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It looks like those who have concerns about the permitting process for the proposed Fermi 3 nuclear power station are facing an uphill battle to have their worries considered by federal regulatory officials. A coalition that includes Monroe County residents and nuclear watchdog groups has put together 15 environmental and safety concerns they'd like to discuss as part of an upcoming Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hearing on the plan to expand DTE Energy's Fermi nuclear complex in Frenchtown Township. But in order for these issues to be raised at the May 5 hearing, they must be approved by the ASLB. And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and DTE Energy are urging the board to disregard virtually all of the coalition's concerns.

"The federal regulators that are considering granting a license for DTE Energy's proposed Fermi 3 nuclear reactor have agreed to investigate quality assurance violations associated with plans for the new reactor. Last fall the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a notice of violation to DTE for failing to have a plan to ensure that work done by contractors met standards. According to the NRC, quality assurance (QA) comprises all planned and systematic actions that are necessary to provide adequate confidence that a structure, system, or component will perform satisfactorily in service. Attributes of a QA program include procedures, recordkeeping, inspections, corrective actions, and audits. In June 15 ruling the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing board responded to a petition by a coalition of environmental groups by agreeing to hold a formal hearing on the issue of quality assurance violations."

About 150 braved high winds and icy roads yesterday to give the Nuclear Regulatory Commission their thoughts about a nuclear plant that DTE Energy hasn't yet decided whether to build. The $10 billion Fermi 3 construction project would be one of the largest in Michigan's history. For now, it is the only new nuclear plant considered for the Great Lakes region out of 26 under study nationally. DTE, which would put the reactor on its Fermi complex northeast of Monroe, applied Sept. 18 for the license to become eligible for $300 million to $400 million in tax credits offered by the Bush Administration's Energy Policy Act of 2005, which is providing $6 billion of incentives to build reactors. Utilities had to file by Dec. 31.

DTE Energy Co. has filed an application to build a new nuclear power plant near its existing Fermi 2 reactor in southeastern Michigan. DTE Chairman and CEO Anthony Earley Jr. says the project will take at least four years to be approved by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

According to a plant report, the water level in the reactor vessel fell to 162 inches during the March 28 shutdown but a Fermi spokesman says he doesn't think that 'necessarily indicates that there was any loss of water level at all.' An incident involving a nuclear reactor going into "hot shutdown" at DTE Energy's Fermi II power generation station in Monroe County late last month went largely unnoticed locally and is raising questions about what exactly happened at the plant.

"DTE Energy is preparing to load highly radioactive bundles of used fuel from its Fermi 2 nuclear reactor into giant outside storage casks near the power plant. Six of the 20-foot-tall casks have been set up on a concrete pad in the plant's high-security "protected area," all part of a new $62.5 million spent-fuel storage facility. "We're in the testing and inspection phase right now," said Guy Cerullo, a DTE spokesman at the plant. "We're testing the process. They're doing sort of a dry run. Plans are to begin loading the first containers sometime this spring or early summer.""

DTE Energy in the next dozen years aims to do something no American utility has managed in a generation: bring a new nuclear plant online. It's the only one planned today for Michigan, yet DTE will jostle with utilities around the country to meet federal tax credit eligibility -- starting with an application deadline this year -- and to mobilize a supplier base to a large extent now gone or located overseas.

A coalition of citizen groups is asking federal regulators reject DTE Energy's plans to build a new Fermi 3 nuclear plant, contending that it would pose a range of threats to public health and the environment. The groups have filed 14 contentions with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, claiming that a new plant would pose "radioactive, toxic and thermal impacts on Lake Erie's vulnerable western basin." DTE Energy, which already operates the Fermi 2 reactor near Newport, is considering building a Fermi 3 plant at the same site, using a new and as-yet unapproved, design. "For starters, this plant is not needed and we're prepared to demonstrate that," said Michael Keegan of Monroe and member of Don't Waste Michigan, one of the groups opposing the project. "We have national experts and former NRC commissioners -- some of the nation's best minds -- who helped compile this document." "The proposed Fermi 3 would represent another half-century of safety and security risks for the Great Lakes shoreline," he said. "Many concerned local residents don't want to play yet another round of radioactive Russian roulette."

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a public meeting June 30 in Monroe, Mich., to discuss the proposed license termination plan for the Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant, Unit 1. The meeting will be held from 7 - 10 p.m. at the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, 125 E. Second St., in Monroe. DTE Energy, the licensee, submitted its proposed license termination plan and an application for license amendment on March 25. The proposed plan is to demonstrate compliance with NRC criteria for unrestricted release of the property, although the facility will remain DTE property. There is no Fermi 1 spent nuclear fuel remaining onsite. Fermi 1 was a sodium-cooled fast-breeder reactor that operated from 1963 until it was permanently shut down in 1972. Much of the decommissioning for Fermi 1 was completed in 1975. Fermi 2, a boiling-water reactor, is still in operation at the same location in Newport, in Monroe County, on the shore of Lake Erie about 25 miles northeast of Toledo, Ohio. At the June 30 meeting, members of the NRC staff will discuss the proposed license termination plan and NRC's technical review of the plan. Information about Fermi 1 is available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/power-reactor/enrico-fermi-atomic-power-plant-unit-1.html.

A federal licensing panel heard claims and counter-claims Tuesday that a new Fermi 3 nuclear power plant proposed near Newport would be either a dangerous polluter or an environmentally friendly energy supplier. A three-member Atomic Safety Licensing Board convened at Monroe City Hall to weigh arguments against the plant from a broad coalition of environmental and citizen groups. Most of their charges that the plant would pose health and environmental risks were pooh-poohed by DTE Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission lawyers during the course of the five-hour hearing. The federal panel of three administrative law judges -Ronald M. Spritzer, Michael F. Kennedy, and Randall J. Charbeneau - will decide, possibly by the end of June, whether the claims against the plant have merit. If so, the groups will be granted the right to intervene in the formal licensing process. DTE has applied for an NRC license to build and run Fermi 3, a 1,560-megawatt reactor expected to cost about $10 billion that could be ready to operate by 2017.

As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission begins a public comment period on the permit application for a new reactor at the DTE Energy's Fermi complex in Monroe, a public health expert is warning that a rise in cancer rates in Monroe County appears to be linked to operations at the existing 1,130 megawatt nuclear reactor. In a statement submitted to the NRC at a public hearing in Monroe last week, Joseph Mangano, a public health administrator and researcher with the Radiation and Public Health Project, said that data from the Centers for Disease Control shows an increasing cancer death rate, particularly among children, since Fermi 2 became operational in the 80's.

DTE Energy's progress toward construction of a new nuclear power plant might be sidetracked by legal challenges to both the project and the process. Critics argue that hearings held Wednesday were timed to minimize public participation, that the plans for the reactor are shrouded in secrecy, and the public was being asked unfairly to comment on a reactor design that doesn't yet exist. Monroe resident Michael Keegan of Don't Waste Michigan, said the first notice of Wednesday's hearings were issued on Christmas Eve and scheduled to be held "in the heart of a Michigan winter." He suggested that because of the timing of the notices, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission should extend the deadline for accepting comments on the scope of the planned federal environmental review of the proposal for 90 days and hold another hearing in the spring when the weather would be better.

The cancer rate among people under the age of 25 in Monroe County rose at more than three times the rate of the rest of the state between 1996 and 2005, according to a report generated by the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH). Between 1996 and 2000, the average rate of cancer cases for this group was 18.5 cases per 100,000 people; between 2001 and 2005, the rate grew to 24.3 per 100,000. Between 1996 and 2000 the statewide rate of cancer for this group was 20.2 per 100,000; between 2001 and 2005, the rate was 21.9. Monroe is home to DTE Energy's Fermi II nuclear power plant, which became fully operational in 1988. While industry and government experts dismiss the possibility that local cancer rates are related to the nuclear plant, critics of the plant and nuclear power say more study is needed.

A federal licensing panel heard arguments last week on contentions filed by several environmental groups against DTE Energy's proposed Fermi 3 nuclear plant. Both sides presented their arguments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety Licensing Board. The $10 billion Fermi 3 project would be built at the same site as DTE's Fermi 2 facility and the decommissioned Fermi 1 plant in Frenchtown Township

Construction of a new Fermi 3 nuclear power plant by DTE Energy would boost jobs and tax base in Monroe County, but could harm the state's overall economy in the long run, a former federal Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner said Thursday. "The tax benefits, in particular, are uncontestable and the local job benefits as well," said Peter Bradford, who served on the NRC from 1977-82. But he said the resulting rise in electric costs could cause firms to flee the state and discourage others from settling in Michigan, ultimately eroding the state's overall tax base. "No state ever created a net increase in jobs by raising electric rates to commercial and industrial customers more than necessary to maintain supply," he said. "A new nuclear plant in Michigan also will do nothing to further the success of hybrid automobiles."

"Despite scrambling in the aftermath of a real-life tornado, Monroe County emergency response officials reacted well this week to an imaginary earthquake that led to a simulated release of radioactivity from DTE Energy's Fermi 2 nuclear plant, federal observers said. It was part of a periodic, mandated emergency response drill that was held Tuesday meant to show that state and county officials could respond properly if there was a real disaster at the plant. "Our findings indicate that the State of Michigan and counties of Monroe and Wayne continue to demonstrate the capabilities to protect the health and safety of their residents living within a 10-mile radius of the plant," said Dwaine Warren, exercise director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "

Web site gives info on plant design Looking for some new reading material? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced yesterday it has put DTE Energy's application for a Fermi 3 reactor online. That's, um, nearly 17,000 pages of engineering studies, minus proprietary or security-related details. While that may not fall under the layman's definition of light reading, the agency has been putting applications online as it receives them. This one can be accessed at www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/fermi.html.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold an open house and public meeting Aug. 20 at Monroe County Community College to discuss the licensing process for DTE Energy's proposed new Fermi 3 nuclear plant. The "public outreach" meeting will start with an open house from 6 to 7 p.m., followed by a public meeting from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the La-Z-Boy Center. The public will be invited to comment on and ask questions about the process.

Federal officials said the public will have many opportunities to participate in the licensing process for a new DTE Energy nuclear plant. During a public outreach meeting Wednesday - the first of its kind in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Midwest region - agency officials said public involvement will be crucial to the process.

Environmental, safety and economic themes dominated questions that citizens posed about DTE Energy's plans for a new nuclear power plant near Newport during a public meeting with federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials in Monroe Wednesday night. More than 200 area residents, including some from Ohio and Canada, showed up at Monroe County Community College to voice concerns, lend support or just get information about the utility's intent to build a 1,560-megawatt Fermi 3 reactor near its existing Fermi 2 plant.