With the proposed decommissioning of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant at Covert drawing closer every day, State Representative Jon Hoadley from Kalamazoo has introduced legislation that would create a public panel to keep an eye on the decommissioning of any and all nuclear facilities in the state of Michigan going forward.
Hoadley has introduced Michigan House Bill 5377 along with nine co-sponsors. It would create a Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel of Michigan residents and others. He says his bill comes in response to citizen concerns about safeguarding the dismantling of nuclear power plants in Michigan, and the safe handling and storage of low-level and high-level nuclear waste.
Hoadley contends, decommissioning a nuclear plant always demands careful attention to safety, but catastrophic erosion along Lake Michigan’s shoreline has created an especially worrisome situation for Palisades, the state’s next nuclear plant scheduled for decommissioning.
Hoadley says the waste that Palisades Nuclear Generating Plant has created, and continues to generate over several decades of operation, will be dangerous for millions of years, and it must be stored safely and permanently, while it is likely to be stored temporarily, or perhaps permanently, at Palisades.
Sierra Club member and Michigan Safe Energy Future-Shoreline Chapter representative Bette Pierman says, “Decommissioning a nuclear plant is a complicated and risky process. Safe dismantling can take years or decades and cost millions of dollars—more time and money than it took to build the plant. It is important for us as citizens to be involved in every step to assure a safe decommissioning for all of us.”
As proposed by Hoadley’s legislation, a majority of Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel members would be citizens who live within 50 miles of a decommissioning plant. Included on the panel would be representatives of local and tribal governments, environmental organizations, nuclear plant operators, and others.
Michigan Safe Energy Future and Sierra Club’s Southwest Michigan Group is also encouraging Palisades’ neighbors and other citizens to contact their State Representatives and Senators, strongly urging them to co-sponsor, support, and vote for HB 5377, contending that every nuclear plant in operation will be decommissioned eventually, “so we urge neighbors of all nuclear plants to apply for membership on the panel once the bill passes and the application process is publicized.”
Michigan Safe Energy Future and Sierra Club are on the record as strongly supporting Hoadley’s bill, saying, “We are convinced that other local and state environmental and conservation organizations will join us in urging Michigan’s legislators to send this bill to Governor Whitmer for her signature. Passage of this bill would protect Michigan’s land, air, water, the diverse flora and fauna that we all enjoy, and—most important—the health of the people of Michigan, the Great Lakes area, and the U.S.”
