Legalectric

Today and tomorrow are the Public Utilities Commission‘s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Scoping meetings for Xcel Energy’s latest application for additional nuclear waste storage casks. “Scoping” means determining what all should be covered by the EIS.

What do you think should be included in the EIS? What documents, studies, observations do you have, know of, that are important for the Public Utilities Commission to consider?

Here are Comments from Communities United for Responsible Energy on Completeness and other topics as requested by the Commission:

What we’re doing here at these meetings is similar to what we did a couple years ago, and I’d individually filed quite a bit then. To get at these filings, click on the link, and then plug in the “Submission Number” in the space provided:

20228-188610-02	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–OVERLAND COMMENT – MOVE ON INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL WORK	08/26/2022
20226-186863-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–INITIAL COMMENTS	06/24/2022
20226-186869-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–SECOND INITIAL COMMENT	06/24/2022
20226-186869-02	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–OVERLAND – DATE CORRECTED INITIAL COMMENTS 6-24-2022	06/24/2022
20223-183420-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENT AND EX A	03/04/2022
20223-183420-02	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENT EX B	03/04/2022
20223-183420-03	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENT EX C D E AND F	03/04/2022
20223-183420-04	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENT EX H AND I	03/04/2022
20223-183421-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENTS EXHIBIT G PART I	03/04/2022
20223-183421-02	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENTS EXHIBIT G PART 2	03/04/2022
20223-183421-03	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENTS EXHIBIT G PART 3	03/04/2022
202112-180780-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–XCEL PRESENTATION TO RW CITY COUNCIL ITEM 7C	12/16/2021
202112-180780-02	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–RED WING COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM 7C XCEL PRESENTATION AND ANSWERS	12/16/2021
202110-178990-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–SCOPE OF SUPPLEMENTAL EIS	10/20/2021
202110-178948-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	LETTER–DRAFT SCOPING DECISION	10/19/2021
20219-178146-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–RE CASK SEALS – UNLOADING – PART 72 ISFSI LICENSE	09/21/2021
20219-177896-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC	COMMENTS–LATE-FILED COMMENTS	09/13/2021

Here are filings from the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant Study Group (PINGP Study Group) in that earlier “additional cask” docket:

20101-45872-03	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	PINGP STUDY GROUP	RECONSIDERATION–REQUEST FOR REHEARING	01/11/2010
200911-43460-03	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	PINGP STUDY GROUP	LETTER–ADVISORY BRIEF OF PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT STUDY GROUP	11/02/2009
200911-43460-06	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	PINGP STUDY GROUP	LETTER–ATTACHMENTS A, B, C	11/02/2009
200911-43460-09	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	PINGP STUDY GROUP	LETTER–COVER LETTER	11/02/2009
20099-41729-03	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	PINGP STUDY GROUP	BRIEF–ADVISORY	09/11/2009
20099-41729-06	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	PINGP STUDY GROUP	BRIEF–ATTACHMENT	09/11/2009
20095-37809-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	PINGP STUDY GROUP	COMMENTS–COMMENTS WITH ATTACHMENTS	05/26/2009

And Overland and Muller filings in that same docket, circa 2012:

201210-79816-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND AND MULLER	PUBLIC COMMENT— ON XCEL SUPPLEMENTAL FILING	10/23/2012
20127-77011-01	PUBLIC	08-510		CN	OVERLAND AND MULLER	COMMENTS	07/20/2012

A BIG thanks to Joyce Vance for the link to the Trump N.Y. criminal trial transcripts.

LIVE LINK: https://ww2.nycourts.gov/press/index.shtml

In October, while Xcel Energy’s Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant’s reactor 2 was out for refueling, there was an outage at reactor 2 that shut down that unit also for months. It was shut down for so long that the Mississippi River FROZE! Here’s the scoop on that outage that I’d not gotten around to posting.

OOPS!

The real cause of Xcel’s lengthy Prairie Island nuclear outage: Workers drilled through cables

The company said it did not use ground radar that would have shown where the underground cables were in the Red Wing plant and admitted its excavation planning and oversight was inadequate. 

By Walker Orenstein Star Tribune April 12, 2024 — 8:02am

Xcel Energy initially pinpointed the cause of a lengthy outage at its Prairie Island nuclear power plant as an equipment issue between the turbine and the electric grid.

But that didn’t quite tell the full story: Xcel workers at the plant actually cut a bundle of power cables when drilling sideways underground in October, interrupting power to some of the Red Wing plant’s equipment and causing one of the two reactors to shut down.

Xcel told federal nuclear regulators last month it did not use ground radar in an area that would have shown the cables’ location. The company also said its excavation planning and oversight was inadequate, admitting to “procedural weaknesses and poor communications” between departments.

https://www.startribune.com/nuclear-power-plant-xcel-energy-prairie-island-red-wing-outage/600358326/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now they say “evacuation planning and oversight was inadequate.”

Remember when the Red Wing City Council approved Xcel’s PINGP Emergency Plan in a consent agenda vote?

How are the inadequacies going to be corrected?

This morning was a quick Public Utilities Commission rubber stamp of Xcel Energy’s application for additional casks at Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, declaring the application “complete.” It’s being forwarded to Office of Administrative Hearings for a contested case hearing. The Prehearing Conference is already scheduled for May 13!

Meanwhile, notice is out for the EIS Scoping “Meeting” NEXT WEEK, April 24th & 25th!

Here are all the documents that go with it, lots of busy work for the next 6 days. The most important one is the Scoping Environmental Assessment Worksheet:

What strikes me about this, well, two things, one, that this application is NOW when they don’t “need” additional storage until 2033; and two, that if the Public Utilities Commission grants this Certificate of Need, we’re locked in until 2053-2054, with all the waste that will be generated through that time, and all the waste from decommissioning, which includes what’s in the reactors at that time, AND all the associated radioactive stuff, and there’s a lot of that. Where will that go? And when? I think the term now, rather than “temporary,” is indeterminate. And not only the waste, but there’s also the cost… in additional to costs of the casks and maintenance, because there are also casks that need to be “replaced,” and where and what that will entail, and again, that radioactive junkyard.

Oh, what a mess. And in addition to that, the timing problem looms large, because things CHANGE. For example, Xcel alludes to planning/hoping to “move” nuclear waste to an “interim” storage facility in either Texas or New Mexico, ones that could/would accept the type of casks they’re using. But things change… a while ago, the one in Texas was found unconstitutional:

Federal appeals court blocks plan to ship nuclear waste to West Texas

From the article:

That decision in August 2023 effectively killed the proposal by Interim Storage Partners to house used nuclear fuel from power plants across the U.S. at the existing Andrews County waste facility, on the Texas-New Mexico border.

West Texas nuclear waste plan remains blocked after federal appeals court ruling

… federal appeals court “killed the proposal,” and so much for that, which leaves New Mexico:

Law to ban high-level nuclear waste storage facility effective June

That law is Senate Bill 53. And just last month:

Court blocks proposed Holtec International nuclear waste site in New Mexico

From the article:

The ISP license was vacated in August 2023 by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana which on March 27 found Holtec’s license was “materially identical” and should also be vacated for the same reasons. In both cases, the court found the NRC “lacked statutory authority” to issue the licenses under the Atomic Energy Act.

So now what? Is Xcel’s reliance on “interim” storage realistic? With “interim storage” in flux, is it reasonable, rational, to move forward with additional storage of nuclear waste that will sit at Prairie Island forever?!?! Particularly where they don’t need it until 2033? Makes no sense to me!

Today at 4:20 p.m. I received the Dept. of Commerce a scheduling proposal for the Xcel Energy cross-country greenfield transmission project with the stated purpose of preserving Xcel’s “valuable” transmission rights at the Sherco substation at a cost of $1.114 BILLION to be paid by ratepayers. Whew, so I took a look at it and at the PUC proposal, which came through earlier.

Looking at it, the left out some important things, so I fired off a pissive, and filed it a few minutes ago. These omissions of public comment, of scheduling the Draft EIS so late, and the Final EIS so much later, JUST NO! They didn’t even acknowledge that there may be parties to file Direct Testimony — only the Applicant is on schedule to file Direct. And the Final EIS isn’t on schedule to be released until after Initial and Reply Briefs are in. WTAF?!?! How about reading the rules, folks? So needless to say, yes, I fired off a pissive:

The Prehearing Conference is at 10 a.m. on May 1, 2024, where some of these issues will be ironed out: