ML20203C107
| ML20203C107 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Maine Yankee |
| Issue date: | 11/25/1997 |
| From: | Collins S SENATE |
| To: | Rathburn D NRC OFFICE OF CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS (OCA) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20203C097 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9802250072 | |
| Download: ML20203C107 (3) | |
Text
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November 25,1997 Mr. Danis Rathburn Director Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Congressional Affaits Washington, DC 20555
Dear Mr. Rathburn:
Please find the enclosed letter from Ms. Sharon Treat, a State Senator from my state, expressing her concerns regarding the decommissioning of Maine Yankee.
Any consideration you can give to her concerns would be greatly appreciated. I would also appreciate a copy of the response you send to her so that I may become better informed.
?>g Thank you in advance for your assistance with this matter.
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Sincerely, i%
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. Collins United States Senator SMC:sas Enclosure 9002250072 990219 PDR ADOCK 0S000309 H
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Senator Sharon Anglin Treat District 18 PO Box 12 3 State House Station Augusta, Maine 04333 Gardiner, Maine o4345 (207) 287 1515 THE SENATE OF MAINE (207) 582 6702 Fax (207) 588-o458 TTY (207) 28T 1583 118th Legislature E rrat treat @satum. caps. maine.edu October 29,1997 Senator Susan Collins B40 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senat -
ollins:
As a member of the Maine Radioactive Waste Advisory Commission and Senate Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Natural Resources, and because the Senate district I represent, District 18, is within 20 miles of Maine Yankee and a number of my constituents work (or used to work) at the plant, I have started to review the procedures and practices being followed during the decommissioning of Maine Yankee.
I am writing to you because I am concerned and alarmed by what I have learned about the decommissioning process and lack of oversight of Maine Yankee's activities. Based on my initial review of the issues and the applicable law, I believe it is critical for Maine's Congressional delegation to actively monitor the NRC's policies and actions with regard to Maine Yankee.
I recently attended a meeting held by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Wiscasset and I am doing what I can to review the applicable laws and regulations and other materials. What I have learned so far is that the current rules provide for very little public participation or oversight and that a site specific Environmental Impact Statement will not be required until ofter most of the decommissioning decisions are made and innplemented. The NRC (see 61 FR 39278, July 29,1996,10 CFR Parts 2,50,51) retroactively reviews most of the significant environment decisions after they are made and carried out. The only currently available site-specific " plan" for decommissioning is the 17-page PSDAR compiled by Maine Yankee. This is a cursory and inadequate blueprint for a complex and potentially dangerous process.
As a result of this approach, significant decisions, whether to dry cask store the spent fuel, or store within the spent fuel storage area, for example, do not need to undergo the up-front scrutiny of an environmental impact statement, except to the extent that these options are discussed in a generic NRC-written EIS from 1988 (NUREG-0586). In my view this is inadequate, and appears to be contrary to the requirements of the National Environmen:al Policy Act (NEPA),42 USC 4321 et seq. For a discussion of NRC policy and NEPA, see Citizens Awareness Network v. NRC,59 F 2d 284 (1st Cir.1995).
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4 1 urge you to look into the issue of the decommissioning process and specifically (1) the absence of opponunities for public hearings until after most significant decisions are made, and (2) the effective subversion of the requirements of NEPA. Maine Yankee is one of the first commercial nuclear reactors to be decommissioned after many years of operation, It is very important that decommissioning be done safely and in an environmentally sound manner I am extremely concerned that NRC's procedures do not adequately protect the public, and look to you to address the problem through legislation if necessary.
I strongly encourage you to send staff to the upcoming NRC forum (November 6,7:00 PM at Wiscasset High School) to see for yourself how the NRC works. I am sure you will share my concern when you have had an opportunity to see first-hand the inadequacies of the decommissioning process.
Thank you very much for your attention to this important matter. Please feel free to call me to discuss this matter at P.07) 582-6702.
Sincerely, Sharon Anglin Treat State Senator CC:
Ned Sullivan Dora Anne Mills Elizabeth Butler Dale Randall Maine Radioactive Waste Advisory Commission l
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