ML20235W016

Requests Commission Assistance in Refusal to Pay Rate Hikes Imposed by Philadelphia Electric Co Since Oct 1985 Due to Plant Operation,Design,Location & Evacuation Plans

ML20235W016
Person / Time
Site:	Limerick
Issue date:	05/25/1987
From:	Bye M AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	Zech L NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
Shared Package
ML20235V982	List: ML20235V979 ML20235W016
References
NUDOCS 8707230397
Download: ML20235W016 (5)

Text

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, . . ci , Doylestown, l'O . 18901 l

. I'.ny 2 5 , 1987 I

The-Honorable Lando Zech Chairman Nuclear Rouul .i t ory comn 1: :i on l Washington, D.C.

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Dear Commissioner Zech,

Since October l'85 1 have re uced ~ o p a i, the rate hike im-r posed by the Philadelphia ' '

pony 'n cover construction costs for first Salem .nd tva n c!i tion Limerick, 1 have held this money in escrow 'e 4e instol etion of more effici-ent appliances which would rectuce my dependence upon Peco. When Philadelphia Electric demanded Nyment, I continued to refuse and sent a complaintto the orr ty:v.m i; ~ublic Utility Commission.

Their response informed tre that  : tate lublic Utility lacks "ju- f risdiction over safety-rel.to id<ra' i n' '

4nvolving commer-cial nuclear power plants.. 4 c t Cc 1 ss of the United l

States granted exclusive au'hort '

to t he U RC to regulate the commercial use of nuclear p' i

" )

i Therefore I turn to you, Er. och,and your Commissioners f for help. I rerrind you all of thr .C

.. i n a l Environmental Statement for Limerick which stated that i. n nuclear accident wind-borne radiation could cause immediate deeths up to 25 miles away/ Fur-thermore your staff and one of /r - commit ioners indicated thet a major core melt-down has< ' ' ' '

'rch ne llt y of occurring some-where in the U.S. within 2 0 vec r. '

ca aj e r Limerick e prime i

candidate for e catastrop:ic -

Why? because of i t '. vo r ; e 'gn,

. tion and evacu-atict plans, which our County r. ' c.i,2s hevc described as a cha-rede. They are unworkrtin.

• a n c h o n .1 children beyond the 10 mile EPZ home in e n err e r g e r.c 3 ,2tuation is untenable. Besides there are no provisions to deco: teminate the refugees who might have been contaminated enroute. P.i n s .l l y H c. c o J d Den ton of the NRC's Office of Reactor Recul ". ' ~

ified that Limerick wcs 72 h { h{0 2 ,

EDO --- 002984 P

/ "too close to a large popu]ntiem confor" ( r: von i ng Bulletin, May ?7, j 1980). Now it'n l'18 7 and t h e, roblem of pnpulation density has

/ bken compounded as anyone who ,m s driven on the Schuykill Ex-pressway, the Pennsylvania Turn ice, or RouLe 202 in l'ontgomery County can confirm.

However my objections tc nayinc: for Peco's Limerick plant are not confined to misgivings atcut- .ts ovccuetion plan. They rest in part upon the corments cf '

C 's 'dvisory Committee on Re-adtor Safeguards and ir : irt scr's publications describing the containrc en t , inclu:ine ,

< > ' ' of it under construction.

In its memo to you anu the os e ,;h e J < , of January 15, 1987, the ACRS Doints out that an < cci 'm L of th: magnitude of Cherno-byl is by no me.ns impossitic -

+ Un i t r-d States.

To avoid such e catastrophe, t. h e Advisory Committee stresses the importance of c om p r' t e n t- ' <

'iv, Led p1cnt operators.

Re-cent events at the ieco ;o .c- 'n installation call into question the company's : b .i l .i ' '- 1

'rovide such management. (It could be impossihle jf .' >

i n :, i tivation and compe-tence). But to continue, . i  :;ricum occurrence at Limerick, during its ear 13 s m.* , 'c ,o w r aneration, in which an employee vas injured. .. rently in on effort to cover up or at least minimize o radioact /e .

il) nt toe plant just oe-fore NRC inspec tors tinre dur- e rnive on rou tine visi t. Add to these instances the foc- t- .to er rqency drill data and security personnel 'u1f;c v ' fro oth subjected to falsification _md.you -;ill una r :- - re my rn u ji vings about the credibility of n eco's manecemen_.

Further the ACDS ainpoints t9 importance of design. A dia-gram of the containment at Iimerick shows pipes and conduits sticking out tnrough the containment well with only a couple of valves separating the insido fror the ou t si de at each pene-tration. Accounts of mishers t nucloar plants around the coun-try often point to one or rr. o r - 1 co 0 iefective hardware responsible.

/

/ Finally, the ACRS m orno r ar W rr +n of crtassium iodide to f be administered to peo p .1 e , . ruth.t:o! o spon -

emergency items; f.

also procedures for relocotin  ! rqn populaLion groups, pro-tecting ground water and other 1rinking wate:r suppies, decon-taminating land and f acili ties , and protective measures for mini-mizing radionuclides in-take through food and other pathways." I commend the /sdvisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards for their realistic, rational recomrrend a r " s. Sedly I do not see how they will be implemented in 'uc  : nun ty whnre I live. I just called the Court c & . "r <.t c' Iodide available fer citizens in an emerger . "ot:n ty ~icials have called our evacuation plen n ch :re . .o c:' ,>ro tec t the ground and other drinking water supplies if a radioactive plume is l sailing overhead?etc etc.... How could my house and garden be l decontaminated during my lifetime after a Chernobyl-sized acci-dent at Limerick? '! hat kind of insurance would I receive to con-

, tinue my way of life elsewhere'. Lot the Price-Anderson Act, l

l which sets an inadequate flet ar"unt as an upper limit, no mat-l l ter how many people are a r' r e c t < <r hew great the damage. If Peco is certain of its cepaci! o " rate lirrerick safely, then why does it not insure my n ce -

e ;e i.% ot their true worth? i i

There is still one safety-r '

conni& ration that I have not raised: the continuel n ord rd r:en t of ourselves and our en-vironment by routine rrdioacL2.w n: 10.;iens from Limerick. They have recently been shown by thc _, tie n e l icedemy of Sciences to be 200 times more lethal than ,itherto suspected. Great as my dread'of an accident is, it is exceeded by fear of this present danger.

Building , operating and even tue 31y decomrrissioning Limerick helps sustain the whole nucle.:r r uel cycle; mining, milling, transporting, enriching, burning und burying nuclear material.

in my judgement all of these actions pose a deadly threat to this and future generations. In the words of George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, "Nothing brought '

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.' you'into the world, nor nothing you shall take out of the world, l t

7 but leave all creatures behind you as you found them, which God l

/ hath given to serve all nations .ind generations." l Therefore I call upon you to i.n s t r u c t Peco not to collect my refused rate hikes until the ist;ues raised in this petition have been resolved.

i ncc rely ,

NQh kL L

nry Bye J J 1

l cc: Pa. PUC

) The Hon. Dave Heckler i The Hon. Jim Greenwood

) The Hon. Peter Kostmayer i

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