ML19347A591

Discusses AEC Apr 1973 Nuclear Power Plant Siting Guidelines.Lists Citizen Concerns Re Nuclear Power Development.Forwards Proposal for Fact Finding Study on Nuclear Power for Mi State Legislature

ML19347A591
Person / Time
Site:	Midland
Issue date:	06/26/1974
From:	Sinclair M CONSOLIDATED INTERVENORS
To:	Muntzing L US ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION (AEC)
Shared Package
ML19347A590	List: ML19347A591 ML19347A593
References
NUDOCS 8007291020
Download: ML19347A591 (3)

Text

. _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ - - _ _ - -__ _ .

.. .+ -

. w . . -.

.O 5711 Summerset Drive Midland June 26,, 1974 Michigan 48640 ll Mr.'L. Manning Muntzing.

Director. of Regulation.

U. -S. Atomic Energy Commission Washington,'D. C. 20000

Dear Mr. Muntzing:

In April, 1973, the AEC Regulatory Staff had readied new.

and more. conservative siting guidelines for nuclear power plants based on new cafety research considerations. This report has finally been published.

According to these new criteria, the Midland nuclear plants would not be considered safe. Many of the people of Midland are wondering what your obligations, as Director of Licensing, are to this problem. .

I, personally, also wonder if you have really thought about the genuine concerns that growing numbers of well-informed and well-educated private citizens have about the current develop-ment of nuclear power. I would like to list them for you:

1)- The unresolved questions of nuclear safety which were brought out primarily during the national safety : hearings.

These issues have by no means been resolved and, in fact, a re--

cent (1973) AEC Task Force that inspected the record of operat.,

ing reactors stated that n-plants now operating are " besieged" by malfunctions and that the level of risk oannot be detemined at present.

2) The lack of a satisfactory disposal site for high-level, highly toxic wastes _ which will last for many thousands of years..-Stating the amount of space.that a solidified mass of this waste will require, as Di.xie Lee Bay repeatedly states to TV and other audiences, does not explain the fact that the more than 80 million gallons of wastes from the weapons program at Hanford, Washington and Savannah, Georgia have not'been solidified or safely stored.at all. In fact hundreds of thou-cands of gallons of these wastes have been allowed to leak ac-cidentally to the soil. Furthermore, the fact chat highly toxic plutonium (with a 24,000 year half-life) will inevitably be lost into the. environment at most stages of the fuel cycle even under ,

" safe 8 handling conditions is not taken into account in this statement. Some of the attached news items indicate what has 1 already'been happening. l

3) The possibility of diversion of plutonium to sub-national groups who could make crude atomic bombs as a means of {

,; . . m,z 7; m l m . M./? .m , , '

\

9 j'

' ^

1p g r

L. Manning Muntzing Page 2 June 26,1971+

blackmail of antire cities.

h) The lack of adequate insurance coverage for the mil-lions of home-owners who will- be close to reactors now being

. built and planned because of the limits on liability established in the Price-Anderson Act. Also, every home-owner's insurance policy carries a nuclear exclusion clause, and it becomes an important social question whether we wish to proliferate tech-nologiea that are. uninsurable.

l 5) The total energy input into the whole uranium fuel cycle from mining to milling and fuel enrichment before the fuel gets to a reactor and the transportation of spent fuel, fuel processing and waste disposal problems after it leaves the n-plant shows very little increment of power for this ex-

, tensive and irretrievable use of land and resources.

6) The questions of reliability of.the large-sized n-i plants are being raised all over the country. The Palisades experience in Michigan has been very bad. It has operated only 5 months since it received its full power license in December, - - - -

1972 It has had excessive radioactive accidental releases. It is also costing.$7,000,000 a month to purchase the electricity i

it should be producing, in addition to the repairs. Other plants in other states are also having difficulties.

7) Perhaps the most grave problem is the fact that the large-sized plants placed close to our major population centers

. are a threat to national security over which we have no defense.

l They can be sabotaged externally by damaging the cold water in-4 take pipes and pumps.

Far from.being uninformed and ignorant, the critics of current nuclear power include some of the world's and nation 8 s

most competent scientists and lawyers, such as

1) The Band Corporation (a group of independent scientist /

consultants of national reputation) advised the California Legis-lature to explore all other alternatives and only use nuclear as a last resort because of the unresolved safety and waste disposal issues.=

2) Seven U. S. Nobel prize-winners in genetics, chemistry ,

physics'and biology have taken a position against nuclear fis

sion power. ,

The Pugwash Conference from 3) around the world have taken,a arim Sroup of 100at position toptheir scientists annual meeting in 1973 against the proliferation of nuclear fission power in the world because of its public health and sarety haz-ards and lack of ~ adequate solutions for high-level waste disposal.

L.. Manning-Muntzing -- Page 3 -

June 26,1974

4) The Union of Concerned Scientists, an MIT-Harvard based group of scientists, have made an independent analysis of the safety system in current nuclear technology and concluded that the margins of safety that were supposed to exist do not exist at all,

5) Scientists Institute for Public Information, the Natur al Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and consumer organi-sations such as Ralph Nader8a group, have filed numerous legal suits to challenge the responsibility of the AEC in various aspects of. current nuclear development.

Recently, at the request of the House Speaker of the Michi-gan Legislature, William A. .Ryan, I draf ted a proposal for a basis for fact-finding on nuclear power for the Michigan Legis-lature. Speaker Ryan asked for a proposal that reflected all sides of the nuclear issues and he is pr.epared to fund it. A copy is enclosed for your thoughtful consideration.

I believe these matters deserve your most careful attention.

Sincerely, thw MarySinoZhr,[i,, Member Board of Directors National Interrenors sjh Cc: Dr. Theodore Taylor Clifford Beck, AEC Senator Philip Hart Senator Robert Griffin-I

-