ML19345C037
| ML19345C037 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 11/18/1980 |
| From: | Dircks W NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | Goodling B HOUSE OF REP. |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8012030786 | |
| Download: ML19345C037 (8) | |
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o The Honorable Bill Goodling 5
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Uni.ted States House of Representatives Washington, D.C.
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Dear Congressman Goodling:
I am writing in response to your note of October 21, 1980, to the NRC regarding the October 17, 1980 letter from your constituent, Geraldine Tmst. Ms. Tmst expressed concern about the health effects of the TMI-2 accident and the purge of the TMI-2 reactor building atmosphere.
.g In previous correspondence, I provided you with several documents which addressed b
Ms. Trust's concerns in her letter to you of June 19, 1980.
I have addressed several of Ms. Trust's more recent coceents and concerns by referencing these carlier documents.
Ms. Trust apparently misunderstands the detailed evaluations that have been conducted to determine the health effects of the TMI-2 accident. The health igact of the accident, radiation monitoring, and placement of dosimeters (which Ms. Trust states is inadequate) are discussed in detail in NUREG-0558, " Population Dose and Health Igact of the Accident at Three Mile Island Nuclear Station,"
which I fomarded previously. This report describes how the dosimetry in place during the accident was sufficiently sensitive to the Xenon-133 radiation such that significant uncertainties in the dose or health igact estimates would not i
be introduced.
Our best estimate of total released radioactive material is approximately 2.4 million curies (principally noble gases) rather than the 15 million curies sug-gested by Ms. Trust.
As a result of the March 28, 1979 accident,the average dose of radioactivity received by the population within 50 miles of TMI was approximately 4 millirems. The maxi-mum exposure to any individual was less than 100 millirems, which is less than the yearly dose each person 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. Natural background radiation received by people in the i
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area is approximately 125 millirems per year. To put these doses into perspective, note that a traveler flying round trip by jet from New York to Los Angcics receives 5 millirems of cosmic rays.
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3 The Honorable Bill Goodling :
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With regard to the purge of the THI-2 reactor building, krypton and its properties are discussed in detail in Section 7 of NUREG-0662 Volume 1, " Final Environcental Assessment for Decontamination of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 Reactor Building Atmosphere," which I forwarded previously. The NRC did not assume, as Ms. Trust suggests, that all krypton would rise to the upper atmosphere and remain there during the purge of the reactor building atmosphere. She seems to believe that since krypton-85 is heavier than a.ir, it should sink when released. While !
agree that krypton-85 is heavier than air, gases of different weights do not
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behave in this manner. Certainly Ms. Trust would agree that air, which is made up primarily of oxygen and nitrogen, does not separate into two layers because a
of the difference in their weights. This behavior of gas molecules is called iW' Brownian motion. The meteorological model used to predict the doses from the
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i" purge assumed that this dispersion would occur based upon known behavior of gases in our atmosphere.
"Real-time", or actual meteorological data, was used during the purge to calculate hourly dose rates in geographic sectors surrounding the plant. Actual measurement of the radiation levels during the purge confirmed that the evolution was cocpleted well within the dose design objectives. Further, the purge did not coce close to i
doubling the amount of krypton in the world's atmosphere as Ms. Trust states.
d Ms. Trust's statement that the world level of krypton-85 is about twenty thousand i
curies is erroneous since the level is many millions of curies. People are con-tinuously exposed to krypton-85 which is normally contained in the world's atmos-
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phere.
In the past, krypton has been released into the atmosphere during nuclear weapons tests.
In addition, krypton has and continues to be released to the atmosphere from nuclear fuel reprocessing plants throughout the world. As a result of these releases, background levels of krypton throughout the earth's l-atmosphere are readily detectable with suitable instruments.
In the TMI area, for example, the U.S. Environmental Protect ton' Agency has measured normal back-3 ground concentrations to be about 30 pC1/m. This concentration results in annual krypton-85 background skin and total-bo@ doses of about 0.00004 and 0.0000005 mrem respectively to all nenbers of the public. This conpares to an average annual total-bo@ background dose (from sources other than medical) of about 100 mrem in the U.S.
Medical and dental exposures normally account for another 100 mrem per year to individuals in this country.
Ms. Trust's cornnents on false reports to the news media during the crucial days of the accident. During the early days of the accident at Three Mile Island, the situation was changing by the hour and there was a lack of the hard engineering information needed to analyze what had happer.ed to the plant. Also, due to the 9
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The Honorable Bill Goodling number of agencies involved in collecting and reviewing data, it was difficult to obtain unequivocal and technically consistent answers. Considering these facts, it is not surprising that conflicting stories emerged as more was learned about each new situation. Some problems were attributed not only to the sources of information, but'to the way in which information wrs made available to the press, and some to how the press reported the information it obtained. NRC's information was not always coglete, nor in some instances, wholly accurate.
I recognize the igortance of meking co@lete and accurate information available to the public. Consequently, we have made specific plans for providing informa-tica to the public for such potentially serious accidents as occurred at Three Mile Island. These plans include making the availability of public information part of NRC's and the utilities' emergency response planning. Under this policy, the utilities r:ust provide offsite locations for newscenters. We also plan to appoint a senior NRC official responsible for coordinating NRC information S.
activities during an emergency. By centralizing the gathering and dissemination 1
of NRC's information, we will provide the public with relevant and tinely infor-mation.
I trust that this adequately responds to Ms. Trust's concerns.
Sincerely, V5Se6} T. A r.:.b 1111am J. Dircks
' Executive Director for Operations
Enclosure:
Incoming letter dated October 17, 1980 Distribution:
Docket File 50-320 HRDenton NRC PDR WJDircks LPDR Lunderwood E00 EGCase TMIP0 R/F PPAS TMI Site R/F Eisenhut JCollins Grimes 0CA (3)
Hanauer EErtter (E00#9795)
Ross TERA Schroeder BJSnyder Vollmer RWeller NRR R/F WTravers
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