ML050660228
| ML050660228 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | San Onofre  |
| Issue date: | 02/09/2005 |
| From: | Cunningham R US HR (House of Representatives) |
| To: | Susan Abraham NRC/FSME, US Dept of Energy (DOE) |
| Pham B M/NRR/DLPM/PD-2,415-8450 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ml050730496 | List: |
| References | |
| G20050149, LTR-05-0108 | |
| Download: ML050660228 (6) | |
Text
EDO Principal Correspondence Control FROM:
DUE: 03/24/.5S EDO CONTROL: G20050149 DOC DT: 02/09/05 FINAL REPLY:
Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (DOE Referral)
TO:
Annette Vietti-Cook FOR SIGNATURE OF :
ROUTING:
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (Harriet Pellar)
DATE: 03/03/05 Reyes Virgilio Kane Merschoff Silber Dean Burns/Cyr Mallet, RIV ASSIGNED TO:
NRR CONTACT:
Dyer SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS OR REMARKS:
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OFFICE OF TIHE SECRETARY CORRESPONDENCE CONTROL TICKET Date Printed: Afar 02, 2005 18:02 PAPER NUMBER:
ACTION OFFICE:
LTR-05-0108 EDO LOGGING DATE: 03/02/2005 AUTHOR:
AFFILIATION:
ADDRESSEE:
SUBJECT:
ACTION:
DISTRIBUTION:
LETTER DATE:
ACKNOWLEDGED SPECIAL HANDLING:
NOTES:
FILE LOCATION:
DATE DUE:
REP Randy Cunnigham REP Spencer Abraham San Onofre nuclear generating station Signature of EDO OCA to Ack 02/09/2005 No DOE referral dated 2/23/2005 ADAMS 03/24/2005 DATE SIGNED:
EDO - -G20050149
RANDY "DUKE" CUNNINGHAM i
6TH DISTRICT, CAUFORNIA COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEES:
DEFENSE LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE Congrcus of tht 'Ii3nitcd ~5tatcs liousc of Rprrsntatiucs Wtashington, DC 20515-0550 PLEASE RESPOND TO:
2350 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
° WASHINGTON, DC 20515-0550 12021225-6452 1202) 225-2558 FAX 613 WEST VALLEY PARKWAY SUITE 320 ESCONDIDO, CA 92025 1858) 755-8382 1760)737-8438 1760) 737-9132 FAX E-MAIL VIA WEB SITE:
http:/A~ww.house.gov/cunningham February 9, 2005 The Honorable Spencer Abraham Secretary Department Of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Room 7A-257 Washington, DC 20585
Dear Secretary Abraham:
Enclosed please find an opinion from my constituent, Harriet Pellar. My constituent has expressed concern regarding San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Because of the specific nature of this concern, I believe your office would be best suited to answer this properly.
I have sent a letter to the constituent advising of the referral to you. I hope that you will be able to provide timely assistance.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dusty Strawn in my Washington office.
With best regards, Sincerely, Randy "Duke" Cunningham Member of Congress RDC:ds PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER
Shut down Nan Onofre To the Editorm Right now, S'an Onofre Nuclear Generating StatioAn is in a bad way.
Nearly everything in the whole facility is cracking apart. It is enibrittled, frail, old.
Its -bones are hardened. Its arteries are clogged and stiff. It keeps popping and poofing, bursting and sPilling, leaking, spraying, steaming, venting, dripping, gushing, pouring out poisons into our enviromnent.
i The tritium released fr~om the plant alone is a major environmental concern for swimmers and surfers in the water up and down the coast from the plant.
Tritium is absorbed by thei body every-where, because chemically, it is just radioactively altered water. Tritium has a half -life of about 12 years and while it does occur naturally, there is no good reason on Earth to increase the dose to p)eople.e:
-hi Inhi.curse of its daily operation the plant also-releases Cs-sium-137, Strontium-90, uranium, plutonium (both in a variety of isotopes) and more than 200 other radioactive "daughter prod-ucts" of the nuclear reaction. The nuclear industry and the lame-duck, industry-flunky "regulators" who watch it assert that these releases are harm-less. It is foolhardy to agree with them when so many of the mechanisms for damage by radioactivity are well-known in the scientific community and undeni-able to any unbiased observer.
When the nuclear industry started promoting its dogma about how clean nuclear power was, far fewer of these facts were established, such as the role of "free-radicals" in the creation of can-cer. Now, these things are much better known, but the entire nuclear industry refuses to acknowledge these issues.
They still try to convince people that a little of their radiation, scattered into your body randomly through pollution, might even be good for you. It isn't. One atonmi aea
-idda your bodjF tan bonds -
creating tritium inside your body, for instance, or breaking apart a delicate protein -
the structure of life.
One damaged DNA strand can lead to fetal deformities or cancer.
San Onofre's "steam generators" need to all be replaced -
two per plant, two plants -
total cost: estimated con-servatively by the company at about
$600 million -
it will probably be a lot more. And they'll have to slice into the uni-body "containment dome" to do the replacement, seriously and permanently weakening that structure. And the replacement parts, unlike the originals (which were never supposed to need to be replaced, but they aged much more rapidly than expected), won't even be made in America, subject to American inspections, or made to American stan-dards of quality (what's left of those standards, anyway).
San Onofre's "water heaters" also all need to be replaced (about 30 per costs), and dismantling costs.
unit). Cost? Just another $7 million for But there are even more costs -
each plant, but there's more:
- for example, the energy that Pipes have.Veen cracking -
proba-will be needed to take care of bly they all need to be replaced, too the waste for the next million (especially, ifthe recent accident in years, including the disman-Japan that killed five workers teaches us tled pieces and the "spent" anything).That's a couple more hundred fuel. Such equations also million dollars that could go to renew-ignore any energy expended on able energy solutions instead.
caring for the millions of sick Strapping for crane lifts has gotten and dying that would result old and failed. This reportedly cost over from a serious nuclear acci-
$5 million to fix.
dent.
The plant is a wreck waiting to hap-Nuclear energy is a finan-pen. Radiation ages things (including cial rat-hole as well as a terror-humans). Salty air destroys most metals.
ist's primary target. San Onofre San Onofre is breaking down far faster makes money only for its than "industry standards" because immediate owners, who are many nukes in America use fresh-water practically given uranium fuel lakes and rivers for coolant. Not San bytheU.S.Government,which Onofre -
it uses sea water.
also promises (but so far has
-But despite San Onofre's accelerat-failed) to take it away after it ed aging, the plant's owners are usually has been turned into radioac-
-behind the-eight ball-vhen-it-comes-to tive waste (at great profit) by repairing things. "Let it fail, then fix it Southern California Edison.
quietly" seems to be their operating
_ San Onofre can and should motto.
be shut down no. While oper-Even fork lift tines have dropped ating, it is thousands of times X
suddenly, due to aging. That should more vulnerable to terrorism never happen.
or forces of nature than when it Transformers have exploded is shut down, even though the because they were old, throwing shards fuel will still be there long of glass onto the nearby railway and after the last watt of electricity freeway (they are so close!). Old break-is produced, and it will still be ers have exploded and burned, causing a danger. But it's much more hundred-million dollar outages. (But in dangerous now, and now is a keeping with their motto, the 130-or so perfect time to cut our losses.
similar breakers were not replaced.)
Russell Hoffman Workers have been exposed to radi-Carlsbad ation. Releases to the public have occurred, and there have even been threats of domestic sabotage directed against the plant -
for example, from an extremely well-armed disgruntled worker who knew the plant intimately because he had broad access privileges before being demot-ed and eventually fired.
It's time to shut San Onofre down. Its power is replaceable. -a -
'a Our land and our lives are not.
Onofre's twin reactors generate ing 500 pounds of extremely toxic waste every day because we are too lazy to build large-scale renewable energy sys-tems is a deadly sin we should stop committing.
But even if we did not con-vert to renewable energy, con-sider this: It's fairly easy -to.
prove that nuclear power does, not generate any "net" energy whatsoever, anyway. That's rea.-
son enough right there to get rid of the plants. This assertion stems from the incredibly ener-gy-intensive processes need to mine and refine uranium into fuel, as well as construction costs (and reconstruction
' M Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585 February 23, 2005 Ms. Annette Vietti-Cook Executive Secretariat Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1 White Flint North Building 11555 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD 20852
Dear Ms. Vietti-Cook:
Because the subject of the attached letter does not fall within the purview of the Department of Energy, we are forwarding it to your agency for response.
If you have any questions, please call me on (202) 586-8923.
Sincerely, Brenda L.
a Work Group Leader Correspondence and Records Management Office of the Executive Secretariat Printed with soy ink on recycted paper