ML20203M961

Requests That Encl Bj Klaus to Jk Asselstine Re Licensing of Plant W/O State or Local Participation in Evacuation Planning Be Served on Parties to Facility Proceeding.Served on 860904

ML20203M961
Person / Time
Site:	Shoreham File:Long Island Lighting Company icon.png
Issue date:	09/03/1986
From:	Davis P NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
To:	Clements W NRC OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (SECY)
References
CON-#386-584 OL-3, NUDOCS 8609050214
Download: ML20203M961 (4)

Text

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% UNITED STATES 1 i

' hg ;jf j NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHIN GTON, D.C. 20555 3 e 00thETEL' USNRC

• • • • • /

OFFICE OF THE '86 SEP -3 P4 :21 COMMISSIONER September 3, 1986 0FFlci C! a .

00CHEMu . ._:.r-BFM CP

$ William L. Clements, Chief MEMO T0:

Docketing and Service Branch FROM: PatriciaR. Davis,LegalAssistant}D '

'O N Office of Commissioner Asselstine

SUBJECT:

SHOREHAM PROCEEDING twcr.ZT MUMsrR Q -d['2.-d&3 P:100. & UTIL FAC Please serve the attached letter on the parties to the Shoreham '

proceeding.

8609030214 860903 PDR ADOCK 05000322 G PDR No2-.

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. August 20, 1986 Commissioner James K. Asseltine U.S. Nuclear REGULATORY Commission

' Room 1136 1717 H. Street, Northwest Washington, D.C. 20555

Dear Commissioner Asseltine,

it required but a short period of time after studying the contents of your dissent to your own NRC'S most recent suggestion that Shoreham Nuclear Station be licensed sans state or county participation in evacuation planning to realize that there remained one man whose sense of logic and concern for the safety of us Long Islanders was as of yet unimpaired.

You, Mr. Asseltine, are the first clean breath of air we have been able to breathe since this nuclear plant was begun.

~

After all our' honest contentions were summarily dismissed, rerouted or otherwise cast underfoot, we still held fast to the hope that the NRC was a regulatory agency and not some puffed-up pawn of the nuclear industry. It took a lot a low shots from LILCO and most of the Commissioners themselves before we had to shed our nalevte and square up to the fact that the NRC is not a regulatory, but a promotional agency. There are little "NRCs" the world over, in every country that promotes nuclear power as a cheap, desirable, and safe form of energy. We have begun to think of our United States' NRC as the kingpin of Madison Avenue Nuke ' Madness, M AN-M AD, if you will. Though the word, " mad" has mutated to assume the meaning of " angry," it derivated from

" insanity." Licensing this nuclear station is just that. We all know about the licensee in this case, but we are gaining new perceptions about the licenser.

Everyone who has had the iron-walled stomach to study this film-flam of a " plan," including the entire NRC, itself, knows that not even a hair's width of assurance for our safety and speedy evacuation is provided for. The evacuation plan, as it is generously and eroneously named, does not, cannot, nor ever can provide any degree of reasonable assurance that the health and safety of our families will not be endangered by this plant's operation.

The latter being the irrefutable case, the NRC unable to undermine that reality as hard as it has tried, now smears jam all over its face for all of us to see. The NRC, having contorted and reshaped many of its earlier crucial guidelines in plant-licensing procedures, breaks their one remaining, paramount rule. Based on the hopeless truth that LILCO couldn't come up with anything better than this, and heaven knows the NRC has given them enough years to fabricate revisions and munificent loopholes to come up with something that achievq; at least a facade of a plan, the NRC has begun to flirt with the idea of eliminating the planning altogether.

i The NRC has breached faith in the very reason for which it was commissioned, ie. to judiciously regulate and prudently license nuclear facilities.

The NRC does not feel the rightful burden of accountability to anyone, nor to any principles, except to the dying nuclear industry and perhaps the President, (and if he is not watchful, their freedom from accountability may even take them beyond his scope of influence.)

That thin thread to which LILCO's lawyers have been clinging, known as the " realism" argument was never the vanguard of their legal arguments heretofore. It was a legal ploy tucked way back in their grey matter because no one thought it would ever be needed. And they hoped it would be never needed because they never thought it would work. Not until all other avenues were exhausted did LILCO even dare' to make this realism aspect into a serious argument. This " realism" argument may work, however ,

feebly, in the Fifth Floor hearing rooms, but when it comes down to reality, it will speak our doom.

. LILCO's not hard to please. They're satisfied with an 'ad hoc' arrangement for evacuation. LILCO would even be' satisfied if we evacuated 'by either swimming or boating to the Rocky h1ountains. But now, LILCO wants the NRC to surrender one last, bothersome contention: "Aw, come 'n boys, Suffolk 'n Albany 'll help if the plant blows. They're not jes gonna let all those people fry in contamination. We'll get somethin' t'gether--even if-it's at the last moment." Whose last moment? It will be LILCO's as well. They don't see it as possible because they, like a little child who feels cornered, believe their own lie.

That is one half the " realism" argument. The other half is just as intellectually illuminating: Presuming the plant - does not blow its dome off-(which it very well could do, even at 5 % )-

they further request, 'Just give us the license, and in a little while, Suffolk 'll be breakin' down our doors to get at our LERO plan.'

No, h1r. Asseltine, no ad hoc for us, please. You were bullseye right in your dissent, although some of us would have added a bit more marrow to it.

l h1r. Asseltine, Long Islanders have not truly come to grips with the reality that the NRC will grant a lleense to LILCO.

h1any with whom I have spoken, still believe that just because they so vehemently oppose a plant on an island from which they cannot evacuate in a timely manner, that it simply won't be allowed to happen. They're not aware that for all practical purposes that i this plant has already been given its license, being allowed to operate at 5% or any % without any hope of a plan which would protect them from the reality of a Chernobyl.

i l

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j Further, Mr. Asseltine, most folks around here are not aware of LILCO's daily threatening occurrences. If they were, they would have fled en masse. Most families I know are wcndering about such matters as do they have enough money to buy the kids new school clothes. They are not consciously worrying that the core pressures at the plant are as high at 5% as they will be at 100 %.

Most families I know are wondering if their kids are going to remember their new bus numbers at dismissal on the first day at school. They're not pondering over the temperature at the plant being as high at low power as it will be when the plant is in full swing. They're guessing about how their kids will do, hoping for the best from a fresh, brand new start in a new grade. They're not aware of the cruciality of the over-abundant power-ups and -

downs of this. plant this summer, now extending into the fall.

Most of the folks I know have never involved themselves in the mystery of why the federal government is so exceptionally -

expressive in getting this particular plant on line. No, most folks I know are doing what they have to do in order to just keep up with life. Shoreham Power Station is bigger than- life--it swallows life whole.

Mr. Asseltine, it's a shame that your dissent could not have been more publicly viewed, perhaps printed in as bold a print as you were' courageous, banner-style in the New York Times. Then, at the very least, but not in the minimal sense, our people would know there is one man from the NRC standing with them on this sacrificial island.

Thankyou for your honesty. My sorrow is that you are the only sentry on duty.

3 . MW B.J. Klaus

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