ML18004A163
| ML18004A163 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Harris  |
| Issue date: | 06/23/1986 |
| From: | Buckley B Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | Spalt A AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| Shared Package | |
| ML18004A164 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8606260196 | |
| Download: ML18004A163 (3) | |
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P0 UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
'ASHINGTON, D. C. 20555 June 23, 1986 Mr. Allen Spalt 300 James Street
- Carrboro, North Carolina 27510
Dear Mr. Spalt:
I am pleased to respond to your letter to Mr. Denton which we received June 9, 1986, in which you expressed certain concerns about the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant.
Specifically, you state that "you understand that CPSL has petitioned to have [the ten mile radius around the plant] reduced to only two miles," and you request that the NRC."increase the area to be included in the emergency pian to at 1east twenty miles.
In response to your statement regarding CP8L's request to reduce the 10-mile radius around the plant to 2 miles, there has been no request received by the NRC from CP8L to take such action.
With respect to your comment on increasing the Plume Exposure Pathway Emergency Planning Zone (Plume EPZ) from a radius of 10 miles to at least 20 miles around the plant, commercial nuclear power plants in the U.S.,
based upon requirements of the NRC, have two concentric emergency planning zones (EPZs).
EPZs are defined as the areas for which planning is needed to assure that prompt and effective actions can be taken to protect the public in the event of an accident.
The choice of the size of the Emergency Planning Zones represents a judgment on thy extent of detailed planning whiqh must be performed to assure an adequate response.
In a particular emergency, protective actions might well be restricted to a small part of the planning zones.
On the other hand, for the worst possible accidents, protective actions might need to be taken outside the planning zones.
The first zone, called the Plume Exposure Pathway EPZ, is an area of about 10 miles in radius from the center of the plant.
The major protective actions planned for this EPZ, evacuation and sheltering, would be employed to reduce fatalities and injuries from exposure to the radioactive plume from the most severe of the core-melt accidents and to limit unnecessary radiation exposures to the public from less severe accidents at nuclear power plants.
The second zone, called the Ingestion Pathway EPZ, is an area of about 50 miles in radius from the center of the plant.
The major protective actions planned for this zone, putting livestock on stored feed and controlling food and water, would be employed to reduce exposure to the public from ingestion of contaminated food and water.
The ingestion exposure pathway EPZ of 50 miles was selected because federal protective action guidelines would generally not be exceeded beyond 50 miles for a wide spectrum of hypothetical accidents.
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Mr. Spalt June 23, 1986 The response measures established within the 10-mile and 50-mile EPZs can and will be expanded if the conditions of a particular accident warrant it.
Also, although an EPZ is generally circular, the actual shape is determined based on local factors such as demography, topography, access
- routes, and governmental jurisdictional boundaries at a particular site.
Smaller EPZs have been established for gas-cooled power reactors and smaller water -cooled power reactors.
The principal technical documents that describe the process of defining the size of the EPZs and the planning and protective measures to be taken within them are NUREG-0396, EPA 520/1-78-016, "Planning Basis for the Development of State and Local Government Radiological Emergency
Response
Plans in Support of Light-Water Nuclear Power Plants,"
December 1978 and NUREG-0654/FEMA-REP-1, Revision I, "Criteria for Preparation and Evaluation of Radiological Emergency
Response
Plans and Preparedness in Support of Nuclear Power Plants,"
November 1980.
The principal technical study upon which the sizes of the emergency planning zones were based is NUREG-75/014, "Reactor Safety Study:
An Assessment of Accident Risks in U.S.
Commercial Nuclear Power Plants," October
- 1975, WASH-1400.
I would also like to point out that the North Carolina State Emergency Plan in support of the Shearon Harris plant, CP&Ls Corporate Emergency
- Plan, and the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant Emergency Plan are all located at the local public document room at the Wake County Public Library, Fayetteville Street,
- Raleigh, North Carolina.
I hope that the above discussion is responsive to your concerns.
Sincerely,
/s/
Bart C. Buckley, Senior Project Manager PWR Project Directorate No.
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