ML100261107

Requests to Make Limited Appearance Statement

ML100261107
Person / Time
Site:	Indian Point
Issue date:	03/03/1969
From:	Tortaglione L City of Yonkers, NY, Dept of Parks, Recreation and Conservation
To:	US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
Shared Package
ML100261103	List: ML100261102 ML100261106 ML100261107
References
NUDOCS 8111120398
Download: ML100261107 (12)

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S ecreUtcuuJ United States Atomic Ene)Lgt Com

.6ion Washington, D.C. 20545 DeCL Sit:

Re.: Conzo.idated Edion Company o6 New York, Inc.

Indian Point ULit Ne.

3 Docket No. 50-286 I,. accoirdance with Section 2,715 o4 the Cotht ekW's Rutc5 of Pr-Lactice, I wish to make a t-lnied appeara.;ic

.,N o6 the application cat the hearing to be hetd in

r. m o'ucecc;Luig on MaLc 25, 1969.

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March 4, 1969 Mr. W. B. McCool Secretary U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Washington, D. C. 20545

Dear Sir:

Re:

Consolidated Edison of New York, Inc.

Hearing on Application for Pr-.o:viion Construction Permit -- Docket Nc. 50-28-6 The National Parks Associat.ion s

to make a limited appearance in the above proceed incxs in accordance with the notice. in the Federal Register for Wednesday, February 5, 1969.

Please confimn approva.l of this, request.

Wayne Smith General Counsel AWS :mn

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Facts Which Show

...The Rapid Nuclear Reactor Expansion Into Populated Areas Is The Greatest Threat To The American Environment..

Citizens Committee for the Protection of The Environment 11 Depot Plaza White Plains, New York 10606

.. 1k "SIXTEEN REASONS WHY NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS, ENDANGERING MILLIONS, SHOULD BE STOPPED"

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Most Americans have heard that we are already enjoying the blessings of nuclear power. It comes as a -shock to find scien tist after scientist reporting that the op eration of nuclear plants poses very real

'hazards to biological systems, including man. Yet the United States is embarked on programs which would increase nu clear power 30-fold in the next decade.

Threatened on every hand with rising levels of pollution, we must make every effort to prevent the release of radioactive wastes of a dozen different isotopes into the American environment.

Full documentation and references to support the following sixteen points are available without charge from the Anti Pollution League, Allendale, N. J. 07401:

1. Nuclear Energy:

The Big Question Mark Obtaining electrical energy from nu clear reactors is a new technology anl as such not far advanced. It was only in 1957 that the first nuclear pow er was produced in this country. In the meantime, formidable obstacles have been encountered which raise the question whether nuclear power could efficiently supply more than a very small fraction of our total energy needs-although it may be valuable and useful in special applications where conventional fuels or hydro-power are unavailable or scarce.

2. Vhatever Happened to the Peaceful Atom?

By decision of Congress, the promotion of nuclear power was entrusted to the Atomic Energy Commission under the AEC Act of 1954. Although billions of dollars have been spent to induce utili-ties to go nuclear and to advance-re actor development and safety pro grams, David E. Lilienthal, First Chair man of the Atomic Energy Commis sion, concluded five years ago that the earlier promise of nuclear energy was unrealizeable.

3. Fission vs. Fusion Dr. James Bryant Conant and other scientists have long urged research in-to other forms of energy generation which do not entail the creation of deadly by-products and wastes.

Dr.

--Conant warned "in practice, nuclear,-

energy (fission) will be found too dang erous and too expensive."

Nuclear fusion, if the thermo-nuclear process can be harnessed, would provide ener gy most economically, using abundant materials without creating a host of dangerous radio-active isotope by-pro ducts. Solar energy may be the event ual. answer.

4. So-Called "Clean" Energy The type of reactor now being built in large numbers is already obsolete, in the opinion of many experts. These primitive light-water reactors of both the. boiling-water and pressurized-wat er design contribute to massive envi ronmental pollution, by enormous

.quantities of excess heat they generate and low-level radioactive wastes which-'

are routinely discharged into the air and water in. the normal operation of these plants. Therefore, "clean" energy is as misleading a term as "clean" bombs.

5. Plutonium As, A By-Product' All nuclear plants of present design manufacture plutonium, the material required for nuclear weapons. There fore, in a very real sense every nuclear '

power plant is a weapons plant.

Al ready some of this dangerous available by-product plutonium is disappearing or has been stolen. In exporting re actors, we are providing many nations with the basic material to make nu clear weapons, almost thereby thwart ing the expressed goals of the Nuclear, Non-Proliferation Treaty. It is difficult to guard against the diversion of plu-.:

tonium to military ends. How peaceful is the atom? Not very!

6. Using Up Uranium. Can We Afford It?

The stepped-up and telescoped develop ment of nuclear power brought about by the subsidized AEC program is us ing scarce fissile uranium-235 at a pro digous rate.' All available uranium at the present price level is already large-i

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ly committed to fuel the reactors now in.prospect ' r the next decade.

Yet

--these reactors utilize only about 1%

of the potential energy in this scarce uranium. There are more efficient types of reactors in prospect but the so-called "fast-breeder," which could supply fan tastically economical energy but must be started up with the uranium we now so prodigally waste.

7. Fast Breeder-A New Danger To divert attention from the failure of light-water reactors to attain the pro mised economical operation, the "fast breeder" is being pushed, even before there has been a sensible decision on whether or not certain controlling fundamental obstacles can be over come. Chief among these is the safety factor. Dr. Edward H. Teller, the noted physicist, said, that these devices may be so dangerous that they should not be built at all. Light-water reactors, although they may be subject to accid ents which could release large amounts of deadly fission product inventories into the environment with catastrophic results, can not blow up like an atomic bomb. "Fast-breeders," however, will contain vast amounts of plutonium and conceivably could blow up with all the violence of an H-bomb.

8. Atomic Accidents-Deadly Effects Although ingenuous measures have been devised to shut down reactors in the event of trouble and to limit the

-consequences of an accident by con taining deadly high-level wastes with in the reactor structure, it is impossible to rule out accidents altogether. Human error and sabotage are ever-present possibilities.

9. Atomic Energy vs. The Bomb?

Should a major accident occur, the AEC has warned that death in the thousands, injuries in the tens of thous ands and billions of dollars of property damage might result.

Dr. Teller has warned that reactors do not belong on the "face of the earth," but deep un derground where a system of interlocks

'ould prevent radiation seeping over an area of several hundreds of square miles like a deadly blanket. Dr. Teller has said that radiation from a nuclear reactor is more to be feared than that from even the largest bombs, which vent much of their radiation high in the atmosphere. This fact supports the case for locating reactors only in iso lated areas with low-level density populations.

10. Nuclear Power Reliability

'Along with cost, reliability of service is of paramount importance in selecting

'methods of generating electric power.

The Joint Committee on Atomic Ener gy, which supervises the operation of the AEC, warned on April 2, 1968, against the utilities placing dependence for vitally needed power on the new technology of nuclear power reactors.

If nuclear' reactors are delayed in de livery and require prolonged shake down periods and then operate erratic ally because the.colossal number :of safety devices which can shut, them down, not only will power be highly expensive, but unreliable-if any util ity has a sizeable fraction of its gen erating capacity in nuclear form.

11. Effects of Radiation and Radioactive Waste Citizens ivho live within 50 miles of the location of a nuclear reactor, particu larly those downwind, are deprived of constitutional rights to equal protec tion under the law. Scientists are firm ly of the opinion that any radiation, however slight, above natural back ground levels, causes genetic muta tions; nuclear reactors, particularly those of large size when clustered to gether, could raise levels so appreci ably as to increase the incidence of leukemia, cancer of the thyroid and

-,other effects of radiation. Why should citizens be exposed to such risk with out their knowledge and consent? The AEC allowances for the release of low level radioactive wastes pay little at tention to-the recently recognized high susceptibility of pregnant women and

-I children and the ability of many organ isms to re-conce1itrate waste in its passage through the food chain to hazardous levels.

12. The Public Defrauded Since original guidelines for siting re actors in remote areas have been vio lated, at least 25 million Americans stand in danger of substantial financial losses in the event of a major nuclear reactor "excursion." Only $560 million is available in a combination of private and government indemnity insurance.

Without the $486 million provided by the government at a nominal fee, utili ties said they would not build nuclear stations. But at this figure there is a cut-off. The "no-recourse" provision of the Price-Anderson Act Extension in effect says the public must bear the risk -of any damage exceeding the $560 million stated limit. Besides the loss of life and injuries, in 1957, the AEC esti mated that among the possible conse quences of a major accident could be property losses ranging up'to $7 billion.

This was for small reactors with a shorter fuel cycle and smaller fission product inventory than today's-and in 1957 dollars. Wtih today's reactors the losses could be truly staggering, a na tional blow, wiping out thousands of businesses, contaminating lands so that they should not be used for agriculture and requiring long-term evacuation of areas as large as some states. The pub lic has no redress. It is impossible for an individual to buy private insurance to protect his property against nuclear damage.

13. Thermal Pollution To avoid the damage to aquatic life from the release of billions of gallons of water a day needed to cool the con densers, engineers have offered me chanical cooling towers at a number of proposed nuclear plant sites. There is evidence that discharging vast amounts of heat into lakes or small rivers would be particularly damaging to fish life.

Even a few degrees rise in temperature in bodies of water like Long Island Sound, which is already'highly pol luted, would cause multiplication of noisome bacteria and threaten the health of millions in water-contact sports and recreation. But discharging heat into the air via cooling towers in many locations would change the wea ther-causing fog and icing and predis posing to many more cloudy days per year.

14. Fossil Fuels Must Be Mainstay Even should the present nuclear ex pansion proceed as proponents assum ed, the nation would still be dependent at the end of a decade on fossil fuels for about 70% of all its power genera tion. Until recently, combustion of coal, oil and natural gas has given rise to objectionable levels of air.pollution, particularly from sulphur dioxide.

Now by new devices almost all of the sulphur compounds can be. removed and fly-ash and particulate matter re duced almost -to zero.

These devices should-be installed-on all existing fos sil-fuel equipment as soon as possible because the utility industry accounts for about half, of alsuch air pollution on a national scale. There is, enough coal :available for-centuries. Therefore, there is no excuse for the haste which has characterized the nuclear energy expansion, particularly: the "band wagon" psychology which has prevail ed since 1966.

15. Underground Transmission of Electricity-Pattern for the Future Numerous bills have been introduced in Congress seeking to minimize the damage to the environment caused by the present random pattern of siting both nuclear and the fossil fuel plants.

As long as utilities chose their own sites, they will favor locations within the territory where they are afforded a monopoly to s6l! power. With. pres ent and future concentrations of popu tion, we can no longer tolerate the philosophy which says private profit is the greatest good. Strides in technology have enabled us to transmit electricity over long distances at comparatively low w

4 cost. Progress is being made in under ground transmission so that it would be possible on a long-range basis to plan a system whereby the Atlantic Sea board and the Middle West might be supplied from an "energy-spine" run ning down Appalachia.

Here both mine-mouth plants and safely under ground nuclear stations might operate in a corridor from which people and animals had been removed in order to minimize the effects of pollution local ly. With savings of such a system we could afford to install every possible pollution abatement and waste utiliza tion devices. Although the initial in vestment would be sizeable in such a system, it could remove the critical pollution that exists in our major population centers.

16. Nuclear Wastes -

Hell On Earfth Until the problem of satisfactory dis posal of high-level wastes is so1 ed, no further sizeable nuclear expansion should be permitted. Already we have about 90 million gallons of this waste in temporary storage.

With the ex pansion in prospect, the treatment fa cilities and areas needcd. for storage would have to be increased greatly.

This "hot" waste is so deadly-that a single gallon loosed in the environment could kill 2-3 million people.

No one knows how long it will have to be carefully

guarded, certainly many hundreds of years. Operating the nu clear reprocessing plants to separate this broth of deadly products from the still valuable "unburned" uranium and by-product plutonium is the dirtiest phase of the nuclear industry.

It may be years before improved technology, which could perform these operations without hazard to the environment, is an accomplished fact.

Transportation of high-level wastes has already re sulted in serious leakage through acci dent and much more of this must be expected.

The handwriting is on the wall.

Dare we create more of these deadly wastes until we have learned to safely dispose of what we have?

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