ML20003C339
| ML20003C339 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | McGuire, Mcguire  |
| Issue date: | 02/15/1981 |
| From: | Sternglass E CAROLINA ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY GROUP, PITTSBURGH, UNIV. OF, PITTSBURGH, PA |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8102270761 | |
| Download: ML20003C339 (3) | |
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Summary of Propw d W.s \\_.imony in th2. Matter of the Operating License for the >!cGuire Nucicar Power Station
>!y testimony will address the subj ect of Contentions three and four of the Intervenors, namely the adquacy of an emergency evacuation plan for a ten mile radius around the plant in the event of a major release of radioactivity, for instance 1
o ]h ri breach of the containment by a hydrogen explosion, a or an adequate crisis relocation plan.
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z Based upon a detailed study of the gas releases rink 5% e j
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Three Stile Island nuclear accident of Starch,1979 and y
b-d sequent changes in infant mortality rates for areas in the pa n of the radioactive ' gases in areas as far as two hundred miles from the plant outlined in part in the enclosed paper entitled
" Infant Stortality Changes Following the Three 5111e Island Acci-dent" and other studies carried out by other investigators, it is my professional opinion that the health and safety of the public cannot be adequately protected by confining emergency planning to a ten-mile radius around the 5tcGuire Plant.
Both my own studies and those of other investigators at Princeton University cited in Reference 37 of the enclosed
- paper, clearly show that the largest total numbers of health effects occur in the more inf ely populated urban areas as f ar as 20, 50 or even 100 miles away from the point of release of the radioactive gases, even though.the risk to any individuals living near the plant is greater than for an individual exposed at a more distant location.
This arises from the fact that the inten-sity of the exposure decreases only. slowly with distance along 3
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the plume of the drif ting gas,. hile the number of individuals
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per square mile rises rapidly if the plume happens to be directed 1
towards a more densely populated town or metropolitan area at I
some appreciable distance away.
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Because the beta radiation dose to internal organs arising from inhalation of fresh fission products in a drifting cloud of L
gas is anywhere from 10 to 100 times greater than from external gamma radiation, emergency planning for prompt warning and evacua-tion has to extend to all the more densely populated areas within at least 100.to 200 miles if public health is to be protected o
from a sudden major release.
Also, since the developing baby in j
the mother's womb and the young infant shortly after birth is i
far more sensitive to the effects of certain fission products j
such as iodine-131 than the adult, special plans have to be pre-l pared to warn'and protect pregnant women and young children frca the inhalation or ingestion of radioactive iodine following a maj or acc.i. dent out to distances far beyond the 10-mile :one con-l' sidered in existing plans.
It may be desirable to plan for the prompt availability of potassium iodide to block the uptake.cf radioactive iodine, as was urged by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as Pennsylvania Health Department officials following the Three Mile Island accident.
The failure to have this drug widely available and to issue prompt warnings probably accounted for the
' observed birth of infants with damaged thyroid function and under-developed lungs in-the downwind area within three to six nonths P
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after the accident, as well as the rise of deaths a=cng newborn babies associated with respiratory distress.
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Ernest J. Sterngl ss Pro fe s s c' of Radiological Physics Department of Radiology University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine February 15, 1981 f w d +bnit hd-Leou:
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'!niversi:y of P1::sburgh F *B 2 31961
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Cengress of Engineers and Archi:ac:s
""al-Aviv, Israel Janua:/ 25, 1930 1
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