The fight over more nukes in North Texas gets another public airing tomorrow in Granbury.
The SEED Coalition, Public Citizen, a Fort Worth-based group called True Cost of Nukes, and others are opposing the application by Luminant (the successor company to TXU) to build and operate two more nuclear power units alongside the existing pair o’ domes at Comanche Peak, near Glen Rose in Somervell County. The Wednesday hearing, before a Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel, is on those groups’ petition to intervene in the licensing process. A key question is whether many of the objections that the citizen groups filed with the NRC will be ruled admissible.
Based on a memo that the NRC panel sent to both sides last month, about what would be covered at the hearing, the environmental groups (as usual), may be fighting an uphill battle. Many of the items sound, to a layperson, like “explain to us why we should listen to you about …” .
Robert Eye, an attorney for the environmental groups, will be asking the panel, indeed, to listen to concerns over things like whether Luminant’s plans comply with new federal requirement that nuclear plants be shielded from aircraft impacts. “After 9/11, an aircraft attack on a nuclear power plant is a real and credible threat,” Eye said in the release. “Luminant’s noncompliance with these regulations put citizens around Comanche Peak in a dangerous position.”
Luminant spokespersons didn’t return calls seeking comment on the hearing.
Only attorneys for the two sides will be permitted to speak to the licensing panel, but the public can attend. The hearing begins at 9 a.m. in the Jury Selection Room at the Hood County Justice Center, 1200 W. Pearl St. in Granbury, and may run over into Thursday.
