ML19344F486
| ML19344F486 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 08/22/1980 |
| From: | Snyder B Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | Woodley S AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19344F487 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8009150324 | |
| Download: ML19344F486 (4) | |
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Mrs. Susan E. Woodley 33 Oak Hill Drive Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 i
Dear Mrs. Woodley:
Your letter to Conaissioner Hendrie about the Three Mile Island nuclear sta-tion was referred to me for response.
I regret that this answer has been delayed for so long. The accident and its consequences have created a sub-i stantial increase in the agency's workload, which has prevented me from re-sponding to you as promptly as I would have liked.
2 The Comission has ordered that a public hearing be conducted to determine t d whether TMI-1 should be operated and, if so, under what conditions the restart would take place. Prior to start of the hearings, the NRC staff will conduct a review of technical infomation concerning the restart of Unit 1.
As part of this review, the NRC staff will conduct meetings with the licensee in the presence of the public, and the public will be given the opportunity to raise n
questions and to make statements. During the hearing, the technical issues gg that are appropriate to assure the public health and safety will also be ad-dressed.
In addition, the Atonic Safety and Licensing Board has indicated thct
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NRC should consider the psychological impact of future operation on the nearby comunities. A copy of the Cocnission Order that outlines the issues to be considered is enclosed for your infomation.
As for Unit 2, the licensee has not yet sutnitted to the NRC a proposal for jj overall plant recovery, although the licensee is conducting feasibility studies.
Cq It is not possible at this time to determine when such proposals for recovery ggh may be sutmitted or how much time will be needed for the required reviews and g 7-approvals in connection with Unit 2's recovery.
I would note, however, that the 1 5 h; licensee's authority to operate Unit 2, except for those actions necessary to gm keep the reactor shut down, was suspended by~0rder of July 20, 1979.
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To address your second question, about allowing TMI to continue to be operated g37-
"under GPU-Met Ed, when you know all the deception and confusion this company deliberately allowed in tne crucial days of the accident," there were comunica-
>bd=2 tion difficulties during the accident, which resulted in the impaiment of in-
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formation being transmitted from the TMI control room to offsite management groups. As a result, confusing infomation was released. Three specific de-
$dR.U ficiencies contributed to impair the release of accurate infomation:
(1)In-v - --%
fomation (both data and plans) transmitted to offsite support groups, which had
' N3 7 been hurriedly mobilized, suffered from time delays; thus, the offsite groups i
were dealing with limited data.
(2) Those individuals who could provide data
.h to offsite groups had concurrent duties pertaining to the management of the 1
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Mrs. Susan E. Woodley I siergency. The energency duties always took precedence, as would be appropriate.
(3) The physical communications facilities were inadequate to handle the volume of information requests and transmittals that this kind of accident required.
- u As you must realize, operators and administrators at Met Ed, preoccupied with i
the accident, were under continued pressure from state and federal officials and the news media to produce information that was generally unattainable. How-ever, as stated in " Report of the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island" (the Koneny Commission):
"We do not find there was a systesi-l atic attoapt at a ' cover-up' by the sources of information. Sune of the offt-cial news sources were themselves confused about the facts and there were major disagreements among officials."
I To respond to your third question about the power icvel at which Tit! was operatin;_
it was not operating "only at 30% of their operating capacity" but at 97 power at the time of the accident.
m eh With regard to your coment on the limitations of the Price-Anderson Act, the NRC is constrained by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, of which the Price-Anderson Act is a part. Any future changes to this statute will require action by the U.S. Congress.
g grg You asked about the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. The experience gained in decomissioning a number of small power reactors demonrtrates that y--
9 large reactors can be successfully decommissioned. The issue of who will have ultimate responsibility for decommissioning activities, including the condition of the reactor building, is, however, still under review.
The psychological inpact on people in the vicinity of Three Mile Island is and has been a subject of concern and study. As noted above, restart plans for TMI-1
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are in part contingent on psychological impact.
I an enclosing a copy of Adden-w h &i:-
dum 1 to the " Environmental Assessment for Decontamination of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 Reactor Building Atmosphere" (NUREG-0662), which lists ongoing
]h e psychological stress studies.
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In response to your question about why "the NRC could allow such a questionabic
- !l,.1 reactor to be built in a heavily populated area," the license applicant promses n-where he would like to construct an electric power station, nuclear or otherwise.
The NRC, as part of its licensing procedure, then assesses the suitability of the Z4",
proposed site. A major consideration for site suitability is population distri-
~'9 bution around the proposed site.
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NRC regulations governing reactor site criteria are given in the Code of Federal Reculations_, Title 10, Part 100. Siting criteria are also specified in the 4g National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). An application to construct a nuclear power plant must demonstrate that the proposed site is in conformance 3 )'
with these criteria.
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e-o Mrs. Susan C. Woodley The regulatoiy guidelines also require designation of a low population zone around the site. Acceptability of the low population zone, as designated by the applicant, is based on radiation exposure computations and a determina-tion that there is reasonable assurance that appropriate protective measures can be taken in behalf of the population within the low population zone in the event of a serious accident. Experience indicates that a low population zone radius of two miles is usually acceptable.
i The regulations also provide that the closest boundary of the nearest popula-i i
tion center of more than about 25,000 residents be at least 1-1/3 times the distance to the outer boundary of the low population zone.
Where large cities are involved, a greater distance may be required because of integrated population dose considerations. The boundary of the nearest population center is determined upon consideration of population distribution.
The Three !!ile Island site was reviewed in accordance with and met NRC siting guidelines; Met Ed was therefore awarded a construction pemit and an operating license.
The President's Comission in its report recomended revisions to NRC siting criteria and regulations, which we are currently reviewing. We are also review-ing internal staff concerns regarding population density to determine whether changes in siting criteria and regulations should be made.
To respond to your request for a report for the people of the area giving "an idea of the radiation released" in the accident at Three Mile Island, a team of investigators from the Nuclear Regulatory Comission, the Enviromental l
Protection Agency, and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare calcu-l lated the doses to the people living within 5G miles of the Three Mile Island site and estinated the number of new cancers that would result from the exposurr 1
to the radioactivity that leaked out of the plant. The team reported their work in a report entitled, " Population Dose and Health Impact of the Accident at the
-i Three Mile Island Nuclear Station" (ff) REG-0558). They concluded that the off-site collective dose associated with radioactive material released from fiarch 28, 1979, to April 7,1979, represents m'nimal risks (that is, a very small number of additional health effects to the offsite population). Enclosed for j
your information is the summary of ffJREG-0558.
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' Any additional questions you may have can be addressed to the f:RC staff at NRC's TMI Field Office in the Downtown Hall,100 Brown Street, Middletown, Pa. (717) 782-4014 Staff members are available from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
q on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
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I fles. Susan E. Woodley.
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5 I appreciate your concerns and assure you that every effort is being made to ensure the continued protection of the health and safety of the public, not only at Three Mile' Island, but also at all nuclear power plants.
>z y Sincerely, i
l Bernard J. Snyder, Program Director j
Three Mile Island Program Office Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
Enclosures:
1.
Order and Notice of Hearing of August 9,1979 '
2.
Addendum 1 to NUREG-0G62 3.
Sumary of NUREG-0553
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