ML19309A821
| ML19309A821 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Rancho Seco |
| Issue date: | 03/25/1980 |
| From: | Ibser H AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| To: | Kunihiro D Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8004010382 | |
| Download: ML19309A821 (2) | |
Text
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80 03 25 Dean Kunihiro Of fice of Nuclear Reactor Regulation U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555
Dear Mr. Kunihiro:
On the 12th of this month your Emergency Preparedness Review team received public testimony in Sacramento regarding contingency planning for nuclear reactor emergencies. Most unfortunately for me, your hearing was scheduled on an evening when because of my teaching schsdule I was unable to be present.
I would like to have this letter and the accc,mpanying article from the Sacramento Bee made a part of the hearing record, and request that that be done.
As you are probably aware, conflicting testimony given to the press and the public following the Three Mile Island incident of March 28, 1979, led to the preemption of news dissemination by the Nuclear Regulatory Connission within a few days following the incident. Just as Metropolitan Edison, the operator of THI, found difficulty in giving accurate and timely information to the populace around TMI, I am muc5 concerned about the issuance of inform-ation regarding incidents at Rancho Seco.
I would like to believe that the ina,callecion of a resident NRC inspector at Rancho Seco last August would give sone extra assurance that unfavorable in-formation will not in the future be withheld from the public. However, recent articles in the Sacramento Union suggest to me that SMUD management has already found means to bring pressure to bear upon the inspector.
This is particularly interesting in light of the Nuclear Regualtory Commission's proposal to adopt a formal policy for the expression of differing professional opinions af ter being criticized for lowering the boom on professional staff who dare to question the of ficial NRC line.
SMUD 's own staf f i s none too crdble. Beginning last September, shortly after the Sacramento County District Attorney's office indicated an intention to bring to trial for the second time the people who went over the gate at Rancho Seco last spring in protest against its continued operation, I have been in conta, c with the 0.A.'s office concerning what I perceive to be problems with the testimony of the Rancho Seco senior nuclear engineer at the Elk Grove trial of the protestors last summer.
At the conclusion of two conferences with an investigator assigned by the D.A.'s office, I submit ted in November of last year a li st of about 20 ob, tct-i ions to the testimony, referencing the testimony transcript.
I did not fml I l
wanted to keep my mouth shut while people risked jail and fines because ot misleading testimony presented to a judge and jury.
When Justice Raul Ramirez, assigned to the new trial, decided as had Judge Balding before him to allow presentation of the " defense of necessity" -
which holds that you can't convict of trespassing a man who enters a burning house to save a baby - the 0.A. 's of fice dropped charges against the tres-6 passers (in January, 1980.)
p,f During the trial of the trespassers last sunmer, Rancho Seco's senior nuclea SO engineer served a 6 an expert witness for the prosecution (0.A. ).
During 9,(.
a@p 000.4 01038c1
. Cross-examination of this witness, Sacramento Municipal Utility District documents were introduced which indicated that radioactive iodine-131 has been detected in milk produced on a ranch near Rancho Seco. The witness insisted at length that in his professional opinion and judgement the I-131 came from Chinete nuclear bomb tests of 1976.
The official transcript of the trial includes the following exchange between Judge Balding and the witness (who was under oath at the time):
THE COURT: If a brief explanation is possible, how can something that would have an eight-day half life be apparent, let's say, three years later?
THE WITNESS: If you produce enough of it, half and half and half --
it is like the frog that jumps halfway out of the well.
Every time he jumps halfway out of the well, he never gets out of the well. You never run out of iodine.
(p. 214, Whitney testimony transcript)
Judge Balding's question was much better than the answer it received. Three years, 3 x 365 = 1095 days, is 136.2 half lives of I-131 (half life: 8.041 days.)
The largest bomb by far of the 1976 Chinese tests was identified as a 4 megaton hydrogen bomb by the EPA, according to the New York Times at the time. Even if the total energy yield of the bomb (such a fusion bomb would presumably have a plutonium " trigger" only) came from nlutnnium (Pu-239) fission -- a hardly defensible possibility, but a fusion reaction would not itself produce I-131 --
only (!) about 200 kilograms of Pu-239 would have been fissioned. The Pu-239 fission yield of I-131 i s less than 4X,; fission of 200 kg. of Pu-239 would yield less than
.04 x 200 x 6.023 x 1026 atoms of I-131. After 136.2 half 2T7 lives, since (0.5)l36.2 = 1.0 x 10-43, the probability of a single atom of I-131 remaining from the explosion 3 years earlier -- presumably somewhere in the northern hemisphere -- would be about 1.0 x 10-43 x 2.0 x 1025 = 2.0 x 10-16, or much less chance than one in a million billion!
Other members of SMUD 's senior staf f have established their lack of credibility in the past -- a charge which I am able to document.
The Sacramento community would be foolish to place an9 trust in the Rancho Seco or other SMUD staff in case of an accident at Rancho Seco. That staff would be primarily concerned i
with avoidirig the dissemination of unfavorable news to the public, for as long as possible.
Please send me a copy of your Emergency Preparedness Review team's report when it becomes available.
r I
Sincerely, H. W.
Ibser, prof. of physics California State University Sacramento, CA 95819
DA Conc ucting Review W,i"ney Continued From Page BI Of SMUDA. detest.i m o ny
-s into a,.,l d.b.t. _,ea, i
s.ifety.
ByDoug Dempster Ibser dealt with the source of iodine.
Whitney. 36. said he had no knowl-Bee 5:aff Writee 131 detected in milk samples gathered edge of the DA's review until in-around Rancho Seco. the SM UD-oper, formed afterward of the board discus-
"les:imony of a SMUD nuclear engi-ated nuclear power plant. Ibser sion.
neer given at the trial of the Rancho scoffed at Whitney's contention that "I don't claim to have 100 percent Seco 13 demonstrators last summer is the source was a Chinese bomb test of recall ability, but the answers I gave being reviewed by the district attor-some years before.
(at the trial) to the best of my knowl-ney at the request of a nuclear power James Morris, assistant chief depu.
edge are true answers."he said.
foe.the D A's office said Friday.
ty district attorney, and another depu.
A nine year SMUD employee. Whit-The review came to light at Thur.
ty. John Dougherty, confirmed that ney said he has applied for the job of sd.sy night's meeting of the Sacra.
their office is " reviewing it to 20a consumer relations manager.
mento Municipal Utility District places in Whitney's testimony that "In order to advance technically in board Board member Gary Hursh Ibser clai ned are misleading and "of my career I need hig.) class manage-suggested that it "could be very a spurious nature "
ment esperience." he said. "I've had embarrassing" for SMUD if the engl.
Mwris said the review had been some management emperience but I neer. Dan Whitney was promoted to somewhat " stymied by the highly need to demonstrate my abihty to SMUD's chief public information. technical nature of the testimony."
manage a full department."
spokesman and then was "possibly He added that the DA's office is at-indicted for perjury."
tempting to find time for the matter He also said that he feels a,, deep At first' stunned. other board mem.
between heavier priority items and is obligation' to make the pubhc well-IRI"'ned on technical matters - not bers defended Whitney and criticized attempting to " draw on further es.
Hursh for t siking about the matter in Pert opinion apart from Mr. Ibser and only on nuclear energy but energy in e
open session. Board President Paul Mr. Whitney and anyone who's taken general.
Carr said Hursh was using "McCar.
sides on the Rancho Secoissue to see Whitney is one of several SMUD thy type" tactics. Director Don if there's just a difference of opinion employees who speak widely to McClain called it "below the belt."
or that it goes beyond that and may groups on both technical and non.
Director William Baird worried that constitute perjury."
technical aspects of nuclear power Whitney could be eliminated from Morris said in addition to Dougher-and Rancho Secooperations.
consideration for the job and then end ty, an investigator has worked on the He said he had been told he was up "getting a clean ballof health."
matter. Whitney testified for the pros-among the top four candidates for the Hursh. a former deputy district ecution and Ibser for the defense as job, which pays in a range of $30.57 to e
attorney now in private law practice.
expert witnesses after the judge
$39.192 a year. SMUD said an appoint-said he was merely repeating infor.
granted a defense motion to expand ment decision is expected next week.
mation that Homer Ibser, a physics the trial beyond the narrow confines The job was held by Marlen Davis' professor at Cahfornia State Univer. of simple trespassing onto plant who recently retired.
sity. Sacramento. handed to the press lbser said he went to the DA's office at the start of the meeting. He said if SeeWHITNEY.Page 33 SMUD management intends to ap-last September after learning most defendants faced a second trial be-point Whitney it ought to delve first Metropoilten Neues causeof a hungjury.
intolbser's allegations.
gg Part of the testimony questioned by "I did not feel I wanted to keep my mnuth shut whila people risked jail SACRAMENTO BEE, 80 02 09 and fines because of misleading testi.
many." he added.
Ile said he made public his misgiv-ings to the press and llursh after learning of Whitney's bid for the pub-lac relations post because "I believe credibility is important to such a poss-tion."
The district attorney's office last month dismissed the charges against remaining protesters, feeling it wasn't worth the risk of ending up with another split jury.
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