ML20041E088

Forwards Constituent TR Miller 820118 Ltr & Requests Info Re Steps Taken to re-evaluate Amount & Type of Regularly Released Radioactivity

ML20041E088
Person / Time
Site:	Midland
Issue date:	01/25/1982
From:	Traxler B HOUSE OF REP.
To:	Kemerer C NRC OFFICE OF CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS (OCA)
References
ISSUANCES-OL, ISSUANCES-OM, NUDOCS 8203100128
Download: ML20041E088 (2)

Text

8TRAXLER HWE FFICES,a tm Distmer, Mr flam CAHINAW OFFICE:

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January 25, 1982 / s/ , s , (C, I

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l' ,1 Mr. Carlton Kemerer, Director h-Office of Congressional Affairs DoCIMT NU .iltr' Nuclear Regulatory Commission 0 1717 H Street, NW PROD. & UTitN' N"M*3'NM 0 W Washington', D. C. 20555 j

Dear Mr. Kemerer:

Enclosed is a copy of a letter I recently received from a resident of my district. He is concerned about recent evidence showing that current standards for release of radioactivity from nuclear plants may be too ,

lax.

Could you please inform me what steps, if any, are being taken to reeval-uate the amount and type of regularly released radioactivity from the Midland, Michigan nuclear plant? Please send your reply to my Washington office, 2448 Rayburn House Office Building.

Your assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated. With kind regards, I remain i rely, --

1 J

1 VW E0B TRAXLER  !

Member of Congres,'s BT:dr f I

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//

8203100128 820125 PDR ADOCK 05000329 H PDR THIS STATIONERY PRINTED ON PAPER MADE WI e H RECYCLED FIDERS

M O P" 5010 Jcnuary 18, 1982 DGar'Roprosentetivo Troxler, ,

rr s cl 1 5'A ,Mi D OD is M'l %

Since 1977 I have been concerned with the potential harm f rom radioac tive elem ents that are to be regularly released by the Midland Nuclear Plant. While the Nuclear Regulatory Agency maintains that there are safe amounts of radioactivity that one may absorb with out danger , an increasing amount of information suggests that the dangers of low levels of radioactivity have been greatly underestimated.

As early as 1963 an American Medical Association publication, Archives of Pathology, stated that the danger of cancer caused by ionizing radiation increased for residents living around nuclear plants.

In July of 1978, Dr. Eula Bingham of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration said that "Results of recent research have demonstrated that, as with chemical carcinogens, no safe level or threshold can be established for ra d ia tio n."

In March of 1979 Newsweek magazine reported leukemia rates six times higher than normal among workers at M a i n e 's Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, where ntclear ships are repaired under stringent safety rules.

Most recently a very disturbing report by a German scientist suggests that "lega lly allow a ble amounts of radiation leaking from U.S. rea.ctors may endanger the health of some Americans because federal dose limits are too lax." The scientist, biologist Bernd Franke of Heidelberg, says that even normal releases from atomic facilities can lead to overexposure because current dose limits are based on unrealistic data. The exposure limit for radioactive iodine - 131, for example,is based on the risk to milk-drinking infants. But Franke says the same ceiling could permit a person recovering from a bone fracture to absorb 100 times as much iodine. This report is supported by Dr. Ernest Sternglass who found a cancer increase of $8% in the Waterford Community where the Millstone reactor is located.

Bef ore licensing ,Consum ers Pow er Company, builder of the Midland nuclear plant, was requirred by law to file an '

Environm e n t al S ta tem e nt. The 1977 Statement indicated that 42 radioactive elements would be regularly released into t .;e air or into the water of the Tittabawassee River. A partial list includes 1odine-131, strontium-89 and 90, and cesium- 134,136, 137..

In light of the most recent r e s e a r c h o n t h e e f f.e c t s o f l o w level radiation and growing evidence of increased cancers in and around nuclear facilities, ghal stens gra beinR lak.En La 2221alna12 1h2 annnni and 11Ra af raEularl1 calgalad radioactivity from ihg Midland Proiect?

Sincerely, .

<t 7

. k Terry R. Miller \

3329 Glendora Bay City, Mich.

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