ML20091K916

Petition to NRC & Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry Us Dept of Health & Human Svcs

ML20091K916
Person / Time
Site:	Neely Research Reactor
Issue date:	08/28/1995
From:	AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	NRC
References
2.206, NUDOCS 9508280196
Download: ML20091K916 (3)

Text

-

1. a. PETITION <

THE U.S. NUCLEAR R ULATORY COMMISSION Jc/f./

~'

i'

,THE AGENCY FOR TOXIC SUBST CES AND DISEASE REGISTRY 'hb

• (A DIVISION OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE / l U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES) l We, the undersigned, support Pamela Blockey-O'Brien's " Petition for Director's Decision Under 10 C.F.R. 2.206 to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Oct. 3, 1994" (U.S. N.R.C. Docket 50-160) calling for:

(a) License revocation and shutdown of the Neely Nuclear Research Reactor and support facilities and removal of all radio-active contamination and materials. The reactor is on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in downtown Atlanta, near housing for the poor and adjacent to where 10,000 ,

Olympic athletes / visitors will be housed. It is on unstable ground, has no real containment dome, is in an earthquake zone, has contaminated surrounding soil, vegetation and sewer systems, vents radiation to the air and has a history of problems.

Approximately 400,000 Curies of (radioactive) Cobalt-60 are  ;

also stored on site and approximately 6,000 Curies of Cesium-137 are stored under the floor of a nearby building.

(b) License withdrawal NATIONWIDE involving the discharging or dumping of ANY quantity of radioactive material to all sewers or waters of the United States or oceans of the world.

(c) License withdrawal from ALL nuclear facilities, including nuclear power plants, nationwide, which operate under "As Low As Reasonably Achievable" ("ALARA") principles.

Name Address (Octional) Town / State /Zipcode (Needed)

L fU Yda 955A/. M Sd. h&> &A 3 OO N O 2.$ $u6 M u C lc h / / Q <l0Fl$

% x m e n( PO m aa 3 80m owna

'k1 vn aNSb 4 ts~I a y A n r A y 'a v & ?, f  %

s. h c %n' avw o-~) n une

%, Mal ( " "

0 D Rlhwd SdMtL Wi 1%c4 Ma Ita *m Ahn ALWm

8. S h d lu L $ n e r- /%!M? Cne T)r To'd" %%sn2 9$1u(AnafvW OrYn n Oc~ S6h9 n.M Ll//Xl ' 9n LL iL NE4 AKIJ/Mc6 nla %& mya ' ekjw sw I

9508280196 950828 O PDR ADOCK 05000160 b I P _ , , , , , ,

PDR A '

6 s Reasons for Supportina the PETITION:

' "}

. ('a) To the U.S. Nuclear Reculatory Commission Contrary to popular belief, the entire nuclear fuel cycle--from mining of uranium to transportation of nuclear materials, to manu-

facture of nuclear weapons / projectiles /so-called " depleted uranium" armor piercing munitions, to nuclear power plant and nuclear research reactors--lD6E$ emit DEADLY RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINANTS TO AIR, SOIL, VEGETATION AND WATER. Further, under "ALARA" principles, one is 3 allowed to release radioactive contaminants to the environment as long as the releases are kept As Low As Reasonably Achievable, i.e., ALARA, depending upon what one wants to spend on containing releases, what available equipment one has and such. In other words, j ALARA outs economics above concern for health and the environment.

Due to the nature of radiation, such releases under ALARA permit illness, contamination and deaths. The only way to avoid these deaths--which medical nuclear expert Dr. John Gofman calls " planned deaths"--is to have ZERO releases.

THERE IS NO " SAFE" LEVEL OF RADIATION, whether naturally occurring or human made. The so-called " permissible" and " allowable" doses /

4 limits / guidelines / standards are hogwash. They grew out of recommen-dations made in 1950 by the International Commission on Radiological

Protection (ICRP). The ICRP itself had accepted standards agreed j upon by nuclear physicists from the Manhatten Project (WWII

, atomic bomb project) even those these physicists had NO health credentials. Although the ICRP has issued some updates, it persists in the basic views / recommendations "to allow reasonable latitude for the expansion of atomic energy programs"--not to protect health.

Even the NRC admitted in 1978 that there is NO safe level of exposure, a fact that had been known for years. The effects of radiation are cumulative. Any exposure constitutes a threat as ionizing radiation seriously disrupts the chemistry of the cell, leading to later events we may see as lymphoma, leukemia, breast or lung cancer, asthma, spontaneous abortion, heart problems, deformed offspring, sterility, ovarian / reproductive problems, thyroid problems, or death.

' Workers in nuclear industries are allowed to be exposed to even .

higher levels of radiation than the current appalling levels allowed '

. for the general public. Furthermore, as soon as they enter the workplace, such workers are not considered to be " members of the  :

public" anymore by the NRC and industry, so less protection is given.

The deadly effects of Cobalt-60 and Cesium-137 are well known.

Cobalt-60's effects on DNA at low exposure are horrendous, let alone the fact that exposure to Co-60 and Ce-137 can kill outright.

Radiation cannot be rendered harmless. It has to decay to its stable state which may take millions of years. Even though many people think that when a radioactive substance has reached its half-life, everything is fine, the term " half-life" is a useless l l

2

• [ 4 ', phrsco whrn it comes to cafcty. It takca 10 to 20 half-livss, on tha cycrtga, fcr cemething to go through ths varioun otagss of radioactive decay to become stable / harmless. A pound of Cesium-137 (with a half-life of approximately 30 years), for example, would only decay to 1/2 pound at the end of 30 years; at the end of 30 more years, 1/4 pound; at the end of yet another 30 years, 1/8 pound, etc.

When radioactive contaminants are dumped to sewers, they wind up often eventually wind up in drinking water, having contaminated 4

~

sewer lines, treatment plants, sewage sludges and creeks / rivers en route to drinking water intake plants. The result is a major public health problem in which people are exposed daily to yet another cumulative dose of radiation.

, (b) To the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)

As guardian of the public's health, ATSDR NUST INTERVENE and insure that the requests in this petition to NRC are honored and implemented.

While not much can be done about naturally occurring background radiation to which we are all exposed and which in turn causes

. health problems, aging, etc., ZERO exposure to radiation from all man-made/ induced activities is a must. The latter source of i exposure can be eliminated to a great extent.

, (c) In General

! U.S. nuclear guidelines are generally adopted /followed worldwide.

! Stupidity on this issue has already spread because the press and public generally bought into all the hogwash, believed they were being protected and asked few questions. Above and below ground (with vents) nuclear testing by the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, ,

France and others have saturated much of this earth with fallout, '

causing approximately 6 million cancer deaths worldwide by 1963 (when above ground tests stopped). These cancer deaths would not have otherwise occurred according to former Soviet dissident /

nuclear scientist Andrei Sakarov. Millions more have died since.

4 We do not need any additional exposure. Remember, radiation is unsafe at anv level. (Suggested reading: No Immediate Dancer:

, Proonosis for a Radioactive Earth by Dr. Rosalie Bertell.)

Thank you for your support of this petition. Please distribute

unsigned copies of it to friends (by mail, fax, on Internet) and then make three copies of your completed petition (all 3 pages) and mail to

(1)' The Executive Director, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 (2) Petitioned Health Assessment Co-ordinator, John Steward, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a

1600 Clifton Rd., N.E. (E-28), Atlanta, Georgia 30333 I l

(3) Pamela Blockey-O'Brien, I.F.O.R., c/o D23 Golden Valley, Douglasville, Georgia 30134.

3 j l

.