Alan Blind, one of the nation's foremost nuclear power experts and former design engineer at Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, is back with breaking news and updates regarding the controversial restart of the Palisades facility on the shores of Lake Michigan. Blind's career spanned over 40 years operating nuclear plants, including Palisades.  In the latest podcast, Blind who is a proponent of nuclear power, details concerns and the potential for critical failure modes regarding what's going on at Palisades right now. "It's like driving a Ferrari with a learners permit ... in a snowstorm". Alan is interviewed by Journalist Roger Rapoport, producer of The Nuclear Reactor Next Door podcast series.

You will hear details, on direct, that there has "never been a restart of a (retired) nuclear reactor like this", the massive costs and risk to public dollars to do so, the reality of plugged steam generator tubes, inferior materials used at time of construction and most concerning to everyone especially political decision makers – the lack of regulatory oversight regarding process objectives with an uncertain outcome.  Moreover, the company entrusted to do the work was given a huge contract fueled by public dollars with the assumption they could perform, has no previous experience necessary to do this level of complex and exacting work.

At the beginning of the 10th episode in the Nuclear Reactor Nextdoor podcast series, Alan details how he got into the nuclear power industry; his outstanding education at Purdue University, career highlights overseeing operations of nuclear power plants including his background as a start-up engineer in the mid 1970s of the (then) new DC Cook plant in Bridgman, Michigan. His career at the  Cook facility spanned 21 years where he also worked in operations, maintenance, and became the site vice president. In 1998, Blind moved on to the Consolidated Edison, Indian Point Plant in New York, very close to NYC. Indian Point was ordered to shut down by NRC for a variety of reasons that included safety and evacuation protocols in the densely populated area and discharge into Hudson River. Blind also shares his work in Canada renewing an older reactor.

Alan discusses his early retirement and decision to go back to work at Palisades as Engineering Director. During this conversation with Rapoport, he details the history and operations of the Palisades Plant as well as insights impacting this lovely, quiet  beachfront community on the shores of Lake Michigan, next to a nuclear power reactor.

Nevertheless, Alan Blind also makes clear what motivated him to express concerns (avoiding speculation, based on facts, direct experience and  expertise and always providing recommendations and solutions) and why the industry, regulatory and political officials need to slow down the process, make certain regulatory professionals are involved, focus on new technology – not bandaid decades old, used reactor components and certainly most critical; how to contain and manage spent nuclear fuel. And that officials and decision makers respect the public dollars being spent on this and other proposed projects. 

When asked "Alan, what would you say to Gretchen Whitmere if you met her in an airport?" ... "I'd say Governor, thank-you for supporting nuclear power but you chose wrong project to try and restart!" He and Rapoport are available for interviews, radio or television news shows, print media and are comfortable with meeting with elected and appointed officials. 

Enjoy Episode 10 and share with friends. 

Thanks to billions in pork barrel dollars from the Department of Energy, the State of Michigan and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Holtec International, a company that has never built or operated a nuclear reactor is now rebuilding one without Nuclear Reactor Commission approval. Alan Blind, the former Design Engineering Manager at the Palisades Nuclear Reactor near South Haven, Michigan, explains how Holtec is evading the licensing requirements and many of the safety regulations required of every other nuclear power plant in the country. Even worse none of the NRC inspectors are on site as the construction work continues at a rapid pace.

He explains why billions in federal and state grants, loans and subsidies would be far better spent on much less expensive alternatives such as wind, solar and hydro.  Residents living adjacent to the Palisades reactor have filed a petition with Blind’s assistance to block Holtec’s restart that is happening without NRC approval.

For more information, please read this important article in The Progressive, August 7, 2024:
https://www.rogerrapoport.com/latest-writings/the-nuclear-regulatory-commissions-antiques-road-show

Palisades Nuclear Power plant’s next door neighbors Bruce and Karen Davis, live in the Palisades Park residential community near South Haven, Michigan. The Davis home is less than 2500 feet south of the Palisades Reactor containment building.Karen, her mother and sister are all victims of thyroid cancer. There are 205 homes in Palisades Park. 

The concerning numbers of cancer cases in the Palisades community are discussed in this podcast. 

The Davis family and other long time residents, have serious safety concerns about Holtec International’s plan to restart the controversial reactor in 2025. Working together, they have done an independent health survey of their neighborhood with the assistance of epidemiologist Joseph Mangano MPH, MBA and Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP).  Results are still coming in. During this Nuclear Reactor Next Door episode Bruce and Karen preview the results with host Roger Rapoport.  Mangano is featured in episode eight of the Nuclear Reactor Next Door podcast series. Bruce and Karen are also co-petitioners to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for Rule Making: Returning Decommissioned Reactors to Operating Status.

Joseph Mangano MPH, MBA, is the Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP), an independent group of scientists and health professionals dedicated to research and education of health hazards from nuclear reactors and weapons. While at RPHP, he has written or co-written dozens of articles in medical/scientific journals. Mangano is the author of Low-Level Radiation and Immune System Damage: An Atomic Era Legacy (1998) and Radioactive Baby Teeth: The Cancer Link (2008). He played a prominent role in the Tooth Fairy Project, a study of Strontium-90 levels in 5,000 baby teeth, which remains the only study of radiation levels in bodies of Americans living near nuclear plants. Mangano holds a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of North Carolina and an MBA from Fordham University.

This podcast focuses on the unprecedented plan to restart the dangerously obsolete and severely age-degraded Palisades nuclear reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline near South Haven.  In the face of decade long delays, billions in cost overruns and dozens of cancellations, the nuclear power industry is promoting this insanely expensive, high-risk $8.3 billion pilot project. Against all odds, utilities see a Palisades restart as the way to quickly bring failed and shuttered nuclear reactors around the world back from the dead. Holtec International, the company that wants to restart Palisades, has never operated a nuclear reactor. 

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Thank you for supporting our iin depth reporting bringing this timely story to an inernational audience. We need your help to head off the vast corporate money machine struggling to cover up the well documented history of nuclear power disasters. Copyright (C) 2024 Glenside Productions LLC

This podcast focuses on the unprecedented plan to restart the dangerously obsolete and severely age-degraded Palisades nuclear reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline near South Haven. In the face of decade long delays, billions in cost overruns and dozens of cancellations, the nuclear power industry is promoting this insanely expensive, high-risk $8.3 billion pilot project. Against all odds, utilities see a Palisades restart as the way to quickly bring failed and shuttered nuclear reactors around the world back from the dead. Holtec International, the company that wants to restart Palisades, has never operated a nuclear reactor. Copyright (C) 2024 Glenside Productions LLC

This podcast focuses on the unprecedented plan to restart the dangerously obsolete and severely age-degraded Palisades nuclear reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline near South Haven.  In the face of decade long delays, billions in cost overruns and dozens of cancellations, the nuclear power industry is promoting this insanely expensive, high-risk $8.3 billion pilot project.  Against all odds, utilities see a Palisades restart as the way to quickly bring failed and shuttered nuclear reactors around the world back from the dead. Holtec International, the company that wants to restart Palisades, has never operated a nuclear reactor.

This podcast focuses on the unprecedented plan to restart the dangerously obsolete and severely age-degraded Palisades nuclear reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline near South Haven.  In the face of decade long delays, billions in cost overruns and dozens of cancellations, the nuclear power industry is promoting this insanely expensive, high-risk $8.3 billion pilot project. Against all odds, utilities see a Palisades restart as the way to quickly bring failed and shuttered nuclear reactors around the world back from the dead. Holtec International, the company that wants to restart Palisades, has never operated a nuclear reactor.

Stanford professor of civil and environmental engineering professor of civil and environmental energy Mark Jacobson directs the university’s Atmosphere/Energy Program.

He says  the cost of nuclear power from America’s two most recently opened plants in Georgia is $16 per watt. “That does not compare favorably with onshore wind and solar which can be as low as $1 per watt."

One of the world’s leading climate experts, Dr. Jacobson does not see a future for nuclear power.

He points out that  nuclear power plants can take nine to 15 years for construction, and 17 to 22 years overall from planning to operation in the U.S. and Europe, and 12 to 22 years worldwide. Georgia’s new Vogtle plants were finished seven years late and $17 billion over budget. New wind and solar facilities take one to three years to complete.

"The clean nuclear power argument from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy is nonsense,” says Jacobson. “Mined uranium does not show up in perfect form. It must be refined, which takes a lot of energy and causes pollution. Nuclear reactors are belching huge amounts of water vapor and heat, contributing to local and global warming. Evaporated water from the giant steam generators is a greenhouse gas."

“New nuclear power plants cost 2.3 to 7.4 times those of onshore wind or utility solar PV per watt, take five to 17 years longer between planning and operation, and produce nine to 37 times the emissions per watt as wind.”

Get his book: No Miracles Needed – How Today's Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air

 https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/WWSNoMN/NoMiracles.html

                                                                                                        MORE:
Mark Z. Jacobson’s career has focused on better understanding air pollution and climate problems and developing large-scale clean, renewable energy solutions to them. Toward that end, he has developed and applied three-dimensional (3-D) atmosphere-biosphere-ocean computer models and solvers to simulate and understand air pollution, weather, climate, and renewable energy systems. He has also developed roadmaps to transition countries, states, cities, and towns to 100% clean, renewable energy for all purposes and computer models to examine grid stability in the presence of 100% renewable energy.

Jacobson has been a professor at Stanford University since 1994. His research crosses two fields: Atmospheric Sciences and Energy. To date, he has published 185 peer-reviewed journal articles and given ~750 invited talks. In 2004, he founded and has ever since directed the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford. Jacobson has published seven books, including Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling (1999) and Atmospheric Pollution: History, Science, and Regulation (2002). These two books, plus second editions in 2005 and 2012, respectively, relate primarily to his work in Atmospheric Sciences. The last three, 100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything (2020), No Miracles Needed (2023), and Still No Miracles Needed (2025), relate to his work in Energy.

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Investigative reporter Roger Rapoport's fascinating interview with veteran nuclear executive Alan Blind offers an inside look at his six years as engineering director at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant located on the Lake Michigan shore.  Blind, who worked for decades as a senior nuclear  power plant executive in Michigan, New York and Canada, focuses on the unprecedented plan to restart this reactor.

Palisades has been uniquely exempt from more than 50 standard Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations for decades including the industry’s critically important fire code. This proposed first ever restart of a closed reactor raises major concerns surrounding corrosion of the steam generator, radioactive contamination inside the containment structure, radioactive reactor water leaking into the plant control room, and high level radioactive waste on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Blind’s two-part interview looks at much less expensive alternatives to nuclear power  including zero carbon wind, water, solar and other renewables.