ML20151A768

Comment Supporting Proposed Rule 10CFR50 Re Licensing of Nuclear Power Plants Where State &/Or Local Govts Decline to Cooperate in Offsite Emergency Planning

ML20151A768
Person / Time
Site:	Seabrook, 05000000, Shoreham
Issue date:	02/27/1987
From:	Lankes J AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	NRC
References
FRN-52FR6980, RULE-PR-50 52FR6980-00074, 52FR6980-74, OL-3, NUDOCS 8807200113
Download: ML20151A768 (2)

Text

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. J.B.LANKES REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER .

POST OFFICE BOX 1404 HAMPTON VA 23661 UTI F c.. .h.~. ~d February 27, 1987 OP S 11 m:v (J(Ea 2 3_5L P V7. 6 37 n;R -2 P 4 '.59 Nuclear Regulatory Commission -

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Gentlemen: , ,

I was' pleased to read in the paper today that the NRC proposes "to ease emergency standards for nuclear plants". This has my unqualified annroval, as I understand the steps to be taken.

I am tired of the patty-cake politics in this matter. If Massa-chusetts cannot handle an evacuation from Seabrook, they can turn the 10 mile circle over to the aegis of New Hampshire and let somebody do the work that can do the work, instead of bitch- ,

ing about why they can't do it. . . . .I don't know what can be done )

about Shoreham. Maybe long Island can secede from New York and  ;

set un the Sist State? l 1

As for Senator Kennedy 's trumpetings about "3eacrook is not safe",

what the hell does he know about what is safe and what is unsafe?

l Very truly yours,  ;

'c ff f i.B.Lankes, J P.E.

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1 o Qgggg _ Materials Performence The Decline in American Comprehension of Science There is today a growing discrepancy between the not only to the schools themselves, but also to increasing science, mathematics, and technology education acquired by public understanding and appreciation of the importance of high school graduates who plan to follow scientif 6C and engi. excellence in these areas.

neering cartrers and those who do not. Scientific and technical . Lost you are thinking that a smug Canadian writer is look.

literacy is increasingly necessary in our society, but the ing down on a distressing aspect of the American scene, at numbn of our young people who graduate from high school this point I must advise that the foregoing 18 taken, verbatim, and college with only the mosi rudimentary notions of science, from an ' October,1980 report by the (U.S.) National Science mathematics, and technology portends Pout te in the decades Foundation and the Department of Education, prepared at the ahead. Thomas Jefferson's axiom that an enlightened . specific request of President Carter. The report is signed by cittgenry is the onty safe repository of control over the uttanate Shirley M. Hufstedler, Secretary of Education, and Donald N.

processes of society surely includes the necessity for scien. Langenberg, Acting Director, National Science Foundation.

ttfic and technological enlightentnent. While students who- The title is "Science and Engineering Education f or the 1980's plan scientific and engineering careers are recerving an ade. and Beyond." The 79 page report is avsilable from the Superin.

Quate educational foundation, more students than ever are tendent of Documents. U.S. Government Printing Office, dropping out of science and mathematics courses after the Washington, DC 20402 (Code No. 1980 4 334 588/6998).

tenth grade, and this trend shows no signs of abating. The i f ound the report most interesting, and commend it to my situation has several troubling implications: readers. Only a f ew other excerpts can be quoted on this page.

• The role of science and technology is increasing such as:

throughout our society, in business, in govemment, in the ,

• We are distressed by the f act that the majority of adult military, in occupations and professions where it never beWe Americans who have already passed through the system have intruded, science is becoming a key to success. Todav pWs received an education which is inadequate to their needs as in a wide rarse of non-scientific and non engineering occupa. citizens in today's technically complex world.

tions and professions must have a greater understandng of e There is a great mismatch between the content of sec.

technology than at any time in our history-yet our educa. ondary school science and the needs and interests of students tional system does not now provide such understanding. for whom these courses will constitute their entire formal

• Students who take no more mathematics and science scientific education. With few exceptions, these courses are aNer their tenth year have effectively eliminated, by the age of not directed toward personal .or societal preblems involving sixteen, the possibility of science or engineering as a career, science and technology; nor do they offer affy insight into The pool from which our f uture scientific and engineering per. what engineers and scientists do; nor do they have vocational sonnel can be drawn is therefore in danger of becoming relevance except for the chosen few, smaller, even as the need for such personnel is increasing. + The school curriculum barely considers the role of the

+ Education has long been the route by which upward computer in our society. Just as we recognize the Stone Age mobility has been achieved by disadvantaged groups in our and the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the Machine Age, society. This verfty has not changed. Increased emphasis historians are likely to look back on our own time and label it must be given to aiding those who have been excluded, for too the "Computer Age." The computer is revolutionizing the way long, from careers in science and engineering. We stress this business and industry are conducted, and thus the nature of imperative both for reasons of equity and to increase the size many jobs. Tne small calculator is ubiquitous, appearing even of the pool of talent from which the Nation's scientists, engi. in the hands of kindergarien children. Examination of school neers, and technicians can be drawn. Curricula, however, would, by and large, offer little eddence of

• The declining emphasis on science and mathematics in the existence of this electronic revolution.

Our school systems is iri marked contrast to other industrial.

• There is persuasive evidence that many students today ized countries. Japan, Germany, and the Soviet Union all pro- are simply not aware.of the career opportunities which exist in vide rigorous training in science and mathematics for all their scientific and technological fields. Many of them apparently citizens. We fear a loss of our competitive edge. have the misconception that the only people in these f telds are The contribution of science and technology to our securi. those with advanced degrees and if they are not top ty and prosperity rests on two bases. The first of these is the academics, they need not apply. This is particularly true of competence and inventiveness of the practitioners, the scipn- women and minority group members, who are grossly under.

tists, and engineers who design and build the system. But the represented in scientific and technical fields.

second Dase is equally important to our overall success as a l can add a personal experience to this discussion. In Nation. This second base consists of the overwhelming por. 1966, while attending the intomational Congress on Metallic lion Of our population which has no direct involvement in Corrosion in Moscow,l observed books on chemistry, physics, science and technology, or with the science and engineering and mathematics laid out on tables for sale to the public m community. They are indirectly involved thruugh their in. front of bookstores, and in the subways also. A subway rider I fluence on the govemmental and industrial sources of funding met who could speak English told me that he vias retuming 1or scientific and technological endeavors. They are involved home et 11 pm after a three hour period of night school that he in the regulatory and policy decisions that set directions for took three nights a week. In reply,I told him that in Canada, a scientific inquiry and technological development. They reap night school student would consider himself working hard if the benefits of science and technology. Many need some he spent two hours a night twice a week. And my Russian knowledge of science and technology to do their jobs well. fnend was married and had two children! When I wished him However, the current trend toward virtual scientific and tech- well in the furtherance of his career (technical translator), he nological illiteracy, unless reversed, means that important na. observed, apologetically (!), that in Russia this was the only tional decisions invoMnc science ano technoiocy will be way to get ahead.

mace increasincly on the basis of ecnorance ano misunoer. In my opinion, one of the most important concerns arising sta nding from the decline in scientific literacy among the population at t here has been, over the past fifteen years or so, a shrink. targe is the statement underlined above in the tert quoted ing of our national commitment to excellent and internationsi from the report. _

pnma cy in sc6ence, ma thematics, and technoiogy. This lessen.

ing of Commitment has not been the result of Conscious de6 sion on anyone's part, but it has nevertheless pervaded our

• society. The schools of this Nation are but reflections of the ,

degree of national commitment in any area, and they therefore are not so much a cause of this condition as a result. To cor. Hugh P. Godard rect this debiltty, therefore, will require that attention be given Editor REPRODUCTION RIGHTS RESERVED November.1981 7

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