ML20044G597

Comments on Louisiana Energy Svcs Application to Build U Enrichment Plant in Homer,La.Opposes Licensing

ML20044G597
Person / Time
Site:	Claiborne
Issue date:	05/13/1993
From:	Morrill I AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	Selin I, The Chairman NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
References
NUDOCS 9306030369
Download: ML20044G597 (1)

Text

_

s-i Irene Morrill

.)

o P.O. Box.828 5

Forest Falls, CA 92339 Ivan Selin, Chairman i

~

United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission l

Washington, D.C.

20555 yh

Dear Mr. Selin,

The uranium enrichment plant which Louisiana Energy Services f

proposes to build in Homer, Louisiana, near_ Forest Grove and

'l Center Springs, should Dgt be constructed.

Residents of these low-income, predominantly black communities i

are adamantly opposed to the facility because it poses'very significant environmental and safety threats to.the' area.

The LES plant would convert natural uranium into-fuel'(U-235).for j

nuclear power reactors, in the. process creating 4,000 tons of-radioactive U-238 waste each year.

U-238 remains hazardous for millions of years.- The waste would probably be stored on the plant's 450-acre site.. Polluting water from the plant would'be discharged into the Lake clairborne watershed, affecting local wells relied on for drinking water.

Uranium hexafluoride used in the plant's centrifuges would; if accidentally released, mix with j

air to create a deadly cloud of hydrogen fluoride.

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i The need for this dangerous project:is questionable.. Currently,_

j the. Department of Energy operates enrichment plants that are only l

operating at 50% of capacity, and producing enriched uranium at:a l

lower cost than that to be produced by LES._ There is currently a'

'i worldwide overcapacity.for producing enriched uranium.

q The proposal.to locate this plant near low-income, black d

communities smacks very strongly of environmental racism.-

According to a 1987 study by the United Church of Christ's i

Commission for Racial Justice, an overwhelming' proportion of j

toxic waste sites, incinerators, and hazardous chemical and industrial operations are sited in-poor, minority. communities.

LES.also plans to close and reroute the.only road that services Forest Grove and Center Springs.

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Considering the local opposition, the questionable need for-this' facility, the significant threat to the health and safety of.the community,.and the massive amounts-of nuclear waste to be-

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produced, I strongly urge you to deny LES' application to

~j construct this facility.

I also urge you to look very closely.ati the role that environmental racism.may:have played in the decision to site this plant in Homer.

j 1

' 70056 "oSt Sincerf v, 1

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Irene Morrill l

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