ML13357A806
| ML13357A806 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Diablo Canyon  |
| Issue date: | 12/19/2013 |
| From: | Leon V - No Known Affiliation |
| To: | NRC/SECY/RAS |
| SECY RAS | |
| References | |
| 78FR56775 00592, NRC-2012-0246, PR-51 | |
| Download: ML13357A806 (3) | |
Text
1 Rulemaking1CEm Resource From:
RulemakingComments Resource Sent:
Monday, December 23, 2013 7:54 AM To:
Rulemaking1CEm Resource
Subject:
FW: Docket ID No. NRC-2012-024 DOCKETED BY USNRCOFFICE OF THE SECRETARY SECY-067 PR#: PR-51 FRN#: 78FR56775 NRC DOCKET#: NRC-2012-0246 SECY DOCKET DATE: 12/19/13 TITLE: Waste ConfidenceContinued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel COMMENT#: 00592
Original Message-----
From: Vicki Leon [1]
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2013 9:37 PM To: RulemakingComments Resource
Subject:
RE: Docket ID No. NRC-2012-024
Dear members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
This letter is in regards to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County, California, and its nuclear waste.
I am a 39-year resident of this county and author of 37 books, including three books on this county and its natural wonders, as well as a line of nature books about the living creatures (sea otters, elephant seals, dazzling bird life) that make this area such a spectacular and special place. In addition, I've spent much of my life doing intensive research for the nonfiction I write. In that capacity, I've also researched the nuclear fuel cycle of Diablo and of the other nuke plants around the US and elsewhere for a forthcoming book.
Thus I consider myself an ardent advocate and defender of the county and its riches as well as a reasonably well-informed citizen about the dangers it faces. The primary one being, the risks we run by living in proximity to the Diablo plant and the spiderweb of earthquake faults that surround it on land and underwater. No one can know when the next "big one" will hit. However, anyone can see that we also face a heinous short-term risk, a foolishly high one, posed by the growing pileup of spent fuel rods in the pools at Diablo.
Fukushima has given all of us a play-by-play of the multiple ways in which things can go terribly wrong with nuclear facilities in a natural disaster--and even more in the aftermath of unforeseen circumstances. It has vividly shown us, in real time, how beautiful communities and fertile soils surrounding a nuke facility can turn into toxic never-never lands after an accident or a partial meltdown.
Two years in, and Fukushima's problems continue to mount. Now they are our problems, too, as radioactive materials and contaminated water continued to flow into the Pacific and circulate through the air that arrives on our California shores.
We, the residents of SLO county, along with the Diablo plant, sit alongside a sea just as capable of producing a tsunami on this side of the Pacific Rim as the other.
2 Diablo and its hazards imposes a huge burden of anxiety on our communities. It puts us in extreme jeopardy---not merely us but generations to come. Life is full of risks--but this one can be sidestepped if you put human safety and welfare first.
At the very least, please see fit to delay relicensing until such time as the dangerous quantity of highly radioactive spent fuel rods is transferred into dry casks. At present, that is the only safer option for this diabolical material. Perhaps someday fuel rods can be made safer by better cladding, as preliminary studies seem to show. But "someday" isn't now.
Now is when public safety should be paramount.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely---Vicki Leon, author, historian, and speaker
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FW: Docket ID No. NRC-2012-024 Sent Date:
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