ML19322D419

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Responds to 790404 Request for Info Re Radiation from TMI & Safety of Visiting Pocono Mountains.Average Radiation Dose Received within 50 Miles Was Four Millirems.Max Exposure Was Less than 100 Millirems,Less than Normal Yearly Dose
ML19322D419
Person / Time
Site: Crane Constellation icon.png
Issue date: 01/08/1980
From: Harold Denton
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To: Harris W
AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
Shared Package
ML19322D420 List:
References
NUDOCS 8002120627
Download: ML19322D419 (1)


Text

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JAN 8 1980 Mr. W. !l. Harris 6 Longfellow Park Cambridge, MA 02138

Dear Mr. Harris:

I am writing in response to your letter regarding radiation from Three liile Island.

I regret that this answer to your letter has been delayed and is too late to be useful to you in your planning for the conference. The accident and its consequences have created a substantial increase in the agency's workload, which has prevented ne from responding to you as promptly as I would have liked to.

Enclosed is a copy of the sunmary to " Population Doses and Health Impact of the Accident at the Three flile Island fluclear Station" (NUREG-0558).

This document contains estimates of the average doses to individuals at various distances during the week of ' larch 28, 1979.

The very small dose of radiation that was received by people in the area came from radioactive gases that escaped from the auxiliary building. The average dose of radioactivity received by the population within 50 miles of Three flile Island was approxi-mately 4 millirems. The maximum exposure to any individual was less than 100 millirems, which is less than the yearly dose each Derson receives as a result of natural background radiation.

Doses at these levels result in less than one health effect over the lifetime of all people in this area.

ilatural background radiation received by people in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, area is aoproximately 125 millirems per year. To put these doses into perspective, it should be noted that a traveler flying round trip in a jet between New York City and Los Angeles receives 5 millirems from cosmic rays in the natural background.

At distances greater than 50 miles, radiation due to the Three Mile Island incident would not cause any changes in radiation levels that could be dis-tinguished from natural background radiation.

Sincerely, A

Harold R. Denton, Director l

Office of fluclear Reactor Regulation

Enclosure:

Sunnary of NUREG-0558 80 02120 6 Z 7

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