With 11 reactors at six sites, no state has more nuclear power plants than Illinois. Ten of the Illinois reactors were built by Commonwealth Edison, now a division of Exelon. The Clinton unit was built by Illinois Power Co. and is jointly owned by Exelon and British Energy, a Scottish company.
April 15, 2013
* [site-Honeywell-Metropolis;Illinois] NRC Schedules Meeting to Discuss Review of Honeywell Corrective Action Plan, NRC
8:55 AM eastern time - NRC Commissioners affirmation session
* Agenda listing: Honeywell International Inc. (Metropolis Works Uranium Conversion Facility), Docket No. 40-3392, Petition for Review of LBP-12-6 (Mar. 22, 2012)
* live webcast planned at http://www.nrc.gov - only 5 minutes on agenda 8:55-9:00
Source: NRC Commissioners Meetings through week of Feb 11, 2013, Federal Register Notice released via ADAMS on Jan 3, 2013
February 8, 2008
This was top story on front page of today's Mattoon Journal Gazette, of Illinois.
See full text of this story via the web version of this article.
November 27, 2006
Strangers at Braidwood gates
Twice last month, motorists were charged with drunken driving after pulling up to the security guardhouse -- by mistake -- at the nuclear-power plant in Braidwood, Ill. Lloyd Kuykendall, 38, handed a guard $1, thinking he had approached a tollbooth, according to police; and 10 days later, Stanislaw Drobrzawski, 51, tried to align his car with the guardhouse, seeing it as a gas-station pump.
[Source: Chuck Shepherd (Universal Press Syndicate), "NEWS OF THE WEIRD", The Columbus Dispatch, November 27, 2006, p. D8]
February 20, 2006
* Honeywell's Metropolis plant expansions planned
June 23, 2005
Overview of Illinois Agreement State Program
In July 2003, the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety (the Department) became a division of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (the Agency). The Director for the Department was appointed the Assistant Director of the Agency and retained the management responsibility over activities that had been conducted by the Department. In March 2005, the Assistant Director became responsible for the five technical bureaus in the Agency: Bureau of Operations; Bureau of Disaster Assistance and Preparedness; Bureau of Nuclear Facility Safety; Bureau of Environmental Safety; and Bureau of Radiation Safety. The Illinois Agreement State program is administered by the Bureau of Radiation Safety (the Bureau), with support by other bureaus in the Agency. The Bureau has one field office located in West Chicago, Illinois. The Illinois Agreement program regulates approximately 742 specific licenses authorizing Agreement materials.
The Agency has assigned approximately 23 full time equivalent (FTE) total, including management and contractor support, to implement the Agreement State program and has adequate funds to support the program.
The Bureau has three Sections: the Radioactive Materials Section (the RAM Section), the Registration and Certification Section, and the Electronic Products Section. The RAM Section has two Units: the Materials Licensing Unit and the Inspection and Enforcement Unit. These two units are responsible for the routine licensing and inspection of 742 specific materials licensees with 12.7 budgeted FTE. The StateÕs General License (GL) program is managed in the Registration and Certification Section with approximately 1 FTE. As a result of the reorganization in July 2003, the Low-Level Radioactive Waste and Site Decommissioning Section (the Decommissioning Section) was transferred to the Bureau of Environmental Safety within the Agency. However, the Decommissioning Section continues to provide technical support to the Bureau by managing the uranium recovery, financial assurance, and orphan source programs. They also provide decommissioning and license termination support. The Decommissioning Section has 3.6 FTE budgeted for this support. An internal policy memorandum describes the coordination of assignment and responsibility between the two bureaus.
The Bureau has an experienced staff and low staff turnover. The Bureau lost three staff members since the last IMPEP: one retired; one requested reassignment; and the Senior Project Manager for regulatory affairs was reassigned to the Bureau of Nuclear Facility Safety during the 2003 reorganization. The Radioactive Materials Section Head assumed the regulatory affairs responsibilities, but was deployed for military duty on October 1, 2004. The remaining two positions were filled expediently with staff from within the Agency.
The previous IMPEP evaluation in 2001 identified that the majority of violations cited by Bureau staff were record keeping infractions and that many inspections were not conducted in a performance-based, risk-informed manner. Inspections evaluated during this review identified that a performance-based, risk-informed approach is now utilized by the program.
[Source: Integrated Materials Performance Evaluation Program: Review of Illinois Agreement State Program, April 4 - 8, 2005, Proposed Final Report (NRC Office of State and Tribal Programs, June 23, 2005, ACN ML051750740]
March 5, 2004
* Clinton - fish kill (several hundred shad) when shut down for refueling
January 19, 2004
Zion - proposed sewage-sludge burning: is it worth less than 2 pounds of mercury air pollution/yr
The North Shore Sanitary District provides water treatment for more than 300,000 customers in towns north of Chicago. The District has been burying sludge -- a byproduct of sewage treatment -- in a landfill near Zion. For years, the District has been trying to build a "sludge-burning" plant which uses a drying and heating process to convert sludge into a glasslike byproduct used in road construction. "We believe this is the future for solid waste disposal," said Brian Jensen, the sanitary district's general manager. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is expected to decide by April whether to issue a permit for the proposed $40 million plant. The district already has invested millions of dollars in the plant and bought equipment. AP reports that Zion officials want the plant built. They say it would help a new industrial complex that could generate millions of dollars in property-tax revenue and help the area recover from the closure of the ComEd nuclear plant in 1998. "This could help us clean up an entire area that could be used for a light manufacturing complex," Zion Mayor Lane Harrison said.
However, there is the matter of air pollution, including mercury emissions. State EPA rules would permit 92 pounds of mercury to be emitted each year. Officials from the sanitary district say the plant would emit less than 2 pounds of mercury annually. Opponents of the plant are concerned with even the two pounds per year, but also note that the process has not been used much in the US yet. "Our air already is polluted, and this only adds to it - and with some fairly nasty things," said Lake County Conservation Alliance board member Susan Zingle. Environmentalists have vowed to keep fighting even if the state EPA issues the permit.
[Source: Associated Press, "Environmentalists fight sludge-burning plant in Zion", January 19, 2004 11:05 am ET]
December 22, 2003
* Honeywell (Metropolis IL) - UF6 release prompts evacuation of 1-mile radius
December 12, 2003
* Quad-Cities - nearby Endangered or Threatened Species
August 21, 2003
August 18, 2003
July 2, 2003
* LaSalle - faulty emergency siren alarmed without cause for 90 minutes yesterday
July 1, 2003
* On July 1, 2003, the former Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety (IDNS) was merged into the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA). The combined agency is responsible for nuclear safety and emergency preparedness for the State of Illinois.
June 27, 2003
* Illinois - hospital administered 10.8 mCi thyroid dose to wrong patient in Barrington
* Illinois - where nobody can in good conscience turn on a light and say, 'I hate nuclear power'