ML19340C816
| ML19340C816 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 11/15/1980 |
| From: | Beckmann P AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| To: | |
| References | |
| PR-801115, NUDOCS 8012170514 | |
| Download: ML19340C816 (1) | |
Text
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1 DCC CED DOCKET NUMBER UN PROD. & UTil. FAc
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5 DEC 161980,, Te 9
Office of the seer,;,,y
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Docketint & Service 9
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OPEN LETTER TO THE CHAIRSfAN OF THE NRC 9
/ and to the Chairman, Atomic Safety Licensing Board, Washington, DC 20555 Docket 50 289SP/ TMI Unit I i to go on record as a Limned Appearance Statement in the Heanngs on the Restart and Licensing of Urut 1. Three Mile 14and (TMt.1).
k 15 November 1980 I
The prolonged delay in restarting Unit I of Three Mile Island nuclear plant (TMI-1), which was neither damaged nor involved s
in the March 1979 incident, is costing th es, for its undelivered
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power is being replaced by electricity from less safe sources.
i 75eo of the power now being bought by Metropolitan Edison to replace TMI is coal-fired [1]; prorating the number of i l
premature deaths due to coal-fired plants alone, and by air. ?
i pollution alone, I find (using mainly the detailed data collected
~ ' '
g by Brookhaven National Laboratory and published in the report 5
r by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment) the me-C f
E dian number of stich deaths due to the idle TMI-l capacity of !
)
a
(
792 MW to be more than two per week [2]. That means that [
F more than 173 premature deaths have by now occurred; and !
[
with 50r probability, that number has been exceeded.
o
'[
It is true that these fatalities caused by the failure to restart TMI-l are not individually traccable, and that most of them are *
- _ _ elderly people whose lives are shortened by comparatively small i p
periods. They die nevertheless; they die unnecessarily; and they )
die by the slowness of a process that was intended to protect the health and safety of the population, j
Antinuclear propagandists such as the so-called Union of r :
6 Concerned Scientists are free to frighten people with the risks of i nuclear power while concealing from them that it presents a risk j
reduction (albeit not to zero) from the hitherto used methods of
.; generating electricity. The NRC, I submit, has no such freedom, J,
for its mandate makes it responsible for assuring public health t j
,j and safety in regulating the civilian nuclear industry.
4' P
1 therefore urge the NRC to re-licence TMI-l for immediate.: '
[ start-up, not cnly because its continued shut-down is unjustified Y 0 f
and disenminatory, but because it costs lives for which the NRC y -
f is, by its mandate, legally accountable.
I
~.. _. _ _
htd Petr Beckmann )
5
[
l Professor, Electr. Eng. Dept. L 1
University of Colorado t
!!1 Best estimate by personally contacted spokesman of General Public n
Utilities. [2] The Direer Use of Coal, OTA Report Washington, D.C.,1979; V
f median number of deaths based on BNL data, p.2.8, interpolated for 1980;
'. fraction of coal used for electne power generation 0.776 (doe /EIA 1979);
e j pro rated for TMI-I 75% of 792 MW vs. 228.900 MW total US coal-fired !
g capacuy (DcE 1979). Not considered: excess casualties in the mming and f g transponation of coal vs. uranium for the same deliveted electnc power, ex.
j g cess casualties in the fuel cycle of oil-lired power plants, nor local effects 3 (Pennsylvama is far above average in coal-fired air pollution and correlated !
mortahtg All of these would cause the estirnate to increase above the 2 r
j deaths / week given here.
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8012170514