ML20086K714

Requests Consideration of Encl Ltr from J Ewing

ML20086K714
Person / Time
Site:	Nine Mile Point
Issue date:	05/19/1995
From:	Mikulski B SENATE
To:	Rathbun D NRC OFFICE OF CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS (OCA)
Shared Package
ML20086K711	List: ML20086K714
References
NUDOCS 9507200265
Download: ML20086K714 (5)

Text

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BARBARA a. MIKULSKI

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wayuue wAs.ooTon, oC Sese (306 B4 4064 Enited $tates Etnatt WASHINGTON, DC 20510-2003 May 19, 1995 Mr. Dennis K. Rathbun Dir., Congressional Affairs l

Office of Govt. Affaits 3

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C.

20555

Dear Mr. Rathbun:

l I am writing to request your consideration of the attached I

correspondence from Jean Ewing.

Please respond directly to Ms.

Ewing and send a copy to Steve Crane of my staff.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely, Barbara A. Mikulski United States Senator BAM:sec Enclosure l

9507200265 950714 PDR ADOCK 05000220 H

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.y Jean S. Ewing I

5 Priestford Road i

Churchville, Maryland 21028 (410) 734-6955

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33 pLb ac p $$ATTMEWLWALD ' M / lelandaherhe1979anddseram he amenense,m.usmes hy i

. 'l n.noppyhasengFusMyreneuw wenn =eas=====thmeim as ofRamencesw wastes at a ancieer plant near onwego, on sma, sold lit a mport misesed yeelersley 888 peer amenagement af rodeactice wasse the shore of Lake Ontario, has created a multimillien< loller seene la its sul>6ase.since the initiallecidemis 1931 had rusalted la reestion messoas thus the plast quadru-I ment, according to a study by a

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crsuaal of redisacuw weste disposal pleas, jde h anrege W seer reeceem of its f

I and largely confirmed p the Nw4aar Regu-M

, Bayertteesdes Plant Review lasary Commission.

An othetal of the commission, who hee Be called for making the utility's sharw.

recommended penalties assinet the plant hektore, rather then casesseers, per ter the {

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osmer, the Niagara Mohawk Power Corpo-cisame of the runesar. Sees tels Point 1.

I ration, said that the simatkm which only re-wideh hoe'been ehest ete'ee fler===har 1987

., cently came to the agency's attention, poses bocesse of anar,apsmaner and mechanica4 I httle hazard to the pulec, but that the prehisees.

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i cleanup job resembles the one at Three Mile 1

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i ofWasteLeftCostiyMess - -

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that was being used to esore 150 56 gallon. -

i The report is based on Dr. Resnikoff's re-drums filled with radioactive wastes.

view of Niagara Mohawk and Nuclear Regu-Mr. Bench said that the room was de-signed for holding water, or wastes in bar-j latory Commissendocuments, I

A spokesman for the utilfry, Robert B.

reis, but that the plant's license did not allow i

Bunch Jr., said: "The rmly thing I think storage of both atthesame time.

we're subject to crtucism for is having "We had dumped water into the room be-f taken so long in the cleanup. Every time we fore without problems," he said in a teie-l evaluated it, the results showed us it wasn't phone internew. "This time I guess we put' i

creatmg anythreattooperationof theplant, more water in, and it was enough to float 4

it was not affecting the environment, the some of the barrels off." The water level in 4

pubhc or our employees in any way."

the sut> basement reached four feet, he said s

The problem began, the utth!y says, with Some of the barrels floated off their carri-a pump failure at the plant in Scribe, N.Y.

ers, which resemble the conveyor hooks After the falhare, engineers decided they used in meat packing plants, and bumped f

neededtodumptensof thousandsof gallons of rater from the reactor coohng system Continued onPage S4 and chose a room in an adjacent building 5

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A-Plant's Waste Handling Is Faulted l

l ContimedFrem Pege 81 for an

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licones. A decision is Italy in the CANADA l-

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around unts they twebe open, sew Mr. nestfewweeks.

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Burte and the Nuclear the a= g==aaed that ha ese cases, Dr.

1 Centeissionadhedal Dr.

R.

osuM alas order the 1

i lamy, the a chef et facilities company to comme up with a cleanup g,,e, i

l radtariam and ler plan, but that Niagara Mohawk wee ad plants in the Northeast barrels readydoing so, spined because may had not been Me said he had m===d=d an i

sealed.

"ensorcement ecusa" agniast me uta-k i VT.

1 The material that was spdiedis soin. ity. but he would not mealit whne his 1

tensly ramosctive that it was sesent to superiors were ceneideringit-Osmose j

be landled only by remote centret. But gyggagelf'the Rosen the remata aantrol systens Abeny wasbrokenatthetimeof the The group that hired Dr. Fammehaff to r

Dr. Bellamy, said that Niagara hawk had soonitored the ment and that conduct the study on Miss MGs Point 1, ISUFYOflK Don't Weste Negr York, appesos estat>

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et had determeaad that the water was kahmaat of a nuclear-weste repoestory j

not leaking and that the reens was in the state. Yesterday, it d==== dad N

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I locked and protected against taedvert. the revocation of the plant's operatag s

o usee 100 I. pONN.

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l ent entry.

licensa. It aton sew test a Niagara Mo-1 hen, he said, the utility had adspeed hawk official who the group said knew

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j the attitude. "I'll get around to it when about the pretdem should be 8H a The smclear reactor has been shin I get unund toit."

from the state's ree.asetive-waste sn-down since 1937.

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Agoney CemeMering Action lascomenission.

j soon rtr g whomer to fee y

in December 1900, the reactor has gen-f i

agara Mohawk for failing to fuBy ans-racinesctaw snatorialin tim subs wa lyse the floodng and for making trien t wouW if t A radiation of the 3,306 had been able to mn continuously, far

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room in a aste slluamfoot room v'ead by a robot below me expectauon W hs N l

in 1985 found some barrels with rees.

The plant with Nine MGe Point 2, t

tion levels at their cular surfeons high which opene,d in 1908, is also on the Nu-J gQ Dr. SeDamy said the coneuen of the list of reacters aseeng extra attention enough to give a lethal dose in an hour, clear Regulatory Commission's short e

sut> basement is t close" to the from Cn.

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Niagara Mohawk isin strained finan-f a IIaftsr me 979 i

omer plant in me country had leh cial circuenstances,la y because of -

radsoactive dobrts floating around for Nine MDe Pohn 2, at the time of i

BUFFAI.0, Feb. 22 (AP) - A State rs,semanually "wriung off"a room,

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i Supmene Court judge today ordered Al-

said, oun i

legany County residents to stop inter

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forms with state inspectors who are ex-Mr. Burtch denied that the olant had

t. raining sites for a proposed raeonc-released enough reesuon to be " note-bornein part shareholders.

i Dr. Reensk charged in his report tive waste aluenp.

worthy from a hmRh or safety stand-that the Nuclear Regulatory Commis-Jusuce Jerome C.Gorsktgranted the point," though plant personnel nave re-soon was being lenient with the com-New York State Imw-level Radanac-readings far above background pany because of its weak financial tive Waste Siting Commission's m on several occasions. He added status"Bellamy who denied the charge, for an order Initing the protests that the New York Power Authority's Mr.

t have kept its a James A. FitsPatrick reactor is adja*

sam,"We were,n't aware of the gravity 8"*8$'g** @, gents off the durnP cent, and noted* " Nuclear plants art 3,,

som escherse. My do dis-of the situmuon"until recently.

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charge, "It's afhcuk for us here in the re-gaonal office," he said, "to know what i

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$1 Reillion to N Maules Cast licensee is using every room ing commission and the ultimate man-state of the commission to find e suit- ' He saW he had no informadon on

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cble site as directall by state legista-whether Nine Mile Point l's discharges tkm "Jusuce Gorskiwrote.

were above average

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a "That concern, however, cannot Plant workers have puroped the 1

translate itself into a lawless disregard 3ater new! alown m between eght for the reglas of othens,"he wrote.

Anches and one foot, he saW,leavmg the A law Fowler,yer for the protesters, Jerry A. rest to hokt down radioactive dust, and argued on Tnsesday that a re-have cleaned up an entryway. The straining order woedd not stop resi-water that was removed had its radio-dents who are already prepared to siis-acuvity mmoved trough futrathm.

olwy criminal laws to the dusep. h cleanup is esurnated to cost k The protesters that stand twem 81 minion and H mimon.In sad cfterlearntagof theorder.

Besides the cost, the cleanup will ex-

< "We really don't have any citoece." pose plant workers to a substantial saW a protester, SaDy Campbell of Ala dose of reestion.

fred. "The cosamtssion wm probably N

re Mohawk hopes to put Nine be coming into ADegany County pretty Mile I back in service by June.

soon.We'llbe wanting for them."

Since it entered commercial operation

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Xuclear plants will store

' hot' wastes indefinitely Action withoutfanfare, impact studies New York'I mes News Senice COVERT, Mich. - For the fore-This was never envisioned in the

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sceable future, more than 70 com-1950s and early 1960s. when the munities near nudear generating governrnent promoted the develop-As long as the reactors operate, plants will become repositories for ment ofimmense electric generating they will produce high-level radioac-tive waste, adding to the 30.000 tons plants powered by atomic energy, accumulated since the 1960s. ac-spent nuclear fuel, the most radioac-tive of all atomic wastes, without any Anticipating that the government public heatngs or environmental would either allow spent fuel to be cording to the Department of Energy.

Dy the second decade of the 21st studies of the sites.

recycled or would constmet a perma-century there will be 55.000 more Utilities have no choice but to tons of spent nuclear fuel, depart-butid de facto permanent repositories nent repository, utilities generally ment omcials estimates' n our pool near their plants. because after dec-built small water pools to store their we rc out of space i ades of searching for a centralized and we looked at several ether opI nuclear waste site, the United States wastes temporanly, But the recyclingidea was barred uons for storing wastes," said Mark is still at least 15 years away from a in the late 1970s by President Jim-Savage. the Palisades spokesman.

solution and has found nowhere else my Carter, who feared it would pro-

" Dry fuel storage in easks was the to store the roughly 30.000 tons that have already accumulated.

duce huge quantities of plutontum option we chose, and it's the safest in a httle-noticed mling in Janu !

capable of being used in nuclear and simpkst component we have at ary, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the,

bombs. And efforts over the past this plant. There are no moving four decades to establish govcrn-parts and nothingtobreak. It sits on Sixth Circuit. In Cincinnati, cleared i the way for udlities to store radioac i ment owned permanent repositories a pad and releases heat?

tive wastes indefinitely at their nu-in Kansas. Washington state, Texas Four other nuclear power plants clear power plants wtthout holding and Nevada have failed.

In Maryland. South Carolina and Now utilities that own the na-Virginta already store their wastes formal pubhc heartngs or conducting tion's 109 operating reactors and above ground in cask 2. What dn, tin-any erwironmental assessment.

manage several others that have guishes the Palisades project from On Feb.1. members of the Mes-calero Apache tribe in New Mexico been closed are studying how to the others is the relative case with turned down a proposal to build a move spent nuclear fuel from bulg-which Consumers Power estabhshed national high level nuclear waste ing indoor storage pools to outdoor it. The other sites had all required storage center on their resenation, concrete casks.

cxtenske ernironmental evaluations Both supporters and critics of nu-The Nuclear Regtdatory Commis-and full puhhc hearing;.

clear power agree that those two de-ston has already received app!!ca-cisions mean it is much easier, even tions from utilities in Arkansas, Call-necessary, for utthlics to build stor-fornia. Minnesota. North Carolina, age sites for atomic wastes. Despite Obso and Pennsyhania for pennts-having spent nearly $2 billion study-sion to build storage sites like this ing a potential repository at Yucca one, and more applications are ex-Motmtain in Nevada, the Depart-pected, commission ometals say.

Palisades officials say they have ment of Energy still does not know if no choice. Roughly 18 percent of the the site is suitable. If it is, the earliest y

a permanent repository could open energy generated each year by the there would be in the year 2010.

plant's owner Consumers Power. a

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liere at the Palisades Nuclear subsidiary of the CMS Energy Com-Plant, an hour southwest of Grand pany. Is produced by the Palisades Rapids. nine 16-foot-tall concrete reactor. Nationwide, about 21 per-and steelcasks are being erectedin a cent of all electricity is generated by 1

monument to one of the 20th centu-nuclear power.

ry's enduring tecimical and political failures The casks. each of which holds 30 tons of spent nuclear fuel and cost $500.000, stand side by j

side on a table-flat concrete pad a stone's throw from 1,ake Micingan.

liow long the casks and their con-tents wlil remain here is anybody's FUf%%

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