Environmental Groups to Address Seabrook Nuke Plant Re-licensing

Submitted by Doug Bogen

Executive director of the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League

Local, statewide and national citizen groups suing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to reinstate their intervention in the re-licensing of Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant will hold a news conference on Wednesday, Nov. 7, at the Portsmouth Public Library at 1:30 p.m. 

The event comes on the eve of their lawyer's oral argument before the 1st District Court of Appeals in Boston on Thursday morning. The groups and their attorney will describe the scope of their appeal of the NRC's rejection last March of their intervention in the ongoing re-licensing of Seabrook. 

Seabrook, perhaps the nation's most controversial nuclear power plant, is now seeking early license renewal 18 years in advance of the end of its current license, despite a host of operational and design issues. In March, the NRC overruled its own Atomic Safety Licensing Board and denied the groups a public hearing on safer, cleaner and competitive renewable energy alternatives, particularly offshore wind power, as compared to nuclear power generated at Seabrook over future decades.

Participating organizations include: Seacoast Anti-Pollution League (SAPL), based in Exeter, and engaged since the inception of the Seabrook plant in challenging the original licensing process and watchdogging its operation since start-up; New Hampshire Sierra Club, another denied intervener in the Seabrook re-licensing battle; and Beyond Nuclear, a national safe energy organization based in Takoma Park, Md., concerned with the connections of nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and educating and advocating for a non-nuclear world. 

The groups are being represented in the appeal process by attorney Terry Lodge of Toledo, Ohio, a veteran litigator on nuclear regulatory issues, including challenges to other nuclear plants attempting early relicensing despite similar renewable power competition issues. Attorney Lodge will also participate in the news conference Wednesday.

WHO: Doug Bogen, Executive Director, Seacoast Anti-Pollution League
          Paul Gunter, Director, Reactor Oversight Project/Beyond Nuclear
          Terry Lodge, Attorney for intervener plaintiffs
          Jerry Curran, NH Sierra Club Executive Committee Chair

WHEN:  Wednesday, Nov. 7, 1:30 p.m.

WHERE: Portsmouth Public Library, Levenson Room,
             175 Parrott Ave., Portsmouth