ML20041C302
| ML20041C302 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Clinch River |
| Issue date: | 02/15/1982 |
| From: | Drake G AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| To: | Trubatch S NRC OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (SECY) |
| References | |
| ISSUANCES-E, NUDOCS 8203010133 | |
| Download: ML20041C302 (3) | |
Text
{{#Wiki_filter:* GEi ALD A. DR AKC. M. D. 511 WAUKAZOO AVL T'E T O S K EY "HIGAN gck
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O ~ / TE l Ers s February 15, 1902 'l ~ '! ' D [-{ I ~ ~' " S g g., Mr. Sheldon Trubatch' d "fM?C Docketing and Service Branch '4 d i MI(I"4 US Nuclear Regulatory Commissiod 7 P"0FTNUMBER -[87 Washington, D.C. 20555 p;;00. & UTIL FAC.... - ~" RE: Clinch River Breeder Reactor The toxicity of plutonium is well known. Experiments at the University of Utah several years ago now showed that the injection of a few micrograms was sufficient to cause bene cancer in young adult beagles. The inhalation of 10 to 12 mg. pro-duced a rapidly progressive lung inflammation with death in a catter of a week or two. The inhalation of a few micrograms resulted in lung cancer in test animals. We are only 55 years into the nuclear age and the evidence indicates that pollu-tion of the biosphere from this material has begun. Atmospheric weapons testing is, of course, the major source of this pollution. The first attempt at an ex-perimental fast breeder resulted in a melt down at Idaho Falls National Labora-tory. Fermi I, a grossly premature attempt at a commercial fast breeder, also resulted in a partial melt down. Several kilograms of plutonium have burned at the Rocky Flats, Colorado nunitions plant contaminating the country side. After five years there was no indication that there was any significant dilution of the concentrations in the upper layers of the soil. At a plutonium plant in Trombay, India three acres of land had to be dug up and dumped into the sea because of a plutonium spill. A reprocessing plant near Cherbourg, France has spilled plu-tonium into the English Channel which is identifiable a 100 miles down the Nor-mandy coast. Flutonium is known to have ".nigrated" off the low level nuclear waste dump site near P.cey Flats, Kentucky. One can't help but wonder what the state of plutonium pollution will be like after 600 to 900 years of a plu-tonium economy. To deliberately produce this material by the hundreds of tons and ship it around the nation and the world for purposes of generating electricity seems hazardous indeed. Over 400 pounds of weapons grade material are known to be missing from facilities using it. At least 60 pounds is missing from the Cimarron plutonium plant in 4Y 8203010133 820215 PDR ADOCK 05000537 gl i H PDR
I _2_ l I Cklahoma. Commercial reprocessing was stopped by both Fresidents Ford and Carter because of the chance that plutonium could get into the hands of terrorist groups. i 4 Sir Irian Flowers, former chairman of the Royal Commission on Follution and a for-mer member of the Royal Atomic Energy Commission has said that is is not a matter of whether or not terrorists get their hands on this material but a matter of when 'and how often. This appears to be reason enough for a abandoning the Clinch River i Breeder and a plutenium economy. A Wall Street Journal e.litorial, "FLUT0NIUM FOLLIES", (February 13, 1981) says that both reprocessing and the breeder, "...=ade no economic sense. For the breeder to become commercially feasible, uranium prices would have to increase seven fold..." A New York Times editorial, "THE 'diONG KIND OF UUCLFJJi KTdER", (September 2,1981) l says that "The nuclear power industry is disintegrating... The Administration seems l } recklessly eager to abandon the free market and to imbrace, instead, subsidies for dubious projects. It endorses the decision to proceed with the obsolescent Clinch River breeder reactor, and it would help underwrite a commercial reprocessing in-dustry... For this to be a policy worthy of the name, the President needs to pro-l vide a far fuller explanation of how he proposes to meet the linked problems of l nuclear power and nuclear peace." i An article'in tLe April 11, 1980 issue of SCIENCE says that the French Super Ehenix I Mark I is going to cost 2 and 3/10 times the cost of a 1,300 MWe light water reactor. l 'It's obviously going to be a long time before anyone can afford electricity from a breeder. Probably a long time after alternative electricity generating techniques j have become practical. The French and Eritieh super sonic jet transport program, which produced the Concord, is going bankrupt. We had sense enough to star out of that one. Hopefully we will have sense enough to abandon the breeder. David Lilienthal, first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, said in his recent book, ATOMIC ENERGY: A NEW START, "I propose that we make a new start for a safer peaceful atom, using technology that will not, as the present technology does, produce bomb material in the process of creating a peaceful atom." It might also be added that the~new technology should not produce material that causes cancer and genetic defects, in microscopic doses, as the present technology does from plutonium, i Salty old Admiral Hyman Rickover, just a ccuple of weeks ago, summed the whole ,, - - - - ~ -. -,, -, - - ,..,,,,,,u,,,.,,._.n,.-,..-m ,,.r-,,e. w.,_., - - _ _.. _.., -,, _, _,,.. ~., m..e. --.,-,,y
c s 3_ L thing up when he said we will proba.bly blow ourselves up and that both nuclear power and nuclear weap ns chould be cutlawed. f Eep2 table studies show that throu,-h conservatien, including building design, in-1 culation, heat recovery, cogeneration, better autcnobile mileage, mars transper- .tation and more efficient generators, totors and lights, we can " produce"enough 7.z M energy, from the 40 percent we waste, to see us through to an era of renewable isF energy recources while phasing out nuclear power. b Lo Yours truly, [' bD Me $N l e., p v Gerald A. Drake, M.D. L &? BJie CAD /jkh C cpier to Scntters Elerle and I.evin, and "ep. Dcvis a F s we E- ~ e4 E -a =F N.?[ I..: i s-t.. L [-l t:. t: r { [ 0 ..}}