ML19341C332
| ML19341C332 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Sequoyah  |
| Issue date: | 12/18/1980 |
| From: | Downey T HOUSE OF REP. |
| To: | NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19341C329 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8103020801 | |
| Download: ML19341C332 (3) | |
Text
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j Congress of itje Enitch 6tates l
BPouse of Representatibes MasWagten B.C.
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Sir:
The attached co=unication f
b is sent for your consideration.
Please investigate the statements 4
contained therein and forward me i
the necessary infor.ation for re-4 l
ply, returning the enclosed corre.
spondence with your answer.
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Yours truly, I
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20 Crosby Street
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Sayville, New York 11782
,4 December 9, 1980 The Honorable Congressman Thomas Downey 42 Sequams Lane West Islip, New York 11795
Dear Congressman Downey:
I read in a recent article published in Newsday regarding the issusance of a license to a nuclear plant in Tennessee called Sequoyah-l. The Nuclear Reg-ulatory Conunission, with full knowledge that the plant does not have the safety features of "Three Mile Island", still has granted permission for its operation.
I feel this is indeed a poor judgment on the part of the Nuclear Regulatory Comission.
I must register my complaint on this issue and ask your help 1
to impress upon the commission that there are people who are concerned for the safety of the innocent and the citizenry in general.
I am enclosing a copy of the recent Newsday article for your reading.
Thank you for any help you can summon in this very important issue.
Very truly yours, p~
P.' E D
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Marion Sansom
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(fler the vb manet aw.s o.o....
1 afTord to send her.but, as n Then comes the next uay, m in cloning l'il may im o.
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c rpenter's fi;ld.The fact that I was turned out, school was the cnswer.' senve home so fast that I won't be major problem for full time stu-e l~
c union capenter made cmployers With my veteran's eduention beno-cb!) to eat. It beco. es c conti:u-dents who happen to be parents. I in other field 2 cfr id to hire me. As f in rnd nehool gr nts,both my wife ous act of putting things oli entil shouldn't com 1:in, becune when a ccrpenter I mrde a good sal:ry-and I were cbla to cnroll in school. later. Many days. I w lk cround my identity c :nges from student q,
when I was working! Other employ-With' our part time jobs and the campus with my stomach talking to gradunte. I will be set for life. I
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era didn't offer as much money, and grants, many of our financial prob-very loud. But after three years, will get a job as a high-paying pro-j they were afraid I would leave them lems were solved-we thought.
rns getting used to living this life. fesaional. But my garbage man is a p g,j if I wan called back to work an a Then came inflation. On some I'm talking about a life of not hav-graduate of Manhattan College.
carpenter. I really couldn't blame pay days, I find myself nearly ing quite enough.
,q 1, them, because at the time, they broke. Some weeks I have to go two were right!
Ignacrisig the Lessoras of Three Mile Iskrand ese s
even been raised whether their operating license Eg1 should be suspended until a reliable system to pre-must be nble to withstand 5 per cent oxidation. But l
d vent the accumulation of hydrogen is deve ope.
at Three Mile Inland somewhere between 30 per (C~~')) l By Jessica Tischman Mathemi Seven other reactors of this type are in some stag d
cent and 60 per cent of the metal was oxidized.
The NRC staffs estimate, based on recent calcu-of construction, as are 20 m Washington-For almut a year after the acci-1 a
y dent at Threo Mile Island on March 28,1979 evenlations by the reactor a designer, in that, though de-nly the 5 per ce plants of a similar denign.The Sequoyah d O minor inaues of nuclear safety commanded ishtant w
thinking that led to Three Mile Island ia the firn public attention. But when the krypton gas at signed to meet Sequoyah contamment could withstand prensures place. During the eridless debaten of the I Three Mile Island was finally safely vented a. nd the caused by up to 25 per cent oxidation. This is stillbelow th years over untenolved safety issuen, in g cican-up of the damaged reactor began, mterest ergue that its engineers' calculations were "co o
l vative," that safety margins had already been a -
g p ap ra M bince then,back in its fam.h,ar shadows outside - Jessica Tuchman Afathews Iowed for and,if the numbern still didn't work, t
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g the glare of pubhe acrutiny,the Nuclear Regulatory the postulated accident was extremely unlik i
g 2numyn on hna made at least one decision wfucfi editorial page stat / of The Washington Post. ~ the first place-hardly reason e
, suggests that the commission has succumbed to the g pressures to get the nuclear industry moving againeven before safety problems brought m
ready been spert.The NRC would respond by Three, Mile Island are solved. The controversial de-cmon myolves an operating license h Sequoynh plant.
z problem was not a problem be lhe NiiUear'SaTery oversTghTrommittee, ap-pointed by President Carter after Three Mile Inland, raine Tennessec called Seuuoyahiwhose containment is at Three Mile Island. Now, precisely the same a so thin that it could not have withstood the pres-guments are being made about Sequoya report to the President. Arguing thatthe N RC haa re-verted t sures that were generated at Three Mile Inland, still unnolved hydrogen issue has been dea Nuclear reactorn are surrounded by a huge con-by ruling out the likelihood that Three Mil licennes based solely on the expectation that ThreeMile Inla tainment vennel designed to keep the radioactivity or a similar sequence of unanticipated eve i
in9ide in all cirr'nstances short of a full acale core concluded:"We do not share such judgment; any sys-happen again.For a while it necmed as tho tem should presumptively be atleast good enough todeal w meltdown.
ao one anticipated what actu.
the was a blessing in disguise.The shock would forc The catch v s t*, ce Mile Island when the metal industry and the NRC to clea committee's report is still secret: The White llouse ally took place m the nuclear fuel reacted with han neither responded to nor releaned the text.
cladding that. water, produemg n'e amounts of hydrogen. De-shelled nlatives forte' the question of whethe Sequoyah Lis not the only thin-shelled reactor.
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fore Three Mile Inland, the NRC thought that this "Mi!PIhland'thught 4hy'lasylt g'Imone % *.
Two other Westinghoune reactors of the name de-sign t of,the
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, otidation reaction might. affect 1 per cen
'*n-i f fety,'its
, metal. Allowing a conservallVe marg n o aa, design criteria' therefore specified tha
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