Assembly instructions and questions to raise this Tonight 6-8:15pm ET
Date: 02/16/2026 11:15 AM EST
CONTACT: Scott Burnell,
301-415-8200
NRC to Hold Public Meeting to Discuss Progress on
Potential Restart of Crane Clean Energy Center
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a hybrid public meeting Feb. 19 to discuss the
agency’s activities related to the Crane Clean Energy Center Restart Panel.
The meeting will be held from 6-8:15 p.m. at the Student Enrichment Center, Kulkarni Theatre,
on the Penn State Harrisburg campus, 777 West Harrisburg Pike, in Middletown, Pennsylvania. The
meeting notice includes the agenda and a link to register for the Microsoft Teams version of the meeting,
for those unable to attend in person. The meeting will include an update from Constellation, NRC
presentations and a question-and-comment session for attendees to engage with the NRC’s panel
members.
The CCEC reactor (formerly Three Mile Island Unit 1) permanently ceased operations in
September 2019. In late 2024, Constellation Energy Generation, LLC, the reactor license holder,
notified the NRC of its interest in returning the plant to an operational status. The NRC created the
CCEC Restart Panel to guide staff efforts to review, inspect, and determine if the plant can be safely
returned to operation.
Additional information on a potential Crane Clean Energy Center restart can be found on the
NRC's website.
Why this meeting is important?
Those of us who survived the accident and TMI and continue to live in the shadow of
the plant, have concerns about it being restarted. Foremost among those concerns
are our safety.
As we all know, there are more than 700 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste
stored on the island with no plan for its removal. Restarting TMI-1 will eventually get
us another 700 metric tons of radioactive wastes.
While nuclear reactors are formidable structures with reinforced steel throughout,
spent fuel is far less protected and far more susceptible from terrorists. As far back
as November 2001, Governor Howard Dean of Vermont was quoted in The New York Times
warning about the susceptibility of the tons of spent fuel in relatively unsecured sites across the nation.
While no one alive would propose putting a nuclear waste dump on an island in a
river prone to flooding, and in the flight path of just about every aircraft landing at
Harrisburg International Airport, you would think an effort would be made to remove
the tons of spent fuel on site, prior to a restart of Unit 1.
When discussing safety, it would be natural to raise concerns about the health risks
involved with nuclear power. But just as the modern Republican Party treats global
warming as a hoax, knowing that no one at the NRC or Constellation takes our
concerns about health seriously, we’ll move on.
However, the Republican Party, the NRC, and Constellation take fiscal matters
seriously. The Price Anderson Act is a taxpayer supported insurance program for
Constellation and other nuclear utilities. If there’s an accident, they’re covered. But
we know of no insurance companies publicly offering insurance that would protect
our families, farms, and property in the event of a nuclear accident. Would
Constellation provide such insurance?
Often, people correlate risks with benefits. While we see many risks for central
Pennsylvanians with the restart of Unit 1, we know of no benefits accruing to TMI’s
neighbors. Microsoft will be buying all the electricity generated. None of it will keep
anyone’s lights on in central Pennsylvania. Instead, the power will be resold to
Amazon for facilities far from here. And, while they get electricity for the moment,
we get radioactive wastes forever.
Given the unpredictability of the weather due to global warming, there may come a
time when we in central Pennsylvania may have droughts far more serious than
we’ve experienced to date. In the event that happens, will TMI be shut down so the
128 million gallons of Susquehanna River water required daily for the operation of the
plant will instead be allocated to benefit central Pennsylvanians? It is known that the
power won’t be used here, instead it will be directed to computers in data centers in
the Midwest. Do we really want to put computers before people?
In closing, we can’t help but conclude more nuclear power creates more terrorist
targets, more nuclear waste, less safety, less security, and fewer resources available
to upgrade the PJM grid. We know TMI. We have lived with TMI for decades.
Changing its name doesn’t change its history, the memories, or the nightmares we’ve
endured.
Questions that might be asked at the meeting:
- Why does TM not have an emergency plan?
-
- What are the costs to ratepayers for the sweetheart deal with
Microsoft?
- What are the costs to ratepayers for the sweetheart
deal with Microsoft?
- The folks who paid to build the plant, will not receive the
benefits of a restart. They will not be able to purchase
homeowners’ insurance in the event of another accident.
If nuclear is so safe, why can’t community residents buy insurance
to protect their family, farm, and property?
- Consumers, taxpayers, and citizens have been told that nuclear power
deserves a second chance because it is now environmentally friendly,
because it’s not coal, and because without nuclear, the lights will go
out on cold, windless nights.
How does exporting TMI-1’s energy to another zip code keep the lights
on in central Pennsylvania?
- Three Mile Island is ahigh-level radioactive waste site, but
it is out room. There are 700 tons of high-level radioactive garbage
stored in the Independent Spent Storage Facility Installation.
Do you think storing radioactive waste on an island in the middle of
the river is a good idea?
- Guess who paid for storage facility? The rate payers again.
Constellation’s illegal raid of the nuclear decommissioning trust fund.
The NRC granted the exception, and Constellation pillaged the fund.
Will Constellation reimburse rate payers now that they are
parachuting out of decommissioning?
- TMI-1 was built with rate payer dollars, and enjoyed a bailout to
transition to deregulation. TMI complained they couldn’t compete in the
market place. They were right. TMI-1 lost $300 million over eight years,
and the free market.
How many times are we going to bail TMI out?
- If TMI-1 operates for 20 years, central Pennsylvanians will be asked
to baby sit and additional 600 tons of toxic trash with no
forwarding address. If the plant is granted a license extension than
there will be 800 more tons of radioactive garbage marooned on
an island that floods.
How much radioactive waste can TMI keep on site?
The production of nuclear power creates more terrorist targets, more
dependency on Russian fuel, more toxic waste, but less safety, less security,
and fewer resources to upgrade the PJM grid.
What percentage of TMI’s fuel is mad in Russia?
How does switching our fuel addition from OPEC oil to
Russian uranium makes us energy independent?
Nuclear power plants use millions of gallons daily to cool their
superheated reactor core. There are three nuclear generation stations
on the Susquehanna River.
Will TMI operate during a drought?
If nuclear power is so safe and improved, why does the cleanup of
Three Mile Island Unit-2 continue to vex the industry 47 years later?
Here’s a thought: How about concentrating resources on cleaning up
the mess you made 4t years ago.
If Bill Gates wants the power, he should take out the trash.