Entergy Wants To Build New Nuclear Plants

Grand Gulf nuclear power plant

African American Community Supports Plan

AAEA has participated in NRC meetings on the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station Unit 3 on three occassions: June 2005, February 2008 and June 2008.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held two public environmental scoping meetings at the Port Gibson City Hall in Port Gibson, Mississippi on June 19, 2008. The meetings are part of NRC's review of an application submitted by Entergy Operations Inc (EOI) for a combined license (COL) for construction and operation of a new nuclear power plant at it Grand Gulf Nuclear Station (GGNS) site in Claiborne County, Mississippi. The first meeting was held at 1 p.m. and the second meeting was held at 7 p.m. The NRC presented an overview of the COL environmental review process and described how the process will be implemented for the review of the GGNS COL application. AAEA participated in the meetings (see videos below).

The proposed new reactor, designated GGNS Unit 3, would be located within a 2,100 acre site, situated approximately 6 miles northwest of Port Gibson, Mississippi. EOI currently operates one reactor, GGNS Unit 1 on the site and plans to construct Unit 3 adjacent to the existing reactor. Plans for a unit 2 never happened, but to avoid confusion, the proposed unit is being designated Unit 3. The construction site cleared for GGNS Unit 3 covrs approximately 234 acres within EOI's 2,100 acre site.

Videos June 19, 2008 Meeting

EOI submitted the application for the COL by letter dated February 27, 2008. The application was accepted for docketing on April 24, 2008. The application is liste under NRC's Agencywide Documents Access Management System (ADAMS)under accession number ML080640433. The EOI COL application is also available on the Internet.

In addition, roughly 30 NRC staffers visited Mississippi to gather data at Grand Gulf on June 16 and met with the New Plant organization June 17 through June 18.

The NRC cannot issue a combined license for Grand Gulf Unit 3 without first certifying that the Economic Simplified Bowling Water Reactor (ESBWR) design, which is currently under review, meets NRC regulations.

The African American Environmentalist Association (AAEA) presented testimoney at the June 29, 2005 Early Site Permit (ESP) hearing in Port Gibson, Mississippi. AAEA has participated in four other ESP hearings (Grand Gulf, North Anna, Clinton, Illinois, Calvert Cliffs) sponsored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). AAEA also attended the Combined Operating License (COL) meeting for Duke Power at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. Descriptions of these activities are below.

June 28, 2005

Feb 21, 2008

Feb 21, 2008

The NRC has issued its final environmental impact statement on the proposed early site permit (ESP) for the Grand Gulf site in Mississippi. The NRC found no environmental impacts that would prevent issuing an ESP for the site.

Allen Burks, N. McDonald George Williams, D.Bigby

Mayor Arnold & Norris McDonald

Entergy Corp. of New Orleans is looking at building a nuclear plant near Port Gibson, Mississippi nuclear power plants in mississippi. The NRC DEIS hearing was held on June28, 2005. AAEA presented testimony at the hearing. The City of Port Gibson and surrounding Claiborne County in Mississippi voted unanimously on December 2004 to urge the Entergy Corporation, which already operates one reactor here, to build a second. Amelda J. Arnold, the city's mayor, city aldermen, County Board of Supervisors and County NAACP all support a new plant. This support is the exact opposite of that in New York, where town and county governments are trying to close two Entergy reactors at

Indian Point in Westchester County. Predominantly white (71%) Westchester County in New York opposes their plant while predominantly black (85%) Clairborne County in Mississippi supports their plant. Both nuclear power plants are owned by Entergy.

Norris McDonald Testifying at NRC Hearing

Allen Burks, Norris McDonald & Derry Bigby at Control Room

Norris & Sandy McDonald, Derry Bigby

AAEA members Derry Bigby and Joe Downey accompanied AAEA president Norris McDonald to Port Gibson, Mississippi to scope the area and participate in the NRC ESP hearing. Bigby and McDonald toured the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant nuclear power plants in mississippi and met with company officials. They also met with County Administrator James E. Miller and Jim Johnson, Community Development & Outreach Director for the Board of Supervisors.

AAEA visited the Claiborne County Hospital in Port Gibson (pictured below) to ascertain the adequacy of the facility to meet the needs of the local community. The Claiborne County Hospital is a 32-bed "Critical Access" facility offering inpatient, outpatient emergency and ancillary care. It is located at 123 McComb Avenue in Port Gibson, MS, 39150, approximately 25 miles South of Vicksburg, MS; 45 miles North of Natchez, MS; and 60 miles Southwest of Jackson, MS. CCH's healthcare team consists of a medical staff comprised of local doctors (on call, not at facility), consulting specialists, ER providers, nurse practitioners, licensed nurses and ancillary staff, therapists, social workers, and other professional administrative and support staff. For more information call (601) 437-5141. CHospi7707@aol.com

We believe the Claiborne County Hospital in Port Gibson (pictured above) could be expanded and improved. Additional taxes, or fees in-lieu of taxes, from a new plant nuclear power plants in Mississippi could be used to support and expand the medical services in Port Gibson.

AAEA president Norris McDonald also appeared on WLBT-Channel 3 television in Jackson, Mississippi with E. James Reinsch, Senior Vice President, President, Bechtel Nuclear.

Exelon and Entergy are part of a multicompany consortium, called NuStart Energy, that is seeking to prepare a license application for a plant. 

The unemployment rate is in the double digits in Claibourne County and a new plant would bring jobs grand gulf nuclear station jobs to the county. Currently, at least 100 local residents are among the company's more than 700 employees, and Entergy pays about $680,000 a year in city taxes, more than a third of the budget.

Early in the process, antinuclear groups tried to argue that building another reactor in Claiborne County, which is about 85 percent African-American, was an example of "environmental racism," putting undesirable facilities in poor, minority towns. But the mayor, the county supervisor and the NAACP, all African-American, rejected that idea. The NRC also rejected the environmental justice challenge.