ML19344E134
| ML19344E134 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 08/15/1979 |
| From: | Rech E AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| To: | Hendrie J NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19344E133 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8008260739 | |
| Download: ML19344E134 (5) | |
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Edward L. Rech Box 670, R.D. #3
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Duncannon, Pa.
17020 August 15, 1979 Mr. J.M. Hendrie Chairman U.S. Nucler hegulatory Co=missi on Washington b.C.
p 20555 At this time I respectfully request that you proceed with all possible haste in an effort to utilize what ever influence you and the powers of your office can muster in an effort to protect the citizens of the Greater Harrisburg, Fa. Area from what must now be considered a clear and present danger to their health and welfare. The clear and present danger I speak of is the clean-up procedu,res and continued operations _in part or whole of the Three MileJsland Nuclear _ Facility by The Metrop;111an Edison Company or its parent company _, The General _Public Utilities dorporation.
% concern and anxiety grow daily as more and more factual information becomes available to the public regarding events at Three Mile Island from March 28 to present.-
Whether these events are the result of a lack of communication, incompetence, faulty facility design, inadequate safety precautions, neglegance, sabatoge, or a combination of some or all of these, while important, should no longer be of prime importance.
What should be of greater concern is that a technology that was permitted to serve and benefit the citizens of the Greater Harrisburg, Pa. Area, now holds them captive and in fear. What is evsn more alarming is that these citizens have been told by some public officials that opinions and c'oncerns of the citizens will not be taken into consideration in any decision making process regarding future utilization of said nuclear facility. This is,not right or just!
Since no one really knows just how much harmful radiation has been released upon the public, it should be that no raore radiation be released, regardless of how small or over how great a time period. I feel this is extreemly importan t!
I am most sure that duely elected and appointed cN icials can and must ban together in an effort to regain control of this site.alon. I am most sure'that j
the general public will back efforts in their behalf towards such an end.
Please review the enclosed article, as it is what I have written in detail as a l
basis for this request.
Sincerely yours, MO
.8oosno737
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NUCLEAh*TECHNOLOGYr A NEN AND DIFFERENT BALLGAME We are playing in a new ballgame and trying to make old rules fit a new situation.
We must change our thinking, codify our approach, revise our game-plan, or loose the whole ballgame due to too many errors, or one error too many.
History was and is written by those who learned how to win, and read by those who survive. We are the descendants of those who learned from nature's rule book. Those wh-refused to learn from nature's rule book, did not survive even the simplest of man's applied technology, have no descendants, and in some cases, save for a random archaeol-ogical discovery by anthropologists, are not even known to have existed at all.
Nuclear technology is only one of many can has tried to develop to date, but unlike the other technologies, it affects not only this generation, but future generations to come, if indeed there shall be such at all. There is nothing in nature's rule book that says mankind has to survive.
1his new technology affects a sense of time ad space like no other to date. Will we benefit from our knowledge in time?
One of the first technologies man tried to mater and improve upon was the use of fire. Many lost their lives as we discovered what were and how best to apply nature's rules relative to this eliment. This was acceptable, for with each error, the new knowledge and benefits clearly out-weighed the loss and grief of a few, so that the majority would live better. Over the years we have found many diverse applications of this basic technology, and of all the applied sciences, the use of fire is probably the most universal in the world today. Have ve truely mastered this, our most basic tech-nology? No.
If we had there would be no need for fire departments, and the s=oke alarm industry would have no reason to exist. Why, after all these years, have ve not been able to truely master this our most basic technology, and utilize it on a "Zero-Error" basis? The answere is as simple or as complexed as man himself. Man is consistantly inconsistant, and perfectly imperfect, even when he tries his collective best to be consistant and perfect in his actions. Nature's laws are relatively consistant and perfect, and not subject to any basic modification man might try to rationalize. So why is it that some individuals in the nuclear industry try to caintain that their technology can operate on a "Zero-Error" basist Can it be that they are trying to rationalize an answer which in reality, has no reality. Every coach knows that even his or her best player is going to make an error now and then, no m1tter how much practice, anticipated defensive actions, what have you, is tried. Why then do certain concerns try to down-play or even cover-up errors in the nuclear industry? Is it because this applied science does not fit the old rule book. Has nature handed us a revised editioni Is it that we shall loose this, our most important ballgame to date, just because we did not read, or would not play by the rules?
If nuclear technology truely fit with-in the guidelines of nature's old rule book, then such items as the Price - Anderson Act would not need to exist. This act is like telling onc team that they can not foul-out of the game, or will not be ejected from the game due to unsportsmanlike conduct. More seriously though, it presents the nuclear industry with freedcas and rights in our society, with-out due responsibility. No individual or group should have this, if our society is to rensin strong and viable.
In the instance of events at ihree Mile Island, it brings _to mind the painting by i
Nor=an hockwell, of a man and his vife looking in on their sleeping child, entitled,
" Freedom From Fear."
The citizens of the Greater Harrisburg, Pa. Area no longer know this freedon, while the Metropolitan Edison Company via sanction by the Nucicar Eegulate:
1 Commission knows freedom with-out responsibility. It is fully realizcd that the N.E.C.
must respond to recent events at ihree Mile Island with care and consideration. Foremos.
should be the concern fcr the health and welfare of local citizens, both on a long and short tern basis. Above and beyond all else, this =ust come first! The N.h.C., as a governnent agency, is responsible to the people, and if this responsibility is not met in full, it shall only serve to hurt our form of government in the long run. If average citizens come to feel that their government is not responsive to their needs, they will loose faith in their government. In this case, due to it's very nature, loss of faith
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NUCLEAR TEC}EOLOCV Page Two
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' in government, means loss of faith in self. If this happens here, the very existance of government shall become meaningless. We shall be going through the motions only.
There will be the letter of the law with-out it's intent.
Events at ihree Mile Island, have given us a chance to re-read nature's revised rule book. It is as if nature was giving us time to note the changes this nuclear science demands. It gives us a chance for our social, economic, and political instit-utions to catch up with science and govern it, not have it govern us.
We cast hurry though. A new game-plan is needed if we are to make it count in the second half.
At present, we are only slightly behind, and that is because we are lucky. The revised rule book reads something like this:
Thousands of auto accidents Thousands of aircraft accidents
+ Thousands of fires u
f One nuclear accident "Potiential" becomes a more important factor, where with conventional technologies,
" percentage" of actual occurrences need only be weighed. Time and space become more important factors with nuclear application. When an auto accident occurs, or a plane crashes, with-in hours or days, the wreckage is cleared away, things are rebuilt or repaired, and life goes on as usual.
Not so with a nuclear accident. Can you envision telling sx.ll children that their grandchildren might be able to use a certain highway once the wreckage is able to be cleared away.
If an airplane crashers, do we wait years to remove the destructioni If pyro-technology (fire), even when it consunes whole citiet were like nuclear technology, we might still be waiting yet to rebuild Chicago or San Francisco.
If there is a serious nuclear accident, we are talking about not just square feet or yards, but square miles! We are talking about not just hours er days, but years.
Is it worth it just to boil water?
I We need not be totally anti-nuclear, for there is great potiential in this energy source. liowever, we do need to insist that civilian application and even military application, o+be than clearly identified balance of power needs be halted inmediately!
Until such tfme e the cleaner form of nuclecr power, fusion is able to be applied, there should be no civilian applicatien permitted. Those ful3y educated in nuclear science - fission atomic power, will be needed when the transition from fission to fusion becomes practical.
7 hose only trained in fission technology can and should be t;
retraine.3 in more conventional technology. After all, if we need to move away from thir form of a power source, let us not insist that individuals or facilies now dcpendant uper l !
the nuclear industry for their livelyhood, be left stranded. Our society as c whole should aid in such a project of transition.
A government progra= of re-training should The argum nt that nuclear pcwer plants, if closed down be part of the over-all plan.
e vill become just a aonument to a dead technology is,1 feel, not realistic.
Where cycr possible, such a plant ecn be converted to use conventional power sources. Shor9 plants j
vhere this is not feasable, cight have to renain in a state of " waiting" untill such tinc as practical modification to fusion nuclear power is possible. If we can put a man on the moon in ten years, surely we can find a way to harness, fusion atomic power. Even if present nuclear power plants have to remain closed for twenty years, this is better than waiting two hundred,yeirs if someone makes a mistake. Let use not maintain or exoand a situation where citizens, regardless of political or economic view, need feel defensive or endangered. If it should be thnt a present nuclear facility be considered essential to national cccurity er public welfare, (a situation I find personnaly non-existant),
l then at least let the nilitary secure and operate it.
I believe that present rule and
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regulations utilized by the U.S. Navy provides a much greater level of safety.
Private c,ncerns, by their very nature, must operate on a cost effcetive basis. Only the government can afford to operate on a safety first basis. On this issue there esn be no conflict of interest or even a possibility of it.
lhere is probably is no better We need our best
'T target for terrorists than a nuclear facility near an urban area.
again, there can military forces on the job providing security fer these facilities.
Mr.r.ummemMGn
hUC'LvAh *TECCOLOGY : Page three The psychological effects that events at Three Mile Island have had upon the residt of the Greater Harrisburg, Pa. Area have been suggested, and hopefully these effects wil:
be studied in greater detail in the future. Present observations, while not conplete, show basic trends of behavior already developing in the population. &ny have been emcerned about what affect the events at Three Mile Island froc brch 2c,1979 to present hwe had upon the children in the area. Personal observntions and discussions with other counselors indicate that as predicted, children are very flexable mentally and e otionally. 1 hey bounce back very quickly, and are probably better adjusted now than most adults. Feelings of anxiety which renain are probably due to the adults in the family who still worry uinut the situation and are transmitting this fear to their children. ihe adults who know and understsnd what has happened, and what could have happened, have had tice to ponder the situation and their fear is no longer based upon what is not known, but what is known. For these persons, the trauma continues. Let there be no mistake, the crisis is still an on-going event; somewhat diminished, but still thcre. Mass public out-cry can not be maintained. It is not mentally healthy to re.ain in an intense state of anger. Forns of adjustment fall into three basic groups at present. Cnc grcup of percon: ic made up of people who feel a need to actitely do something about their situation to improve the quality of life here in the Harrisburg Area. These persons do speak cut, they do believe in our form of government and how it works, and they do wish to act as responsible citizens. They are now calling upon their government to actively do something in a way that insists that private concerna affecting the public sector, be held recpensible for their actions. 'Inat is just as important, these people still believe that government can do something about this grave situation.
A second group might be identified by those who feel things are i=pescib1 to change. and that no matter how they might wish to feel, they have reached the point that they do not want to even talk a'bcut it.
They rationalice that if economically they can not afford to leave the area, why worry if you can not do anything positi,e about it.
Those who can, quietly seek to relocate to another area in hopes that by doing so, their fears will abait.
The third group and by far the largest, is in a state of ambivilance. That is, they care, but are not sure just what the facts are, or how tr a facts need be interpreted. They are not sure what action they should take, or if they do have ideas, feel that due to the extreem complexity and magnitude of the situation, it is too difficult to form a plan of action. They neither try to improve their situatic l nor try to flee it.
They just do nothing. This should not be misinterpreted as apathy.
This situation does not lend itself to apathy.
The saying something to the effect of those who will not learn from history, are condemned to repeat it, no longer fits. What might be more fitting is that those who will not learn quickly, are condemned, period.
Our knowledge of science is growing at a greater pace than our ability to cope adequately with it via our economic, political,and social institutions. In the case of Three Mile Island, we were lucky. One person compaired it to a football game played a few years ago between the Steelers and the Eaiders. During the last play of the game a highly improbable chain of events permitted Franco Harris to colect the football and carry it into the end-cone for the game winning touch-down. &ny refer to this play as "The Immaculate heception". Some called it luck, some called it a natural reaction of skilled hands. All agreed it was a one in a million play.
I'm sure no coach pinns to win a game in such a fashion, for it is such a play that leaves coaches and fans trenblP as it occurs. Is our deliverance from near disaster at Ihree Mile Island merely a natte of samot We ay never know for sure, but let us at least alter our game-plan no, so as to assure a time, a space, and a popu3ation cf our descendants in the neur and distar i
future here in the Harrisburg area.
4 Edward L. Rech M.Ed.