/get_out_the_vote

This site has the wrong date for the 2024 election. It’s Nov. 5 not Nov. 6.

Good afternoon,


My name is Johnnie Jordan, and Nakia Jones my colleague are working for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Local Engagement and Administration (LEA) group in the CMS Chicago Office. CMS Chicago Regional office covers IL, IN, MI, MN, OH & WI. Most recently, I’ve been identified as the State Lead for Indiana in the CMS Region 5 office. As you may know, we administer the 3Ms: Medicare, Medicaid, {including the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)} and the Health Insurance Marketplace.


My goal is to ensure you have a connection between CMS and me. Our team, LEA (Local Engagement Administration), is responsible for providing outreach, education, and training on the 3Ms and developing relationships with local stakeholders. We value your partnership and would love to speak with you about CMS Priorities or provide information for your organization’s newsletter.


I look forward to meeting with you and developing a solid partnership. My availability is flexible, and I’m open to in-person or virtual meetings.


Let’s get connected!

(773)577-0055


Warm regards,

Johnnie Jordan

Health Insurance Specialist-Outreach

CMS Chicago Local Engagement and Administration

Office of Program Operations and Local Engagement

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

John C. Kluczynski Federal Building

230 South Dearborn Street, Suite 3370F| Chicago, IL 60604

Office: (773)577-0055| Email [email protected]

Ani Sturm,, Patrick Moore and his theories have been debunked. Moore is often incorrectly referred to as a founder of Greenpeace. According to a statement by Greenpeace, “Patrick Moore frequently portrays himself as a founder or co-founder of Greenpeace, and many news outlets have repeated this characterization. Although Mr. Moore played a significant role in Greenpeace Canada for several years, he did not found Greenpeace.”


According to Greenpeace, “what Moore really saw was an opportunity for financial gain. Since then he has gone from defender of the planet to a paid representative of corporate polluters.”

We are not in a “climate catastrophe.”. If you don’t believe me, listen to Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder and past president of GREENPEACE. Dr. Moore was the only trained scientist in the Greenpeace group when it first formed. Dr. Moore was one of the first trained ecologists anywhere. The underlying agenda of “climate activism” is socialism/communism. Do your homework; don’t be fooled. The atmospheric levels of C02 are the lowest they have been in a very long time, almost to the point where plant life can no longer survive. For those of you who are so concerned about poor people, eliminating fossil fuels will impact the poorest nations in the world.

Thanks for sending me all this detail about the different organizations working on voting for a better climate atmosphere here in Michigan. Sorry to hear this Central Michigan area doesn’t have a club and I can’t say like the Traverse City area or the upper Peninsula. Hopefully that’ll be coming and I say especially the Gaylord area and which they’re just clearcutting terribly on some of that army land Without planting anything and feels after fields and not what you call select cut at all. If you go to the national Forest, I have seen select cut areas but not in the state force. They’re cutting up the Lewiston area too and that State land. Of course they’re not cutting the whole thing down at once but it’s still not a good idea what’s happening.


So if anybody gets any good ideas about even those little things to paste on a car window, that would be good to send to me and others because we could give them out at different things. For instance, I belong to the Michigan Mushroom hunting club and I see a lot of people interested in the outdoors in the mid Michigan area up to East and Missaukee County And Isabella County and places around our county now as our Chippewa water is really doing a nice job. In fact, I think I will tell the director and he can at least put it online in the website if I send him some samples and like we could get permission from the state club And they’re really are no clubs bios. I guess if you say Lansing is close that’s only an hours drive that’s the closest. We are south now one and getting over towards Saginaw Midland one county and we’re going north one county but we’re going west a couple counties with more units donated land.


Good we take photographs of the local signs in this message. You sent me with your permission so we don’t get into trouble. Or I probably could find some artist that would love to do that kind of work for us here in Central Michigan! I’ll have to really start meeting people like that at the Commission On Aging and I bet they do it, you that really loved to do artwork.


Thanks for all your ideas and I am 100% for this. And I’m also 100% of getting other kind of sprays and chemicals for our huge huge fields of corn, wheat, and soybeans and hay! I’ve been driving around here in several county areas and we have many fields more than 1 mile in size on all sides and no place to drive in between Rose anymore, it’s just all sprayed from Plains above, etc. or even from those big machines that spread water in the field, now the water can be tainted with chemicals. I’m sure.


Many blessings and thank you for doing this wonderful job and keep it up. I am keeping you in my prayer and I’m going to ask the Sisters of the precious blood who are housed in Dayton, Ohio, and who are my community to do that because I know there are huge counties of farms there like Mercer County, etc. etc. and I have worked in some counties where they cut down the last remains of beautiful trees.


Many blessings and thanks, Marie


Sister Marie Kopin CPPS, Dayton, Ohio

But currently living in MountPleasant Michigan

Urgent Action Alert—Help Stop a Zombie Nuclear Nightmare! NRC’s environmental impacts scoping mtg., Thurs. evening, July 11, in-person verbal comments opposing Palisades atomic reactor restart needed in Benton Harbor, MI; if you can’t make it in-person, verbal comments can also be submitted virtually online/telephonically from anywhere!


{Sierra Club Michigan Chapter has also put out an alert, as well as talking points, re: this important July 11th public comment meeting: https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/blog/2024/07/raising-dead-palisades-nuclear-plant-public-meeting-july-11th


Holtec’s attempt to restart the closed Palisades atomic reactor is unprecedented — but the scheme has already led other nuclear reactor operating companies to recently float trial balloons as well, such as at Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania, and Duane Arnold in Iowa, both of which were — supposedly — closed for good a number of years ago. Any closed reactor that has not begun to be decommissioned, or has not been decommissioned very much, may join this zombie reactor nuclear nightmare parade. Let’s nip it in the bud at Palisades!


Holtec has also set the precedent of targeting even decommissioning nuclear power plant sites for “Small Nuclear Reactor” new builds. Palisades and Big Rock Point on the Lake Michigan shore are at the top of its target list, but Holtec is also explicitly targeting Oyster Creek, New Jersey. EnergySolutions has jumped on Holtec’s bandwagon, floating the trial balloon of “re-nuclearizing” (Steve Kent’s term) the closed and decommissioning Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin, also on the Lake Michigan shore, by building one or more “SMRs” there. This nuclear nightmare of an idea could also spread further across the country.


We need your help! Thanks!}


Dear Friends and Colleagues,


On , the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), accompanied by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), will hold a . The location will be. In-person attendees will be given priority to deliver verbal comments. However, virtual/telephonic participation is another option for providing verbal comments for the official record during the four-hour session on July 11th.

Thursday, July 11, 2024, from 6 to 10pm Eastern Timepublic comment session regarding environmental scoping for the Palisades atomic reactor restart scheme Grand Upton Hall at the Mendel Center, 1100 Yore Ave. in Benton Harbor, Michigan


. Also see . And (NRC has a , including a link to its “POTENTIAL RESTART,” with associated documentation.)

See NRC’s June 27, 2024 press releaseNRC’s public meeting announcementhere is NRC’s .Federal Register NoticePalisades website section


But for those who cannot make it in-person, please consider attending and commenting virtually/telephonically. Given the stakes for the Great Lakes environment, as well as health and safety, this unprecedented, extremely high-risk, insanely expensive for the public, and unneeded Palisades zombie reactor restart must be resisted and blocked!

It is important that as many opponents to Palisades’ restart as possible attend in-person to provide verbal comments.


As provided in the NRC public meeting announcement, here is the for phoning in. (There is no Pass Code provided.)

Teleconference Bridge Number <(301) 576-2978> and Conference ID Number <482766168#>


And here is the URL


https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/c5b523d6-e7c4-42a1-994f-41f1dd78afb5@e8d01475-c3b5-436a-a065-5def4c64f52e


as well as and for attending virtually via Webinar. Please note you have to register in advance via the link immediately above. Meeting Number <220 214 730 206>Password


Verbal public comments will very likely be limited by NRC to five minutes or even shorter, especially if there is a very large turn out and sign-up list of members of the public wishing to submit verbal comments.


Please see below for sample talking points you can use to prepare your own, as well as additional information. Thanks!

! Please spread the word to your networks, as by forwarding this email to them

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Kevin Kamps

Radioactive Waste Specialist


Beyond Nuclear


[email protected]

(240) 462-3216

https://beyondnuclear.org/


SAMPLE TALKNG POINTS


Here are talking points you can use to help prepare your own verbal comments — pick and choose from this list to fashion five-minute long, or shorter, public comments for verbal delivery on July 11th (feel free to use verbatim, or change into your own words):


REACTOR RISKS AND IMPACTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

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The Palisades zombie reactor restart is unprecedented, extremely high-risk, , and unneeded. NRC’s Environmental Assessment is nowhere near enough. A full-blown Environmental Impact Statement is called for regarding this major federal action — a very hard look is required. In fact, because the Palisades closed reactor restart precedent is now being applied elsewhere — Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania, Duane Arnold in Iowa, etc. — a Generic or Programmatic EIS is necessary. Along the same lines, a 30-day public comment period is insufficient. NRC should extend the public comment period to 180 days. Holtec’s rush to restart Palisades is no excuse for a short public comment period — in fact, the rush job itself could significantly increase the environmental risks and worsen the impacts.insanely expensive for taxpayers and ratepayers

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The No Action Alternative is preferred. The nearly 60-year old (ground was broken in 1967) Palisades atomic reactor should remain closed for good, as it has been since May 20, 2022. Renewables like wind and solar power, efficiency, and storage are much more preferable alternatives. They can readily replace Palisades’ 800 Megawatts-electric (MWe), and do so much more cost-effectively, cleanly, safety, securely, promptly, and reliably than the zombie reactor restart scheme, and Holtec’s inextricably connected SMR-300 (so-called “Small Modular Reactors” of 300 MWe each) new builds scheme at Palisades, as well as at its sibling closed Lakeside reactor site, Big Rock Point near Charlevoix.

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Concerns, usually framed as safety-related, are also most relevant to negative environmental impacts, including LARGE ones. A reactor core meltdown at the Palisades zombie reactor would have extremely LARGE negative environmental impacts, in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) lingo. Palisades has long had multiple high-risk pathways to meltdown. They include the single worst neutron-embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the country, and perhaps the world, at risk of through-wall fracture. They also include steam generators, and a reactor vessel closure head, or lid, that have needed replacement for two decades. and containment coating/sump strainer upgrades, also needed 20 years ago, have likewise been largely to entirely neglected. According to retired Union of Concerned Scientists nuclear safety director Dave Lochbaum, fire represents 50% of the risk of core meltdown at atomic reactors. And inadequate sump strainers mean that containment coating debris could clog emergency cooling water flow pathways, . All these admissions about safety-significant systems, structures, and components in need of replacement, or significant upgrade, were . Yet Entergy never fixed any of this, during its ownership tenure from 2007 to 2022 — because Now Holtec plans to continue to run Palisades into the ground, with at best inadequate monitoring and minimal repairs. In mid-2022, Holtec had paid some lip service to repairing tubes, or even entirely replacing the stream generators (at a cost of $510 million), in a , obtained from the State of Michigan via a Freedom of Information request submitted by Beyond Nuclear. But recently, Holtec spokesman Nick Culp revealed the company no longer plans to repair or replace the dangerously age-degraded steam generators. Fire protectionas former Entergy senior engineer Alan Blind, who worked for six years at Palisades, has explainedmade by Palisades’ initial owner, Consumers Energy, to the Michigan Public Service Commission, in spring 2006the industry-captured NRC, in full regulatory retreat, did not require it.secret bailout application to DOE

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Palisades has also had the worst Operating Experience of any reactor in the U.S., regarding Control Rod Drive Mechanism seal leakage. The first leaks were in 1972, in the first year of full power operations. They have continued since. In fact, Entergy’s decision to close Palisades for good on May 20, 2022 was 11 days earlier than scheduled, because of the most recent CRDM seal leak. Palisades’ owners, now Holtec, have never determined the root cause, nor taken comprehensive corrective action, to solve this problem, instead relying on mere, short-lasting . Given their location very near the reactor core, replacement of CRDM seals exposes workers to significant doses of hazardous radiation, putting their health at risk. In just one episode a decade ago, on a month-long CRDM seal replacement job. Internationally, nuclear workers are limited to 2 Rem of exposure . CRDM seal leaks involve reactor core primary coolant water, so represent yet another pathway to meltdown.BAND-AID fixesnearly 200 workers — including women of child-bearing age — got on average 2.8 Rem of exposurefor an entire year

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These risks have actually increased since permanent shutdown on May 20, 2022, due to lack of active maintenance by Holtec — which has no experience operating an atomic reactor — on safety-significant systems, structures, and components. This includes: lack of chemically-preservative “wet layup” on the steam generators, accelerating already severe corrosion; no testing of valves and pumps to ensure reliability; and no regular rotation of the turbine-generator shaft, which is thus bending under its own immense weight. The latter could lead to a mechanical explosion, hurling chunks of shrapnel weighing hundreds of pounds each outwards, including into the control room, where operators could be injured or killed, and safety/cooling systems could be rendered inoperable. Such a mechanical explosion of the bent turbine-generator shaft at Fermi Unit 2 in Monroe County, MI on Christmas Day, 1993, led to two million gallons of radioactive wastewater being dumped into Lake Erie’s biologically rich — but shallow, and fragile — Western Basin.

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The extremely LARGE negative environmental impacts of a meltdown at the Palisades zombie reactor would include large-scale airborne fallout and water-borne outflow of hazardous radioactivity into Lake Michigan, as well as wind-driven/precipitation-delivered fallout onto land. Such airborne fallout from Chornobyl in 1986 severely contaminated not just the “breadbasket of Europe” (Ukraine), but also sheep farms in Scotland, Sámi reindeer herding grounds in the Scandinavian Arctic, Lake Constance bordering Bavaria, Germany, and elsewhere — not just hundreds, but even thousands of miles downwind. Radioactive fallout and wastewater discharges into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima Daiichi in Japan did not end in spring 2011 — the tritiated wastewater discharges will now continue for decades, intentionally, despite the risks to humans via Pacific fisheries. These are cautionary tales for Van Buren, as well as Berrien, Allegan, and Kalamazoo counties — a major agricultural breadbasket of Michigan, not to mention tourism/recreation Mecca. The late, great Maynard Kaufman, a Bangor farmer-author, co-founder of Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance, and watchdog on Palisades since before ground was even broken in 1967, warned about these impacts on Palisades-area agriculture for decades on end. And, as an expert witness for the environmental coalition opposed to Palisades’ restart — a decade ago, a Fukushima-scale radioactive disaster at Palisades would be catastrophic for Lake Michigan, and the rest of the Great Lakes downstream and downwind. The Great Lakes comprise 21% of the world’s surface fresh water, 84% of North America’s, and 95% of the U.S.A.’s. The Great Lakes serve as drinking water for more than 40 million people in eight U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and a large number of Indigenous Nations. To put this all at risk with the unneeded Palisades zombie reactor restart is nuclear madness. The hazardous persistence of artificial radioactive pollutants that would escape into the environment due to a reactor core meltdown are nightmarish: Tritium (radioactive Hydrogen, which can go anywhere in the human anatomy, right down to the DNA molecule), 123 to 246 years of hazard; Cesium-137 (a muscle-seeker), around 300 to 600 years of hazard; Strontium-90 (a bone-seeker), around 300 to 600 years of hazard; Carbon-14 (which can also go anywhere in the human body, right down to the DNA molecule), 55,000 to 110,000 years of hazard; Plutonium-239, 240,000 to 480,000 years of hazard; Iodine-129, 157 to 314 million years of hazard; to name but a small number of the more than 200 hazardous artificial radioactive isotopes contained in irradiated nuclear fuel. Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairewinds — warned

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Risks at the zombie reactor, and their impacts on the environment, will be exacerbated by reactor risks at the SMR-300s Holtec also proposes building on the tiny, 432-acre Palisades site. In addition to having no experience operating atomic reactors, Holtec also lacks any experience building atomic reactors. The nearly 60-year old reactor will have worsening age-related degradation, breakdown phase risks, from August 2025 to 2051 (Holtec has announced application for a 2031 to 2051 license extension, amounting to 80 years of operations, twice the initial 40 years.) The so-called “Small Modular Reactors,” of 300 Megawatts-electric each, will have their own break-in phase risks. Chornobyl Unit 4 in Ukraine in 1986, Three Mile Island Unit 2 in Pennsylvania in 1979, and Fermi Unit 1 in Monroe County, Michigan in 1966, are examples of break-in phase reactor disasters. Three reactors operating on the tiny, 432-acre Palisades site would also represent a risk of multiple, domino-effect reactor core meltdowns, as happened at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan in March 2011.

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SMR-300s are not “small.” They are 4.5 times larger than Big Rock Point’s previous reactor — , despite its relatively small, 67-MWe size. Fermi Unit 1, also a relatively small 67-MWe, partially melted down on October 5, 1966 — and "" As Holtec CEO Krishna Singh himself has pointed out, the two SMR-300s at Palisades would nearly double the nuclear mega-wattage on the 432-acre site (800 MWe + 600 MWe). This would represent a very concentrated amount of nuclear risk and radioactive environmental impact on the tiny site.one of the worst radioactive polluters in the entire countrywe almost lost Detroit.

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But it doesn’t take an accident. Palisades’ so-called “routine releases” of hazardous radioactivity since 1971 have been significant. These include , but also . Palisades’ “routine” releases of radioactive and toxic chemical wastewater into Lake Michigan — including seasonal “batch releases” — are harmful to Lake Michigan, its fisheries and ecology. Lake Michigan serves as the drinking water supply for a very large number of shoreline communities, from South Haven, to Chicago, and beyond. Some 16 million people drink Lake Michigan water, not only in Michigan, but also Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Such discharges of artificial radioactive substances from Palisades into Lake Michigan do not dilute — they increase the concentration of such artificial radioactive hazards in the Lake, and in fact the radioactivity bio-accumulates, bio-concentrates, and bio-magnifies up the ecosystem and food chain, as via fisheries, harming animals at the top of the ecosystem/food chain, from predators to people. , any exposure to ionizing radiation, no matter how small, still carries a health risk, such as cancer causation; and such risks accumulate over a lifetime. Truth be told, such risks are not limited to cancer, but also include radiogenic birth defects, genetic damage, and a very long list of other health risks, maladies, and morbidities. Given that Lake Michigan water is also used for agricultural irrigation, hazardous radioactive contamination of the food supply can also occur via this exposure pathway.planned and permitted radiation releasesunplanned/unpermitted leaks and spillsAs the U.S. National Academies of Science have repeatedly confirmed for decades, citing the long-established “Linear, No Threshold” theory which forms the very foundation of the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radioactivity reports

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The environmental impacts at the nearly 60-year old zombie reactor cannot legally be segmented from the environmental impacts at the SMR-300 new builds. These are not only radiological but also physical. For example, the construction of two 300-MWe reactors on the tiny, 432-acre Palisades site would wreak further havoc with the fragile, endangered forested dunes ecosystem there. It would also threaten Indigenous cultural properties very likely located there, including sacred ancestral burial sites.

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The Palisades zombie reactor restart will involve cumulative effects, on top of the 1971-2022 operational impacts on the environment thus far. This will include not only “routine releases” of hazardous radioactivity and toxic chemicals (planned/permitted, as well as unplanned/unpermitted leaks, spills, etc.) from 2025 to 2051 at the restarted zombie reactor (likely worse than in the past, given the nuclear power plant’s severe age-related degradation), but also “routine releases” from the SMR-300 new builds. The environmental impacts are not only cumulative, but also synergistic. As Rachel Carson warned in her iconic book in 1962, credited with helping launch the environmental protection movement, hazardous ionizing radioactivity and toxic chemicals have synergistic negative impacts on the environment — the harm from the synergistic hazardous exposures is greater than the sum of their parts.Silent Spring

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Palisades’ location, in Covert Township, Michigan, raises serious Environmental Justice concerns. The Palisades Park Country Club resort community, over 125-years old, is located immediately south of the nuclear power plant, sharing property lines. There are reportedly elevated rates of cancer and thyroid pathology in that 200-cottage community. Covert Township itself has a large African American population, and also a high rate of low income households. Covert Twp. has a rich African American cultural history. The area is also Anishinaabe aki, specifically Pokagon Potawatomi traditional land. The Palisades zombie reactor restart, as well as the SMR new builds, put this all at risk, including from extremely LARGE environmental impacts.

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Making all the risks and impacts LARGER and worse is the fact that, in addition to its inexperience (the company has never operated, nor constructed, an atomic reactor), it is also incompetent, corrupt, and even criminal. Newly revealed scandals swirl around Holtec on a frequent and continuing basis. As but the latest example, a long-serving, top Holtec advisory board member, George E. Norcross III, For more background info., see: was recently indicted by the State of New Jersey Attorney General on 13 racketeering felony charges.(2 pages, published March 27, 2024). Also see an earlier chronicling the company’s countless misdeeds.“” Holtec: Criminality, Corruption, Incompetence, and Inexperienceannotated bibliography, “Radioactive Skeletons in Holtec’s Closet,”


RADIOACTIVE WASTE RISKS AND IMPACTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

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The actual past and potential present and future environmental impacts resulting from the ongoing (1971 to the present, and counting) radioactive waste crisis at Palisades are also LARGE. More than 800 metric tons of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel have accumulated on-site at Palisades. Around two-thirds is still stored in the wet indoor storage pool; one-third is stored in a growing number of outdoor dry casks, very near the Lake Michigan shore. As with operating reactor core meltdowns, catastrophic amounts of hazardous radioactivity can also be released into the environment from radioactive waste disasters, such as a fire in the pool-stored waste, or a dry cask breach. As a matter of fact, under previous owner Consumers Energy, due to the near-drop of a 107-ton load into the pool: the floor could have been pierced, draining cooling water, leading to overheating and ignition of the zirconium metal cladding of the stored highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel. Since the pool is not located within a radiological containment structure, radioactivity releases from the hundreds of metric tons of densely packed fuel would be large-scale, and directly into the environment. that a radioactive waste pool fire could contaminate a large region of the United States downwind, leading to millions of nuclear evacuees, and trillions (with a T) of dollars in property damage. A near-miss waste pool fire at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 in March and April 2011, very narrowly , led the then-serving Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, to order an emergency contingency plan to evacuate 35 to 50 million people from northeastern Japan and metro Tokyo. He said it would have been the end of the Japanese state. The Palisades pool is more densely packed with irradiated nuclear fuel than was the pool at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4.Palisades narrowly averted catastrophe in October 2005Princeton University researchers reported in 2016 averted through sheer luck

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Dry cask storage at Palisades has been controversial and risky from the start in 1993. The fourth cask to be loaded, in summer 1994, was quickly announced by then-owner Consumers Energy to be defective. Consumers Energy had assured the public that any problems with casks would be easily resolved by simply returning the highly radioactive waste to the indoor wet storage pool. NRC backed this up, including under oath in a federal court room in Grand Rapids, MI, when State “Eternal General” (Attorney General) Frank Kelley legally challenged the loading of the casks in the first place. (.) Although Consumers Energy initially assured the public it would live up to its previous promise, and promptly at that, 30 years have now passed, and the defective cask still sits fully loaded, 150 yards or less from the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Complications previously identified and warned about by environmental watch-dogs proved accurate. Grinding through welds on the lid, and removing pressure fit shims, would contribute to missing the 40-hour deadline for transferring the fuel from the defective dry cask back into the pool — convection air current cooling would be disrupted - violating Technical Specifications related to fuel and cask-overheating. Even then, lowering the thermally hot (up to 750-degree Fahrenheit) containerized fuel into the 100-degree F pool water would cause a thermal shock to fuel and container, exacerbating degradation. It would also cause a radioactive steam flash, most hazardous to nearby workers and local residents.By 1997, Dr. Mary Sinclair of Don’t Waste Michigan pointed out that perjury had likely been committed

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In February 1994, Dr. Ross Landsman, dry cask storage inspector at NRC Region 3 in Chicago, that the original storage pad at Palisades for dry casks, just 150 yards or less from the water of Lake Michigan, violated NRC earthquake safety regulations. This was due to the pad “floating” on 55-feet of loose sand underneath, anchored to nothing. He warned that even a mild earthquake could part the beach, allowing the Lake to fill the void. One or more dry casks could be buried under sand, leading to overheating. Or, they could tumble into the Lake, submerging. Breaches of casks could then lead to radioactive releases into the Lake. Dr. Landsman, then retired from NRC and serving as an expert witness for the environmental coalition opposing Palisades, warned in 2006-2007 that the second pad at Palisades, located somewhat further inland from the Lake, . In Holtec’s own December 2020 Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report, the company seemed to lend credence to Dr. Landsman’s warning about the nearer-Lake, older pad — Holtec proposed transferring all the dry casks to the newer pad, further inland. But given Dr. Landsman’s 2006-2007 warning about the newer pad, this could simply be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.warned the agencyalso violated NRC earthquake safety regulations

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A breached, submerged cask could also lead to an inadvertent nuclear criticality in the highly radioactive waste. If the waste formed a critical mass during the disaster, infiltrating Lake water could serve as a neutron moderator, sparking a chain reaction. This would worsen radioactive releases into the Lake, and would make emergency response operations a potential suicide mission, given the fatal radiation emissions due to breach of radiation shielding, as well as containment. . The more waste Palisades generates, the more pressure Holtec will exert, and the more shipments there would be, involving barging highly radioactive wastes on Lake Michigan, bound for Another pathway to such a catastrophe is Holtec’s, and DOE’s, proposed barge shipments of highly radioactive waste, from Palisades to the Port of Muskegonthe company’s proposed dumpsite in New Mexico.

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The closure-for-good of Palisades by Entergy on May 20, 2022 meant that no more radioactive waste would be generated there. But the proposed restart would mean that the highly radioactive waste inventory stored on-site at Palisades would grow by around 15 metric tons per year, from 2025 to 2051. Thus, the associated LARGE impacts on the environment would also grow. Holtec’s proposed SMR-300 new builds at Palisades (and also at Big Rock Point), due to loss of economy of scale, would each generate more highly radioactive waste, per unit of electricity generated, than the zombie reactor. Drs. Allison Macfarlane, and Rodnew Ewing, President Obama’s NRC chair and U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board chair, respectively, reported recently that, depending on their specific design, SMRs will generate 2 to 30 times the radioactive waste, as compared to current reactors, per unit of electricity generated. But similar things can be said regarding thermal wastewater discharges, cost per unit of electricity generated, etc. Thus, Holtec’s SMR new build schemes would exacerbate its zombie reactor restart scheme.


CLIMATE DESTABILIZATION


Exacerbating the LARGE and worsening nuclear risks for and radioactive impacts to the environment described above is the issue of . In 2020, Lake Michigan had historic high water levels. This meant that the Lakeside dry cask storage was significantly closer than the often cited 150 yards to the waters of Lake Michigan. Whether it is tornadoes, hurricanes (like the deadly White Hurricane (blizzard) of 1913 on Lake Huron, the natural disaster causing the largest loss of life on the Great Lakes and its shores in history), floods, Lakeside erosion of fragile sand dunes and beaches, wildfires, etc., the list of extreme weather threats to the reactor(s) and radioactive wastes at Palisades is already long, and growing with worsening climate destabilization. Institutions such as (GAO, Congress’s investigative arm), and , have excoriated NRC for neglecting climate risks, and have questioned the U.S. nuclear power industry’s ability to operate reactors (and on-site radioactive waste storage, for that matter) safely, during ever more extreme weather conditions. NRC cannot be allowed to ignore such climate risks in the context of the Palisades zombie reactor restart and SMR new build schemes, nor their inevitable potential for extremely LARGE negative impacts on the environment.extreme weather and natural disasters due to climate chaosthe Government Accountability Office a Yale University scholar


CURRENT DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENTS: JULY 29, 2024


Please note that the July 11th hybrid public meeting (priority for in-person comments in Benton Harbor, but also open to comments virtually via Webinar/tele-conference) is meant for verbally-delivered public comments. However, the public comment period is currently open till its July 29 deadline (although we are requesting a deadline extension, per above). Here are the ways comments can be submitted in writing by the deadline:


Comments can also be submitted via email to <>, or via the website <> (include [email protected]://www.regulations.gov/document/NRC-2024-0076-0001Docket ID NRC-2024-0076 in website comments). Comments can also be submitted by traditional mail to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN-7-A60M, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555- 0001.


The same person or organization can submit any number of written public comments, of any length. It is not limited.Except by the deadline, which we are trying to get extended, per above.

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For more ideas for preparing verbal comments, check out our environmental coalition’s extensive and comprehensive public comments to NRC in opposition to Palisades’ 2011-2031 (60 years of operations) license extension:


May 18, 2006: . This coalition represents well over 200,000 residents of Michigan alone, in opposition to the dangerous extension of operations and waste generation at Palisades from 2011 to 2031. Group comments, submitted by a coalition of organizations including NIRS and numerous grassroots groups in Michigan and other U.S. states and Canadian provinces around the Great Lakes Basin, regarding NRC’s draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Palisades 20 year license extension


May 18, 2006: . Executive summary of coalition comments to NRC regarding its draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Palisades 20 year license extension


Although from 18 long years ago, most of our points have never been adequately addressed, if addressed at all! In fact, our concerns have grown deeper. Thus, they are still very relevant.

---

For additional background information on Palisades, the zombie reactor restart scheme, and the SMR new build schemes, see the following posts:


https://beyondnuclear.org/background-info-on-holtecs-zombie-reactor-restart-and-small-modular-reactor-new-build-schemes-on-the-lake-michigan-shore/


https://beyondnuclear.org/newest-nuke-nightmares-at-palisades-2022-present/


https://podcast.rogerrapoport.com/episodes


On March 27, 2024,

Beyond Nuclear published three new backgrounders: “” (13 pages); “” (3 pages); “” (2 pages). A People’s History of the Palisades Atomic ReactorNuclear Nightmares: Palisades’ ‘Zombie’ Reactor Restart and SMR New Build SchemesHoltec: Criminality, Corruption, Incompetence, and Inexperience


Beyond Nuclear has also published: ; and a major exposé based on Freedom of Information Act revelations regarding a breakdown of the $15.7 billion, and counting, in bailouts at Palisades and Big Rock PointHoltec’s ‘nuclear white elephant’ secret plans to build SMRs at all its decommissioning sites, as well as to re-nuclearize Palisades, using many billions of dollars of federal and state taxpayer, as well as ratepayer, bailouts.


https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/blog/2024/05/reopening-palisades-nuclear-power-plant-creates-many-risks


https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/blog/2024/02/should-palisades-nuclear-plant-be-brought-back-life


http://archives.nirs.us/reactorwatch/licensing/palisades.htm


—

Kevin Kamps

Radioactive Waste Specialist

Beyond Nuclear

7304 Carroll Avenue, #182

Takoma Park, Maryland 20912


Cell: (240) 462-3216


[email protected]

www.beyondnuclear.org


Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.

Hi Denise and Kate!

Hi!!! Hope this finds you well. I am reaching out to see if Michigan Climate Action Network has any interest in having a Nonprofit booth/table at the 2024 Earthwork Harvest Gathering? This year’s event is held at the festival farm in Lake City, Michigan on September 20-22.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Wendy Johnson

Hi – I’m trying to contact Amanda Robert but I can’t get the email listed on the site to work. Can you send me her email? Or have her reach out to me? Thanks!

NEWSPAPER REPORTER REQUEST — This is Peter Kobs, a reporter for the Traverse City Record-Eagle. At a recent meeting here in April, your leaders said that MiCAN was planning to file A NEW LAWSUIT against Enbridge regarding the tunnel project in early or mid-May of this year. I haven’t seen any news about that new lawsuit and I’m wondering: A) Did you file it? B) Is there some delay? C) What did I miss?


I’d appreciate a rapid response to the above questions. Many thanks! — Peter Kobs

HI, I am a writer for Engineering News Record about Enbridge retaining a joint venture partnership between Barnard Construction Company, Inc. (Barnard) and Civil and Building North America, Inc. (CBNA), to lead construction of the Great Lakes Tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac. I’d like to speak to you about this project? Do you oppose it and why? I AM WORKING ON THIS STORY FOR TODAY SO PLEASE REPLY ASAP.

We can’t provide affordable housing and we are wasting valuable resources on attempting to affect climate worldwide. China is building 2coal fired power plants per week. You have lost the ability to understand basic science. It is not settled science, the loudest voice does not insure validity.

Hi! Denise Keele came to talk with us Feb. 18 at People’s Church in Kalamazoo. She showed a stat about folks who “believe” climate change is human caused, and I was encouraged to see how few folks disagreed with the statement. Is there a way to share the slide with me, or the percentages/where the data is located? Thanks, in advance, if it is possible. I’m excited to get involved and learn more.

Dear friends at MI Climate Action Network, we, volunteers of Creative Society, would like to present a climate presentation for everyone interested to learn more about progression of events that are happening and share our independent research of 27 years and public data and what it all means for us here in Michigan, USA and the world. The presentation can be conducted on site or we can do it via zoom. Please email us at [email protected] to chat more about organization of it.

there’s a problem with the environmental justice sign on page – it wouldn’t take my country info (United States), and wouldn’t allow me to sign.

Hello,


I’m the chair of Washtenaw Climate Reality, the local chapter of the Climate Reality Project. We are holding a virtual Climate Action Party on Monday, October 2 at 7 PM. We will be sending messages to Michigan state legislators and to media oiutlets encouraging them to support the bills that are part of the Michigan Clean Energy Future package. We would love to have the MiCAN as a sponsoring party to the event. We would just need your OK and a copy of your logo and we would add it to the invitation. More importantly, though, we would like for the event to be publicized among MiCAN’s followers in whatever way you typically publicize these kinds of things. I will link you to the event below:


https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-action-party-rise-up-michigan-tickets-725482817637?aff=oddtdtcreator


I hope this event is one you’d be happy to co-sponsor, and I hope we’ll see a lot of your followers at the party on Monday!


Thank you,

David Gurk

Chair, Washtenaw Climate Reality

Please add the City of Ferndale to your list of communities leading on Climate

https://ferndalemi.gov/resources/community-plans

https://ferndalemi.gov/resources/sustainability-initiatives

I wanted to inform your network audiences that Crosshatch (www.crosshatch.org) is wrapping up a “Carbon Farming and Forestry Cohort” experience that involved 9 Northern Michigan Landowners with a presentation to the community in Traverse City in just over a week. Could you please share within your MiCAN and other Climate and conservation networks in the region to invite folks to attend for some community Q&A and discussion?


Additionally, we are hosting a farm tour that will spotlight some small farm experimentation in cover crop use next Friday Sept 22nd 6-8pm in Northern Charlevoix County, please share and encourage folks to register. https://www.crosshatch.org/events/2023/buckwheat-bees-bacon-and-barley


Thanks,

Daniel


Farmer Perspectives on Carbon Smart Agriculture – Hosted by Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology

https://www.crosshatch.org/events/2023/9/27/farmer-perspectives-on-carbon-smart-agriculture

Wednesday, September 27, 2023 5:00 PM 6:00 PM

The Alluvion 414 East Eighth Street Traverse City, MI, 49686 United States


Register for Free – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/farmer-perspectives-on-carbon-smart-agriculture-tickets-719396453157?aff=oddtdtcreator


Local farmers are supporting one another to navigate the complexity, isolation, and analysis paralysis regarding what to do in the face of climate change-related weather and economic shocks. We invite you to join us to continue learning and discussing community and individual climate change adaptation strategies related to agricultural activities.


Following a brief presentation, we will discuss promising practices and support resources for climate-smart farming and land management from backyard to business scale.


Additionally, Please note and share:


Crosshatch is accepting enrollment for the 2023 – 2024 Carbon Farming and Forestry Cohort (to begin in Fall 2023) https://www.crosshatch.org/carbon-farming. Please register by October 12th if you are seeking an opportunity to connect with other farmers, foresters, and land stewards for support in making decisions and taking action in the context of climate change-related complexity, isolation, and analysis paralysis. REGISTER HERE – https://forms.gle/1xssi3bEcEZ4JBrG6


To qualify, you must manage land for agricultural purposes (including forestry and conservation) in one of the following counties: Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Manistee, Misaukee, Otsego and Wexford.

I appreciate all you are doing, but my question is — where are you with regard to the Marshall megasite and the horrible damage being done there to the land, air, water, and future of the area? Hundreds of trees torn from the land, top soil stripped, asphalt and concrete being laid, wastewater ponds being dug and the precious, fragile Kalamazoo River beside it all.

I registered for the June 2 conference. I requested a link for virtual attendance but did not receive it. Please send it.

Hello, I am looking for ride sharing info. Can you direct me to a site or list? Thank you.

Do you need help with graphic design – brochures, banners, flyers, advertisements, social media posts, logos etc?


We charge a low fixed monthly fee. Let me know if you’re interested and would like to see our portfolio.

I would love to see more emphasis on trains. Such an important way to improve transportation for all and make it far less energy-intensive. Here is a good resource: https://www.hsrail.org/michigan/

I tried to register myself and my partner for the Climate Action Summit. It has not taken me to a confirmation page. Please let me know if this registration went through, or if I should clear the form and start over. Thanks for your assistance. Doreen Skardarasy

I was trying to reach your organization to extend an invitation to an event coming to SVSU Saginaw, April 11. Diversity Brings Strength for Climate Action will be the program featuring Bill McKibben and Angela Ardis. Please let me know what email I should use.

Greetings from the organizers of the 2nd Annual Great Lakes Environmental Festival which will be held in Manistee, MI on Friday April 21 and Saturday April 22, 2023.


We want to invite your organization to participate in the initial “Environmental Exposition” on Saturday April 22nd. You will be able to set up your information table/booth at 9AM and the Expo will open to the public at 10AM and run to 3PM that day. This will be a great opportunity for your organization to promote the great work you are doing in the Great Lakes Region to improve the overall quality of the environment.


There will be no charge to participate in this Expo. We ask that you provide your own tables and limit your display area to no more than an 8’x10’ footprint. This venue will not have electricity available for all displays. If you would like to have a display location with electricity, we will assign those on a first come/first-served basis.


We would also invite your organization to provide a subject matter expert speaker who will be featured for a 30–45-minute presentation on either Friday April 21st or Saturday April 22nd at the West Shore Community College campus on River Street in downtown Manistee. We see this as another great opportunity for your organization to promote your work in this region.


I am sure that you would like to learn more about the Great Lakes Environmental Festival before you make any commitments. Please use these links to explore our efforts:


• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GR8FESTIVAL/

• 2022 Festival News Video: https://www.9and10news.com/2022/04/22/great-lakes-environmental-festival-hosts-first-earth-day-event-in-manistee/


Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or need additional information.


Please respond directly to me via email to confirm your intent to be a part of the 2023 Great Lakes Environmental Festival.