ML19241C021
| ML19241C021 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane, Barnwell  |
| Issue date: | 06/13/1979 |
| From: | Gossick L NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | Andrew Ireland HOUSE OF REP. |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19241C022 | List: |
| References | |
| PROJECT-129U NUDOCS 7907260246 | |
| Download: ML19241C021 (2) | |
Text
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JUN I t 1979 Docket No.
P-129 The Honorable Andy Ireland House of Representatives Washington, D. C.
20515
Dear Congressman Ireland:
This is in regard to your letter of April 24, 1979 requesting our response to' the questions raised by Mr. Bettle.
It appears from Mr. Bettle's letter that he has four concerns stemming from the Three Mile Island event.
Responses to these c oncerns are as f oll ows :
With respect to disposal of contaminated structures it should be recog-nized that not all of the plant's components and systems will require dis-posal as radioactive waste.
It is expected that only those components and systems that will be radioactive after decontamination will be selected for disposal. The fuel elements would be transferred to a storage facility and the contaminated systems and components would be decontaniinated where practicable.
Decontamination of systems and components is not new, since it has been employed in the U. S. nuclear submarine program.
Similar state of the art techniques would be applied to commercial nuclear power plants.
The disassembled contaminated plant componente and systems would be shipped to existing licensed burial grounds such as B i'well, South Carolina.
With respect to the nuclear power plant at Sh4pingport, Pennsylvania, this facility is owned by the Department of Energy (DOE), and is operated for DOE by the Duquesne Light Company.
In accordance with the Atomic Energy Act and the Energy Reorganization Act this facility has been and continues to be exempt from licensing by the NRC.
Presently, Shippingport is operating with a light water breeder reactor core as part of a DOE research program.
We do not know what future plans there are to operate the facility beyond completion of this program, nor do we have information relating to the question of eventual plant deconmissioning.
With respect to the question concerning costs and risks the following economic cost estimates for Pennsylvania were taken from the enclosed publication,
" Cost of Generating Baseload Electricity by Region"-
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Nuclear Coal Fixed Cost 39.65 31.26 Operation and Maintenance 3.03 6.23 Fuel 14.76 27.59 Total 57.44 65.08 These generating' cost estimates are for the first year of operation at 2400 MWe station in mills per killowatt-hour (1990 dollars). The cost of decommissioning is included in one fixed cost and the cost of nuclear waste disposal is included in the nuclear fuel cost. Other assumptions and sensitivity analyses can be found in the publication.
Section 9.1.3.1 of the enclosed Final Environmental Statement for the proposed Greene County Nuclear Power Plant contains a comparison of estimated mortality and morbidity (i.e., number of cases of diseased and injured) resulting from the operation of 1000 MWe coal and nuclear generating stations for one year at an 80% capacity factor.
Nuclear Coal Excess Mortality 1.2-6.8 15-120 Excess Morbidicy 17-24 57 i0 With respect to the worst case accident for conventionally fueled power plants, to the best of our knowledge worst case accident scenarios have not been evaluated.
I trust that the above is responsive to your request.
Sincerely, WadlT.tJehm (f
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Enclosures:
1.
NUREG-0480 Comparison of the Cost of Generating Baseload Electricity by Region 2.
HUREG-0512 FES Greene County Nuclear Power Plant 51\\
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