ML20195E541

Comment on Petition for Rulemaking PRM-50-52 Re Financial Problems in Nuclear Industry.Nrc Should Keep Question of Safety Above Finances.Newspaper Articles Encl

ML20195E541
Person / Time
Site:	Shoreham File:Long Island Lighting Company icon.png
Issue date:	10/27/1988
From:	Lewis M AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	NRC OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (SECY)
References
FRN-53FR32913, RULE-PRM-50-52 53FR32913-00003, 53FR32913-3, NUDOCS 8811080211
Download: ML20195E541 (3)

Text

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. 3 00CKET NUf.iBER j d PETITLN CULE.TM-Sm N

fbNbM/h ' N.

tiarvin 1. Lewis 7801 Roooovolt Blvd.it6e 3 CET 27 A10:05 Phi 1a.. PA 19152 Secretary of the flRC 'rqn ,

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UStJRC .dOCMC*d.q, pt liash i nc ten. D. C. 20555 BR Aht a

Dear decretary,

t Please accept the following es my further comments on thu  ;

Potation for Rulomakana noticed a n 53 FR 167:32913 dated 29  ;

nuoust 1988. I am addino a flow York Times ari;1clo to the record.

If addir.g the entiro article infringos upon copyriaht rules ,

pleaso add oniv this references flow York I' i mo s d a t .,d 10-5-88 on Paco Al ant i t led . L i lco 's Compet ing Voices . tJh110 still pursuing liconao for Shoreham. Utility seems intent on abandonino plant." i (Jhat the Articlo points to and what I was tevang to brir.g out i in mv petition is that a utility to financial trouble performs i acts nhtch are not in the interest of the health and safety of the public. A utility in financial difficultion would put the health and safety of thc oublic on the backburnor and its own i

, financial survival ahoad of w. r t.ang 0150. Thio is happentnc 1 right now phore local util1tios cannot securo onouch cuportonced i control r o ost. operators and have had to ask for loss experienced .

operators to be approved at 1MID. The (JRC would be under pressure I to allow many of thoso practicos under the fear that the utility l would crash without those quesvionable approvals.

14e are facino many financial problems ahood in the nuclear f andustry. A signal from the FARC to allow practicos for monky  ;

savano roanonn only would givo a croon licht to ut111tios to r practace questionably. A stonal from the f1RC that financial I

problems 0111 again be studied es a part of 11constna would alvo j a signal to DublIc and utilitios to koop the question o f safet)  :

above the question of financos. Ihe atomic Enerov Act roquarus [

thct all safotY questions have proforence over financial questions.

4 The petitionar is also Action Director for the Environmental (

Coalition on tiuclear Power. and has contacted the Director. EC?JP l has joined and agreed with this petition for rulemaking. l t

"7 Respectf( subm1t 'ci j.

Marva . s 7801 Poosevel t Dlvd.9662 l i

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feet Reeeeven givd. ett t

88110802JJ Phaedelphie, PA is152 -

$052 PDR l N0 /

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.,.-t-L,xiled% Competing Voices ,

. i .. i.f . . .so , . . .j . . . ,

3 ,.> .4 m,.3,. M Wh.,ile.S.t.il Utility See,6' Pur, suing Lic,ense,'f&.Sh. oreha.

.. ' . en,

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rns Intent on fpan,dtining..

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<.a , .

7 .~, ; .5 - Plant ', '_ _

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By MAT 1 HEW G WARD w lang Island Ushting Company ' plowed ahead th i[

coveted an operaung beense for i rs difficult iham Nuciser Power Station fts engineering a ruedon and rip-era, but as it nears its goalthe ut or il. p6ng out and rebuildmg. all the while ig.

s showing ambivalence, simulta. Sho the critics who predicted that sly seeking permlesien to ope m could reduce ulco to pen.

Shoreham while patientln y uty.

F"' awaiting ' approval of a n proved

'es now that the ' opponents' have been right a

- U)co has indeed been lyuls ,greementtombandonit.Even 1. Impovertshed costs in af.et'editaans part due by a1 to Shoreham's soaring p ' eense to e full mto ics caused - Ulco is delays the cru. l et operste the' has said off claim.

biliton, 000R ing its prise because the reactor no watt reactor as the agree.. r offers the benetus it once prom.

with New York to abandon

.h - N * < :' 7,6 ant O stjit up for al by its ' Experts on utility operations say that elders and the as c 9. the difference betweca abandoning the Monday, W final'y re. plant and operating it would not swt as approval from .the Seneties stark as it would seern at first glance.

change Commisson to schedule Engineers would lament destroytng an eholders meeur unused machine,lapt even if an operat.

O of sorts was (also sett !! ing theforbeense Nov. were 4, granted, a further legal ces not act, the testauve agree. challenges by the. state and Suffolk llows County could delay its cperting for atter ttsunco ska to hw from it vote. But aving pure'.** . . .

track" Continuedon Page B2 Column I openIne opt ing the -3. ~

We negotiat 1it,'ruey be sesta to t,* wait '

-)

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7. ' .

7 - =M Af o!i l men 1.*heYe not red their gor.ls y/ ,

ltleting strategy le the public. .A 0 of their thhWM can be dis. .e rom their actions, tiselr c'. ate. '.E C3 from talking to experts in J . '

ashing toward commercial '

4 reflects a change of heart. la 1980's, when Ulco won a r low-power operauen,11- it ..*,"

woved ahead, even 'though ' S retton substantially boosted

• an abandonmeet, r,S -  ;<

ng the plant has been the cen. "

rouve.of the utility,.which.

he , AS f

.'a  ;>

s

(

_Lilco on Shordham: StrategyHfs Cfanicting Goalp (c

!Shoreham to the state for $1, cells less constratned about heensing the

' Operating the trate mereun a s Peneni a ve

• ithe first three years and of about (fu Contmued Frorr:Pruge Al plant. After inauguration Day,lts view o may change, especiauy d ,

lmuch for seven more years. Those e ars more. The state and the count the new President is Michael S. Duks- > p}gnt }S St{ gn gresses are, about what Ltico wo pose Shoreham on the ground tha kis who is far less sympatheuc to the -

                                                                                                                                    }have reedved under a "S cg Ishnd could not be evacuated nuc, lear industry than the Reagan Ad '.g^ Ohtion*                         $                          ago by the Pubbe Service Cornmisst s raMas5,
                                                                                                     -_W fely in a nuelear accident                                                    .

to get the p.we of the operatig C in tdditica, reg!atory decisions and , But Linco does hos seem to think #1 cr , ( Nbbe mto rates without too much shed e regmitions Wh the state have al. gent that the commission decide soon. That is because te. ._"ate One renon may be thai 2 court et.el. fervice Commission ruled in 19di that Enuswrs. adY reduced the fmancial imNr. ' " ne og opening the plant. And startmg lenge to a heense is hkely, throwing i gh ts anag me t The Public Reissions Fr.etor

                                                     "

• P" I ,m tly t if there is no major fmancial diff w pr lerrs for Lilco a in$y ""g("t rh o: " [h., ;' of construcuon, and that that a sount g ra. en ce, there are nonfm6ncial gains retched power network, e peg could not be passed on to consurrn bandonmg Shoreham. One is put pauence is that ths plant's fate means The commission, however, at ade a lenue image; a lthough it has not always t>

Delay in Legislature much lets to the utility than almost ended that regardless of what rr sonal obvious in recent years, utthtles pr The curr:nt dela :s in the State anyone could have imagtned a few .' Linco emld expect under trad uhty th eir relanonship w tth the public.

• gtsl ture. Long fsland legislators years ago. rate-making procedures, the "If they close the reactor, said -

i shwM n t g ban so n p i an-eit:nd that the settlement is too

• nerous to Linco, lhe utthly, unchar- Cost Alread Reduced reham cost e xecutive of a utthty with nuct

t:risucally, has wetted panently, af. N rmally, uuhues earn nothing on other $1.9 bilhon of ulate p lanta m the New York metropoh ther invntmerus m generstmg sta. mio the formula useQ m cal a not region, "people w til stop bashing it iough the r<tiod between Elecuon rates, even though the plant w ta dy over the head" Another utthty em ey cnd inaugurabon Day could te tions unut those plants enter rervsce, at running. As a result, Lilco is a hore- t Jve said that if Lilco gives up on Sh<

which time rates rise to refDct the in, earning a return on that part of nure! for Shoreham'when the votes of h am,"it wH1 be hke the Marshall P Af ter Election Day, vestment plus a rate of return. But in ham,about $400 million a year. , with Lileo as the defeated count ong ist'.nders are not a ressi con Shoreham a case, the $5.3 bilhon cost in addauon, the plan negouste with For the first time m years, Ltico c-the Nu has already teen whittled down to the state,under which Linco wou d sell have the cooperation of the Pt ern Io the Repubhcan lest Regul: P rty'maY feel tory Commission about $2 bilhon.

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• I -

Service Commission and local gov i ments. Part of that image is the reliabih electne supply. Smce the early Lilco has argued that compi, Shoreham was necessary to avoh mtnent summer brownouts and outs. If such events come after S ham is shut by an agreement, LHe> say,"I told you so." Alternatively - if the expenen other utlhues is any guide - es Shoreham did begm commi operation, there is a f atr char would stillbe unavaHable on peak posmg other problems for LHo Reactort like Shoreharr, are eraHy available for use less th percent of the year. The owner improve the odds by schetuhng tenance shutdowns for perms e demand m the hope that the r* would te ready when the busy su months come. Delays Are Common But unscheduled shutdowr delays m reopening, are co Reactors in Massachusetm Pi vania,1ennessee and Alabam. been shut for more than a year b of management problems. Ther ways the possibthty of major ment f ailures, like those tha 3 m Hu-closed Indian Pomt N.Y.,or Robert E. Gmna, near I ter, for months at a time. And there is alw avs the chant endent. The Three Mile Islane reactor w as the newest in the r the time of its partial meht years ago nest M arch. And f or techmeai reasons, M w-}}