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Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold two public meetings on Thursday, June 25, in Tonopah and Avondale, Ariz., to discuss the agency's environmental review of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1, 2 and 3, license renewal application. The Palo Verde nuclear plants are pressurized-water reactors located in Maricopa County, Ariz., approximately 50 miles west of Phoenix. The current operating licenses for Palo Verde Units 1, 2 and 3 expire on June 1, 2025, April 24, 2026 and Nov. 25, 2027, respectively. Arizona Public Service Company submitted the application for renewal Dec. 11, 2008, and supplemented the application by letter dated April 14. "This is the first of several opportunities for the Palo Verde community to let us know what issues the NRC should look at while we review the potential environmental impacts of renewing the license," said David Wrona, a branch chief in the NRC's Division of License Renewal. "We'll consider all the comments and publish them in a 'scoping summary' as we move forward with our review."

"The problem: Five Arizona cities--Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, Scottsdale, and Tempe--are facing severe cash shortages. The solution: selling billions of gallons of wastewater to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in a move that will bring $1 billion to city coffers over a 40 year period. It's a unique use for treated wastewater, which is often used in landscaping and on golf courses. Palo Verde is the first nuclear plant ever to use reclaimed wastewater for cooling. AZCentral explains some of the benefits: For Palo Verde, which produces more power than any other U.S. power plant, the deal cements access to a predictable water supply through the plant's expected life span. Predictability is critical in the long-term management of a power plant, which uses water to cool the system, and eases the pain of the higher rates, utility officials said."

The renewal applications for the operating license for the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona is available for public review, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Wednesday. The three units at Palo Verde can together make about 4,000 megawatts of electricity, making it the biggest nuclear power plant in the United States. The license extensions, if granted, would allow each unit to operate for another 20 years beyond their current expiration dates, which are in 2025 for Unit 1, 2026 for Unit 2, and 2027 for Unit 3.

"The discovery of a pipe bomb at the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant indicates a need for enhanced security at all nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants are prime targets for terrorists. The nuclear material used to make nuclear bombs can be obtained from nuclear power plants. The destruction of an active nuclear power plant can produce radiation that will cover over 100 miles and fallout that can drift for almost a thousand. Terrorists groups could capture a power plant and blackmail governments,steal the nuclear material then sell that material to rogue governments or other terrorist groups. Nuclear power plants if destroyed by terrorists, could kill thousands of people if large metropolitan areas are located within 20 miles of a plant."

A case initially cast as a potential threat to national security ended Tuesday with a 15-month prison term for a former Palo Verde engineer who took nuclear-plant software to Iran. Mohammad Alavi, 51, was sentenced on charges of illegally accessing a computer and transporting stolen property as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. The U.S. Attorney's Office originally sought to put Alavi behind bars for as long as 10 years for multiple charges, including violating a U.S. trade embargo with Iran.

Palo Verde-3 still requires NRC's highest level of attention, the agency said in a March 6 announcement on the issuance of annual assessment letters to all 104 operating reactors in the US. The Arizona Public Service Co. unit has been in Column 4 of the action matrix under NRC's reactor oversight process since fourth-quarter 2006. The column reflects multiple or repetitive problems with one of seven safety areas of plant operations. If performance slips into the Column 5 threshold, the reactor would have to shut down until the NRC gives approval to restart.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued annual assessment letters to the nation's 104 operating commercial nuclear power plants. All the plants continue to operate safely. "Our ongoing assessment of nuclear power plant performance is at the heart of the agency's mission of protecting people and the environment," said Eric Leeds, director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. "The 2008 year-end results show that about 83 percent of the plants are performing strongly enough that we're satisfied with our basic level of inspections at those sites." If a nuclear power plant's performance declines, the NRC increases the level of inspection to ensure the plant operator is taking the steps necessary to correct the situation. The additional amount of inspection is commensurate with the level of plant performance. At the close of last year, only one reactor, Unit 3 at Palo Verde (Ariz.), required the NRC's highest level of attention. Three reactor units, Cooper (Neb.) and Units 1 and 2 at Palo Verde (Ariz.), required significant NRC attention. And another 14 reactor units, Units 1 and 2 at Byron (Ill.), Unit 1 at Comanche Peak (Texas), Unit 1 at Farley (Ala.), Unit 1 at Grand Gulf ( Miss.), Unit 2 at Hatch (Ga.), Kewaunee (Wis.), Units 1 and 2 at McGuire (N.C.), Unit 2 at Nine Mile Point (N.Y.), Unit 1 at Oconee (S.C.), Palisades (Mich.), Unit 1 at Prairie Island (Minn.), and Unit 2 at San Onofre (Calif.), required additional attention beyond the basic level.

What's big and blue and tying up traffic? Three nuclear reactor heads being transported through the Inland area. A truck carrying the equipment left Long Beach last week and will slowly make its way to Wintersburg, Ariz., via Highway 91 and Interstate 10. Wednesday, the reactor heads were parked on the side of the 91 in Corona, near Serfas Club Drive. "It is creating quite a traffic nightmare," said John Standiford, deputy director of the Riverside County Transportation Commission, who was stuck in traffic because of the reactors. "Everyone is stopping to see what is this thing." The reactor heads, the main housing for the Palo Verde Nuclear Plant's three reactors, were made in Korea and shipped to the U.S.

A nuclear reactor vessel closure head is now scheduled to make its way through parts of Palm Springs on Friday, which will cause some road closures during the evening hours. Advertisement The piece is not dangerous, said Andrew Wierda, spokesman for Bigge Crane and Rigging, which is transporting the load. Due to its height of 19 feet and its weight of 350,000 pounds, the equipment will be escorted by the California Highway Patrol, said Chris St. Cyr, variance load officer for the California Highway Patrol. The piece is heading to the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant outside Phoenix, Wierda said. It was supposed to be transported through the city Tuesday night through Wednesday morning, but there were some delays, St. Cyr said.

"Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction said Thursday that it has completed the negotiations to provide nuclear power plant equipment to the largest nuclear energy generating facility in the United States. "We've finalized the process. Doosan hopes for bigger penetration in the highly lucrative nuclear power plants-related sector in the United States," the company said in a press release. Doosan has been shipping control element drive mechanisms, or CEDMs, and replacement reactor vessel heads to the Palo Verde nuclear facility in Tonopah, Arizona, which has a capacity of 1,400 megawatts since May of last year."

State Sen. Christopher Connors, R-Ocean, recently asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to answer tough questions about tritium leaks at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey that occurred about two weeks after the plant was relicensed for another 20 years. Advertisement Such action by an elected official is commendable. Now, Connors' efforts must be directed toward the federal agency ultimately responsible for this problem. By failing to ensure that a proper aging management program was in place at Oyster Creek, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has again shirked its responsibilities. Corroding pipes leaking radioactive water into the surrounding environment is taking the NRC by surprise. This situation has been replicated at aging nuclear plants nationwide, including the Indian Point Nuclear Plant in Westchester County, N.Y., the Byron, Braidwood and Dresden reactors in Illinois and the Palo Verde plant in Arizona.