ML20148H859

Applicant Rebuttal Testimony 2 (Rebuttal to Corrected Testimony of a Ceder & Ae Luloff on Seacoast Anti-Pollution League 31 & Town of Hampton III Re Drivers Following Advice of Traffic Guides.* Witness:Ds Mileti

ML20148H859
Person / Time
Site:	Seabrook
Issue date:	01/22/1988
From:	PUBLIC SERVICE CO. OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
To:
Shared Package
ML20148H865	List: ML20148H859 ML20148J040 ML20148J057 ML20148J083
References
CON-#188-5432 OL, NUDOCS 8801270319
Download: ML20148H859 (3)

Text

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UbHRC Dated: J ua , 19 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA g '

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION N 00CXYTNGh,d,5,$["/

BRANCH before the ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD

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In the Matter of )

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PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY ) Docket Nos. 50-443-OL OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, ET ATs. ) 50-444-OL

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(Seabrook Station, Units 1 ) (Offsite Emergency and 2) ) Planning Issues)

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APPLICANTS' REBUTIAL TESTIMONY NO. 2 (Rebuttal to the corrected Testimony of .

Dr. Avishai Ceder and Dr. Albert E. Luloff on SAPL 31 and TOH III Regarding Drivers Following the Advice of Traffic Guides)

Witness: Dennis S. Mileti Community-wide emergencies, such as an evacuation following a nuclear power plant accident, are different from most other settings from a human behavior viewpoint; they are, behaviorally, a class by themselves. Aberrant, anti-social and individual-focused acts that sometimes occur in other settings dramatically fall off during community-wide emergencies. Fights, arguments and other manifestations of "putting-oneself-first" that can and do occur in the course of everyday social life all but disappear. The mechanism that fosters the decline of aggressive, aberrant, anti-social h!k ADOC R >

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9 acts and acts with individually-focused goals in community-wide emergencies does not prevail in most other social settings.

Communities in emergencies are transformed behaviorally at both the group and individual levels. Priorities shift, goals and objectives are transformed, and identifications change. The first priority becomes collective safety of people and the community. The primo goal and objective becomes serving the first priority. People shed racial, ethnic and other forms of personal identification and identify with the entire human collective or community that is at risk. This social psychological "shift" that characterizes emergencies results in the "falling-off" of acts and behavior that run counter to the good of the collective, which serve or stem from interests that are individual or personal. This "shift" would undoubtedly occur in an emergency at Seabrook or any other nuclear power plant for that matter. This phenomenon has been documented in every emergency studied by social scientists where it has been a topic of investigation; evidence of it can also be found in emergencies where it was not a formal topic of investigation. Perhaps because the popular image of the human behavior in such emergencies is so much le opposite of fact, most communitica that experience an emergency come to boast of how "unique" are their local citizens and how they came together "when the chips were down."

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Were an emergency to occur at Seabrook, the evacuating public would be affected by the "collective identification" which would typify all those persons experiencing the emergency. It is highly unlikely, therefore, that evacuees would behave in ways consistent with individual (seeking their own unique evacuation route) versus collective goals (following the recommended route of those directing traffic).

It is, to go even further, equally unlikely that persons directing traffic would be harassed, verbally abused, physically assaulted or encounter other acts that would typify the behavior of people not affected by the "collective identification" which would occur among those experiencing the emergency. Traffic guides would not, therefore, be seen as targets for aggression or people "in the way". Rather, they would most likely be perceived as persons who are offering help and assistance that is useful to all those persons at risk.

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