ML20132B580

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Requests Response to Encl, Summary of Medical Matl, Provided by Ba Witmer During Meeting W/Lancaster,Pa Residents
ML20132B580
Person / Time
Site: Three Mile Island Constellation icon.png
Issue date: 05/13/1983
From: Ahearne J
NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
To:
NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO)
Shared Package
ML20132B585 List:
References
FOIA-85-285 NUDOCS 8306290616
Download: ML20132B580 (7)
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UNITED STATER i+ "g NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION p y r .

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I WASHIN37CN.C.C.20sll May 13, 1983 .

Q "5[oo ..W* g cFFICa of THe corv.issionan .

Executive Di ecthe for Operations' MDiORANDUM FOR:

, ,(

John Ahearne FROM:

  • Q JM'= -

MEETING WITH NCASTER' RESIDENTS

SUBJECT:

At the request of Public Affairs, on Wednesday I met withthe During a group meeting of one concerned citizens from Lencaster, Pennsylvania. I promised to -

' member provided the attached "Sumary of Medical Material."

I recognize the attachment is sketchy and. refers ,

provide some NRC response. ,

to issues which we have addressed many times. '

Nevertheless, I would appreciate your providing a response which I could The use in reply. A proposed draft by the end of May would be appreciated.

reply should be addressed to Ms. Brenda A. Witmer.

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.  ? Attachment

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.. cc: Chairman Palladino *

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SL*.$'.AE OF T.IIIC AL yM.I AL .

Althcu6h there 'ha.ve been a.ccounts , a.ffidr.vits and stories by area.

residents a. bout the physical har that has ocarred possibly as a result of the a.ccident s.t DII L5it 2 during F.a.=h of 1979, these a.llega.tions Otherpeoplehavetdenthe:

have not been td.en seriously by the state.

seriously r.nd hr.ve done studies to investigate their validity.

One such group is a Japanese husband a.nd wife reses.rch tea = who came to r ddletown during the su::er of 1982 and spent eight months interviewing .

over 200 pecple. A book entitled Xil5ing 0.:. Ovn, written by Ha/vey k'asser:an a.nd Nc:na.n Solocan (Dell.1982), describes sc=e of the proble s I

  • he last three .

that TKI area. residents have fr.ceIsince the.19/9 a.ccident.

cha.pten sie titled "How Much Radiation?," "Anins.ls Died a.t Three Mil,e Islasd" a.nd "pecple Died a.t Three Mile Isla.ed." B:cerptin's fro Chapter U: ..

- First and'ic emest, the utility, the NIC a.nd the industry .

,* strove to cinirJ.:e the public in;ressics cf how nuch radiatica

- - hr.d escaped at Three Mile Island, and how dt7gerous it night be Trc= Chapter 12: '

Cn A;ril 12, fer ext.=;1e, in the tidst cf the c:dsis, i.n .

?C cfficial "did .ssed notlake 24=es.

provide accuratecenceded  ::adir.gs-hat noniton. in the cf s.hselute pla.nt stack quantities of readier.ctivity re'.er sed during the accident." tf

.-2gh radiatien levelt , said 24=ett, had driven moniten "c sea.le" and rendered tnem useless." ,

In June, A1' cert Gitsen, a : .diatien su;;cn sectica chief who co-authered the N?C's final reper; c= M e:issi:ns c:..fi=ed the proble=.. Testifying in frent cf the five N?C cen insienen, c:s:n said "All the ::.diatien u 1:1 :f t'.e i.diatter. es cr.yed, n : r.:. . ::~. :. . .i t v e r.: s u.:k. vnert tt m

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went eff scale, the morning of the accident. The sta ek acnitors had been essentially useless during a.nd after the accident." .

Included are the three chapters of .his bcok fer your ;erusal. ~

In Chapter 13, " Animals Died at Three Mile Isla.nd," Dr. Robert Weber went before a het=ing of the Public Utilities Cor. mission in March of 1980 - .

Also included is s.n interview and gav's public testimony on the accident.

with Dr4 Weber by the Japanese research team.

is a discus-

' ,In Chapter 14. " People Died at Three Mile Island," there k.

sian about Gezdon Macleod, Secretary of Nea.ith during the accident.

1

',' The state media charac-yacImod was fired eight months after the accident.

terised Maclacd's firing " State government's harshest critic of the. way

.e the Thornburgh administration responded to the Three Mile Island accident, and that may have been why he was fired." ,Q oting from the book I.. w ~

Macleod's problems with hornburgh had begun on nrch 29,

  • the day after news of radioactive releases from TMI began to spread. .

MacImod had, in his words, " Recommended, and on the next day urged the governor, in the strongest possible terms, to call for -

de p:ture of pregnant wesen and young children from an areaYacleod told us la .

- . within fiv,e miles of Three, Mile Island." sould have urged the that if he had a chance to do it over he -

deprture of children in puterty, no a.re also extracriiinarily

. radia. tion sensitive.

One is Some Included are scue studies published by Dr. FacImod. *

.. A Case Study h ggg P.:b' LitV. etith lessens fggyt ,'g}Iee fgN, Island '

Qacting f:ca the summary of

, (Anbic, ?.cya.1 Ewedish Academy of Sciences.) n.

the study:

Tne inadequacy of reacter desir:, safety to surface controls, and saa-in the wake

f cwer t
ir.ing were not the only pr:M er.:h. Mac14ed arraes ths.t Pennsy o Three Mile Island.
ublic health sector was, and stil'. is, voefully unprepred

, s. nuclear a.ccident,

' and ;hysicists instead

, affecting public haslth were za.de by e..g.nes:s'he auther peints c of physicians.

hyper.hyrcidism betere a.nd after the a.:cident, with a tenfoldr

  • in:rette i .redittely devrwind ** f ;rcf;r.:':

tv:. :,; :. . ry e :i L*.i: int it.

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to deal vi-h future reacter accidents.

Other papers by Dr. EacLeod include Medical Dthics j.n the Neelear .

Are and A Role Fer ?.blic Her.ith in the pue'. ear Are ( Ane:-ict.n Jeu =al

_cf N . blic_ Eea.ath, Ma:ch 1982. Vol. 2 No. 3).

Another.centrove:sy that arcse concerned the Pennsylvar.ia. Depart:ent Again, Chapter 14 deals -

of Hea.lth studies lead by Dr. Cec ge Tokcha.ta.

quite extensively with the discrepacy between Dr. Tokohata's actua.1 findin ,

and what the press releases were reporting.

Dr. Bruce Mch1 holt, s. bioge'neticist with the.Envircnnental Cance:

' 7:eventien Center in Philadelphia, now teaching a.t Eaverford University. '

conducted a study on Fielerical Effects of the Accident at Three Q Island. He presanted th.is testineny a.t the US NJC TEI Restart Hearings - -

in Earrisburg, Ea. ch 16, 1981. Q. toting from his study:

'Ihe CPU E=ergency Plc thus attempts to lull the public

.i into a fa.lse sense of secu:ity that they are being protected above and beye:d these radia.tica ; otection gu.idelines set by The CPU Emergency the DA. In fa.ct, the t:uth is the opposite.

plan micrepresents.the sense of DA C.Es and based its " extra mea.sure of public protection" upen this disterted interpretation.

Turther:cre, in fa.iling to put any potentia.1 releases cf radienuclides to the public residi .g near Three Mile Island i'nto the centext of the accident at T?.I 2, the cpu hergency plaa overiceks the cunulative ..ature of radiatien-indtced ca.:cinegenic and mutagenic dar, age to the public. .

In 1982 the .'apnese research tean interviewed over 200 people who i

. ss.id they experier.ced a, st:tnge ta.ste in the :.outh af ter the acci$ent, who .

elled an cdo: Ehe burnt meta.1, who had d:/ ness of the :.euth a..d threat, h:te. people c. la.ized they ha.d c= sunburn-like sensa.tiens en 1. heir skin,

' tea. ing and i=ir.a.iten cf the eyes, tightnias cf t:: .th, c: ns.uses, a.nd d R.:etir.g f:cr. the fcrtheening beck, m VMe Isler.d Revisited:

In additien to 'p'ecple's c'.?. ensrience durir.g the dayset sudden d 4- cf the a.::ide .t. there were a, nu::::a .i r.est:= de a..hs cer.g the

~ z.nir.t. ;t . a.:.1 s. : .:tr. :f s ti'.*. fi. th:

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. donestic a.nir.alc in the vicinity cf the pla.nt. Tnen, through

-he f01twing ncnths, hundreds of cata died fr'.a unkn:wn ill-

. esses, and new, thr:0 and cne ha.lf years after running into sti1Wirths and C- sections, a loca.1 vererina.ria.n 10 wi*.nessing a three-fold increa.se in cancer cases of pets and livestock. .

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ne 7.atagiris ask why have these episodes not been td.en up by or

  • i Is ca.ught 'cy the interest of th's count.y's medica.1 and health experts?

this asetter case of the traditional coventp't or is there a built in in-

  • sensitivity in today's health sciences, whose highly systenitized sethod-  !
  • ology is too alien fer such bizarre local episodes? l

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- De Xatigiris continue: +

here is, however, one well ascertained facts A standa:t argunent pervades and is openly spoken about within the American l The arguement goes as follows: he seientific establishment.  !

local farmers' and the veterinarians' allegations were scientif- l ica.11y discredited and claims of symptoms by humans should be . l considered, rather, in the rea.la of psychology. This is a per , ,

ve:sion worthy of extensive socicelinical study, for there isScientists' an a.p prent pa.thological complexity involved here. ,

ha.ve even failed to censider atmospheric phenomena, which many .

  • i. ccal. people observed, and which would Icgica.11y have been exp-i acted to occur due to the radioactive releases.
  • j Included is one of these interviews fred Three Mile Islan It is about 3ec$y Meese who is a 32 year old nurse sho lives in Mi d as with her husband and 4 year old daughter, paa, who has been distnese having cataracts in teth eyes. '
  • A sun =a.ry ci' the Katagiri resea.rch states that:

. 1. E=ireds cf pecple experienced a streng metallic taste in their acut

' Se:e yeeple neticed that the air wee:ed ve:/ heavy, s.nd their

' fla.t . .

often soreness and *

2. N/ ness of the acuth and threat was expe:tenced burning sensaticn persistent thirst. -

3 Hot sensations cf the skin, particu'ia:dy o c the face sad a:rs, eften resuit'.ng in a " sunburn".

h, hr:itatien of the eyes, tc ning and tet:tr.g. .

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J. Tight c.C.e3t, s'hc tness d! brea.th,. bu=ing in lirgs.

/e.xious feeling in the stomach.

c. Fa.usea a.nd senetines ver.iting.

7 Itarrhea that persisted in sene cases for weeks and nonths.

8. An a.:ea nu:se who bec$ne very ill after the accident has had recurrent '

s;1otching cf the skin a.nd bu:ning cf her cheeks a.nd nest:ils. Those 65 ster adnitted recu =ing cutbreLks CC relate exactly '"ith radiation venting . .

. by GPU. '

T.ro dentists prteticing in Inisbe=-f Township, en the west shore of the 9

river ac nss from 'mI, noticed a fogging or baniing of X- ray films expcsed Film frca the same batch on Wed. March 28, 1979 and 'Ihuzs; March 29, 1979 Neither dehtist knew of the acci-

, exposed before th,e accident, was nornal.' . "

dant until 'Jhu:sday night, Ma.:ch 29 .

  • '10. One physician in Goldsboro reperts a pronounced increa.se in leukemia a.nd lyn;hena starting about one year a.fter the accident. ,

/

11. Cne physician in New Cumberland reperts increases in underactive '

ra.shes and other de=a.tological problens, and 2 and one half yea:s after the accident observed a. doubling of colon cancer.

In a 2 page syne; sis of the Katagdri findings, the Three Mile Island Public,F.esea.=h Center cencludes with the fonowing quote:

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Tne gove=.:ent refuses to acknowledge the tre=endcus ecst cf this accident in human suffering when the truth is that the '

dea.th toll is neunting and the agony of these'dissases have huna.n They are cur friends and facilies. t faces a.nd na.:es.

  • av'.d h ger, a.ite=ey with h ger ,A i:entague, Philadel;hia, has won
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inclu ded l ' a $23-et1*,1cn c1tss actica shit against Centra.1 Public Utilities.

1111cn pubide hetith fund, inttaded to benefit the

.. in the suit wa.s a $3- :

".. h:ger has assenbled se:e cf people within a 23 lle radius cf TMI.

On P.an h 2 b 30 1983 he held

, the verld's = cat er.inent rinds en radia.ite..

Citizens .et with this er.inent a public fe:.:n en nuclear pewer in Middles:w..

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=

g cup cf perple, chaired by Dr. Xa.12. F.c:Ean, Arthur Uptc= cf WU, Hiro Kr.to ef Ereshina, L:. Lean Atrtheson, Ir. EiVard T.Lifc:d, Ian F.cEL g, yra.Q Ven E;ple, Jas 3 eyes, Cec ge Veedwell, L.i others. The forun participants were asked to cenduct a lengitudinal bic:edi,ca.1 hetith study en the people who were within the 10 mile radius a.t the time of the a.ccident. 'Ihey were a.lso asked to conduct a public health study cf the workers at TMI since its .

opening in 1974: to fund the Xatagiri project and to devote the hetith fund's nillicas 'only to the study of problems of these in the 'DC ares..

Area citizens are asking the news media to look into these issues, to

- ca.11 these esinent professors, study the questiens, a.nd lea:n if there sally is a. tig story here....

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