ML19312E820

Opposes Facility Based on Inadequate Demand for Increased Electrical Generating Capacity & Public Safety Considerations.Util Motivated by tax-related Incentives. Preliminary Tax Incentive Rept Encl

ML19312E820
Person / Time
Site:	Marble Hill
Issue date:	05/05/1980
From:	Hauck F SAVE THE VALLEY - SAVE MARBLE HILL
To:	Ahearne J NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
References
NUDOCS 8006090585
Download: ML19312E820 (4)

Text

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y 5, 3 Mg 0980 > --- 1980 SO@b Mr. John Ahearne, Chairman E' Office of the Secrittry 78 Fellow Commissioners Dccheting & Senice The Nuclear Regulatory Commission g B

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Subject:

The Lack of Urgency for Making the Marble Hill Decision Quickly

Dear Mr. Ahearne:

Despite the March public meeting in Madison, there are many unanswered questions related to MH's safety, and even to the actual need for the facility itself. NRC's attitude, as'we perceive it, is that all matters relating to safety have been assured, and that PSI's need for this additional generating capacity is urgent. STV emphatically disputes both stances. We perceive the threats to our health to be great, and perceive further that PSI's need for capacity is vastly overstated.

STV's PERCEPTION OF THE DANGERS THE QUALITY OF PSI's MANAGEMENT Since 1975, we the technically trained people of STV, have listened to more than 20 of PSI's management people throughout many different hearings. We can only describe most of these people as inept and confused representatives of the most profit-oriented organization that we have encountered anywhere!

PSI's LACK OF CANDOR

1. Radiation The response PSI has always given to STV's concerns for health and safety has worried us, particularly the nearest residents, the citizens of Madison and Hanover. The possible damaging effects of radiation releases has usually been equated to .those encountered, in short plane flights. The years-long studies by well-known scientists have been categorized as invalid and as being of no  ;

consequence. Here are some of STV's questions on radiation: )

a. Have the hundreads of acknowledged concrete voids been tested for gamma radiation leakage?

b. What kinds of health radiation damage could result from voids completely missed by the void-detection system used?

c. If MH is completed, for how long does PSI plan to use on-site storage of spent fuel?

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d. If MH is completed, does PSI plan to use the newly designed compact storage system as designed by Exxon and others?

e. What are.the foreseeable results of the lack of cooling water with either standard or compact on-site storage of spent fuel?

f. What does PSI intend to ultimately do with this spent fuel?

We would remind NRC that the Inter-Agency Group of 12 government agencies set up to determine the effective date for commercial operation of an approved storage facility, selected 1992 as the probable median date. However, just 3 weeks ago at a DOE conference at Reston, Virginia, a government researcher suggested that 1997 would be a more realistic date! Is even 1997 assured?

2. NEED FOR' MARBLE HILL'S CAPACITY PSI has often expressed fear that Indiana will be short of electrical generating capacity by the mid-1980's even though PSI's' current reserve ratio is in excess of 50%. PSI's all-time peak was 3718 mW established in January 1979. PSI continues to say that MH's capacity is ' urgently needed. If that is so -

a. Why does PSI's annual report list 5716 mW as their current total capacity? This figure gives a 53% reserve above last year's peak!

Further, the current building of 650 mW of additional coal-fired capacity (Gibson #5) will push this figure even higher.

b. Why does current FERC data list PSI's capacity as 5794 mW, giving reserves as 56%?

c. Why does the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimate Indiana's populatio2 growth rate (as well as that of adjoining states) as among the lowest'in the nation, while PSI continues to project an, rowth rate of 6% annually, among the highest in the nation?

STV is quite certain that the Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURPA) age, sh Gr,-

as well as rapidly rising energy costs, will sharply constrain demand 4

growth. STV is attaching a set of capacity and demand curves illustrat-our vastly different perceptions of MH's capacity need. Even the optimistic US Commerce Dept. continues to list Indiana's electricity ua4-growth rate at only 3.4% annually.

In quite plain words, how could PSI's demand grow at twice the probable national rate while Indiana's population is growing at only half the national average?

The report is called " Preliminary Forecast of Likely U.S. Energy Consumption / Production Balances for 1985 and 2000 by States" - 11/78 )

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3. THE CONCRETE PROBLEMS We would remind NRC that, except for STV's vigilence and that of some of the construction employees, the work on the containment buildings would be much further along, and probably of even poorer quality than that which exists today. On the concrete problems, we would ask:

a. What is the confidence level that 95% of the concrete voids have been properly delineated? Even if this job is well done, what of the remaining 5%? Where, and how large are they likely to be?

b. In view of the large sums (much more tha $20 million) that PSI has paid Sargant & LUndy, can S&L be expected to express candidly adverse views on concrete problems, especially if those opinions might result in the costly tearing our of extensive areas of poor quality concrete?

c. Since the cursory testing for voids in accessible areas has already i located more than 500 suspect areas, how does NRC propose that the l inaccessible areas be checked?

THE TAX-RELATED INCENTIVES TO BUILD UNNEEDED CAPACITY To illustrate the money incentives that may be pushing PSI toward unwise capacity additions, we attach a copy of Dr. Duane Chapman's l

. preliminary tax-incentive report given recently to the ORBES study group.

Besides the many tax credits accruing to the utility itself, utility employees including executives , participate in subsidized stock purchase plans. These plans on the average seem to amount to gifts over a number of years, equal approximately to 1-year's free salary even for top executives earning $100,000 and more annually.

Can the NRC summon the courage to question this incentive which for PSI's Marble Hill facility alone would amount to about $81 million?

Fred Hauck, President S ave- th e-Valley

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