ML19254D587

Forwards Ny Times 790506 Article Re Siting of Nuclear Reactors.Requests Comment

ML19254D587
Person / Time
Site:	05000463, 05000464
Issue date:	05/23/1979
From:	Ahlfeld J LANCASTER COUNTY, PA
To:	Hendrie J NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
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ML19254D584	List: ML19254D586 ML19254D587
References
NUDOCS 7910290130
Download: ML19254D587 (3)

Text

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• LANCASTER COUNTY

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LANCASTER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY COMMISSLONERS 50 NORTH DUKE STREET, P.O BOX 3480. LANCASTER. PENNSYLVANIA 17604 JACK F TGACY. Chairman TELEPHONE. 7 7-299-8333 RAYMOND G. HERR JOHN R AHLFELD JEAN D. MOWERY P!anning Director May 23, 1979 79EN Mr. Joseph M. Hendrie, Chairman Nuclear Regulatory Commission -

1717 H S treet, NW Washington, D. C. 20555

Dear Mr. Hendrie:

This is a follow-up to my letter of April 12, 1979 regarding the Three Mile Island accident, the proposed Fulton Nuclear Generating Station, and related matters. To date, the Planning Commission has not received an acknowledgement of that letter or comments on any of its three ques-tions.

Enclosed is an article from the May 6,1979 New York Times which relates

, to the Planning Commission's previously expressed concerns. 'The article

, , was reviewed at the Planning Commission's meeting on May 14. Particular attention was given to the report on the Peach Bottom . facility and the comment that it "is the least safe site in Region 1 and has the poorest management."

Since the Planning Commission's serious concerns, and th'ose of the rest of the community, continue, we hope to hear from you shortly with a response to our previous letter.

Sincerely, ohn R. Ahlfeld Planning Director JRA/blk Enclosure

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• L ANCASTER COUNTY

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At the 48 sites described below are ths 70 ticensed nuclear reactors used commercially to

> generate electncity. Where there is more than one reactor at a given site, at indian Point for ex-ample, the number is shown in parenthesis rmt to the name of the clant. The name of the town

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given underneath the site is the nearest settiernent, regard'ess of population.

All dattin tha lenn * > cert far c rosura rates. coma from the We'er Ramtatory Cor9mrt-

• '* sion. The N H C usad the 1970 census tcr ccmograchic and urcan s.tingintorrratson.

• ,7 1 Nearest city is that city of 25.000 or more pcputation closest to tre reactor site.

M E. [ Large cities are a!! cities, by name.of 100.000 or more popt lation that are within 50 mas of

.im the reccior s.te. T he specific mileage is rneasured from the city's center, not from nearest out.

pg(j skirts.

Within 30 miles. This is the number of aft cities and large cities in a 30-mite radius. The popu-g;;. lation shown is that for the entire area, including ali cities, towns, villages and unsettled places.

Within 50 miles. This is. the same information for a larger radius. -

System desenbes the type of nuclear steam system. B.W.R. (Boiling Water Reactor) or

.g i N.H. P.W.R. (Pressunzed Water Reactor) and tre ccmpany that built it.

, Licensee shows the utthly licensed by the N.R.C. to operate the plant.

• Exposure shows the cercentage and rumber of workers at the c! ant who were excosed to 0.5 M Boston or more Rem (Roentgen equivalent n man)in 1977. These data were collected by the Hea:th Re-

.g N search Group, a rredical org anization associated with Rafph Nader.

43

. 21 s ; . 4,, i Safety ratings were ccilected in 1977 by the N.R.C._in a prehminary effort to develop a sys-tematic, stahsticar ranking of reactors.

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.-T Ccmments we,e a second ereenmental attempt t y the N R.C. to assess safety. Because this

gQ]' method was employeo et c. lier (.nl I.nies. us.DQ C.micru crasa ...e . ~ o r..av., w. . .e-NEW YORK .N CONN. *b --e >~ *":*!mos b Reactors currently not operating are all those with Babcock & Wi!cox steam systems: Arkan-NQ 9' sas One (Unit 1). Crystal River, Davis-Besse. Indian Point (Unit 1). Oconee (one of tnree units).

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, I Rancho Seco and Three Mi!e Island (Units 1 and 2). In add. tion the N R C has closed four sites ah33 -

out of consieeration f.or seism,c faults: Jarnes A. FitzPatrick, Beaver Valley. Ma'ne Yankee and pg* \[M' g' New York y

1 Surry (Units 1 and 2); and, for other reasons. some others includ: rig Oyster Creek and Pahsades.

AE reactors are penod.cally shut down for maintenance, inspection and repairs.

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r s PENNSYLVARIA 38 DoaverValley e

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.e ca shr, pin,,,,1 40 Three Idilo N'

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Nearest cry weirton, W.va. (15 miles)

'Largecities Pittsburgh(20)

' Island (2) 3 s Wash EC. - y Middiotown

, 'g Youngstown, Pa. (35) Nearest >ty Harrisburg, Pa.'(11 miles) f Canton,0hio (So) Large cit.es None e

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__ (, { Within 30 mi!es 3 cities; 1,700.000 people Within 30 mdes 4 caties;1.000.000 people g g. j MO. WIthin 50 rMes 7 cities; 3.Eco.000 pecpie Wethin 50 rMes 5 cet.es: 1.E,oo.o00 people Q- y I 4 System P.WA ty Westmonouse . Sys'em P.W.A.by Babecek & Wilcox

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i g -  ! Ucensee Duquesne ughland chio Edison Ucensee h8etropolitan Edison and

t. .i l, Exposure 3%(26 workere) Jersey Central Power & Ught j 44g * ~~ % a

• Safety ratmg (Not rated by statisticalmethod] Eurosure 18%(221 workers)

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• RicMond . Comments e encer.eaces o A. coaercio en- Safetyrateg Unft 1: Average N(45g , Nor'o*

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,w,w .,-,% conw. ',ere eo es- Comments [ Unit 2 was the site of accedent]

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VA. A .a 4 en a, creased r.w.rrnents. stan c.a hawag . .

no.. sece, ties i,coro.oo rn.s 4 me Arst 84W (Batmo a Wical D*Fe Cl

] curreat gee <r oa wa-esewt contre

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se,eme,ns coaw e e,,, ,,,e o,e., ,a.w ec,e.oce.r.co.,s

.ece,,se . swees Peoch Ecttom s as ha a tecome edured =e tre hcoas ,

Nearest cey Lascaster, Ps. (19 miles) e,g ef urue t."

g targe cit.es Ba:timore Md.(3F melos) I. . .. - - . l Within 30 mdes 5 c' ties; 83o.000 peode Yothin 50 rye s 19 citles; 4.000.000 people Srste n B.WA by General Electric Licensee Phitadelphea Electr$c  !

Esposure 30%(1.168 =orkers)

Safetyrating Un12; Arerage f h[

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erewee ver,mm e ., an noncom-paeac e P:eet ara't Pas screa<co sacece-

. tio e8 corevere iacteesed c= eat este soniews Waaa;emed ie s.o. moor- e.

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4

h$E NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, MAY 6,1979 2"--* ~ with its predec'essor the A.E.C., has been unwilling to face By DAVID BURN!!AM "

• up to the policy consequences of assigning high probability

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to a scrious nuc! car accident."

~ WASHINGTON - The Nuc! car Regulatory Commis. The " siting problem was created by the insistence of ston, as part of its legal responsibility to ensure the safe the old Commission that nuc! car power could compete side

• C .s t , operation of nuclear reactors, has final authority over by side with power generated from other sources," Mr.

• . . where retors may be located. Yet in the let 70 voars, O' Leary said. " Successive commissions simply refused to fF utility companics have so often bMn permittet to buihl nu- accept the possiblityof a senous accident as a plannmg pa.

.f CI+w DI u.ts m he.ivuv rwul:ited are as th:it more tnan 20 rameter." As a result, he added," nuclear plants were per-i .

mdhon Americans now hve' wPhm M m!hu et a reactnr rnitted_in locations adjacent to large metropolitan cen.

and iu million hve withm :0 miles. ters." -

ae attracuans and pressures to place reactors near Mr. O' Leary said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission l cities were many. The utilities avoided the should extra"immediately cost of initiate a proceeding aimed at the building long transmission lines to carry the electricity to development of a sitmg policy that is consistent with the where it was used. There was even some hope that if reac- realistic probability of a serious accident and should as.

h tors were close enough, their " waste" heat - approxi.

mately 50 percent of the heat they generate - could be sure that future plants are located at a sufficient distance from curren, or projected population centers to avoid cat-h O .

piped to apartment houses and factories rather than being lost to the environment through expensive cooling towers.

strophic consequences to pubhc health and safety as a re.

sult of a serious nuclear accident."

And in the early days of the nuclear age, the average reac- He also recommended development of rules to reduce Y""'"4 tor' was considerably sma!!er than today. the chance of an accident at plants now located near popu-But in permittme the construction of reactors such as lation centers. "This would take the form of derating the ones at Indian romt. Just nortn or New York City, and [slowmg down] facilities withm metrcpolitan areas, of

~ Zion, halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. the recu- additional conservatism built into the technical specifica-lators did not take into account the worst pcssible nuclear tions applicable to such plants and to the development of

~a hcment iut mmht occur. evacuation procedures for the af fectE3 popuiations.

oW Acenrcting to cevorN ofhcials in N N*uciaar Pea"f a.

' _ tory Commission. the decision ont to deal exnheitiv with i r. u ua n m o.mn a mNgwn wi,cate in his

-Department of Enemy position. In rc.sponse to an inquiry

' uass s accidents - inose invotvma a rMtNun of the last w eek about nis Iw0 Niter, he said that if "I lef t the im-h ;, - urinium tuel rods ami the subsacuent rem of hree pression the system is bare, I was incorrect." He said he a moums or radiatinn - was mitia av nasers on concern over understood that though the Nuclear Regulatory Commis-the "imare" of nuc! car power. In more recent years, tt:e sion had not formally adopted more stringent licensing Class 9 accident Eas been disregarded largely because of a rules, its staff had informally done so for.its latest dect-

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h h An naf tnt onewas hichivunhkelv. sions on plant sites.

Mr. Minogue, the Commission official, said an exten-The accident at the Ihree Mile Island reactor in Penn.

sylvann which for several cays was thou;;nt to be on the sive re. evaluation of "sitmg" policy was scheduled to be edge of total meltdown, has challenrod tnat awumrtion. It completed by June 15.He said the evaluation, ordered by Q has also raised tough questions aoout the locatTon of any the Commission before the Three Mile Island accident,in-h1 - future reactors and about the necessity of remedial steps volved extraordinarily complex problems.

--e '"d== for reactors situated clocast to tarre oortuimons. "It's not just a question of where the reactor is locat-

[ Furtnermore, tne acenowiec%ent t nat a Class 9 ac- ed." hElaid. Vnsideratwn ano has to t>e oven to the d'e.

d cident is possible pomts up increas:ng evidence enat state smn w me plant, h ema salet.v wment inat m Gn and locat gus ernments are m tne mam uncrenare<1 to deal bwahed and tLe 16catwn w ruaa.; iJaT7~tFCrmit J "",'"'""'"'"'"o""'=""*'"'""'"'^"==4 fice Iur examp*e, concluded in a report last month that

'- "2" Mr".'"Mmogue saac Le tienevea the Commission would only a few areas had developed ef fective plans to evacuate also be consideringwhat steps were required to reduce the

• "1 people in the path of the wedge-shaped radioactive cloud hazards. Such steps, he said. miaht include shutting down P"i i that could be expected downwmd f rom a senous accident. s me readm, te@irme cmurs to gerate at a Lower W M Robert B. Mmogue, director of Standards Develep.

• p oanc reermg extra sahtv equipment i==4 -

==1C ment at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, acknowl-edged in an interview that the Government has no formal, It's not only the Government that is re-evaluating p licyon thelocation of nuclear plants. With the support of f O C specific policy on sites for reactors, ar'd that tl.e theFord most seri-and the Sloan Founiation, pr Joel Foundation Yellin and Dr. Paul L Joskow. both professors at the Mas-Q ous kinds of accidents had never been directly considered in the case-by. case process by which ut:lities are granted -sachusetts institute of lecnntoyy, nave tor tne last two

• • '* e m w reactor construction permits. But, he said, informal guide- years Nen marmg tne questwns mvolved.

lines adopted by the Commission staff m recent years Di. Yellin said that based on tests conducted by the meant that new reactors had teen located farther and far. Government qt its llanford Engineermg and Development ther from major population centers. Laboratory, hb and his col!ca cue had cencluded that a cat.

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p While the techme:ans managed to prevent a meltdown at Three Mile Island, the accident emphasized the logisti.

cal and political difficulties of evacuation. Over 600.000 gstrcphic release os racianen couid euend as tar as IUo27 mucs cawnwmd f rom a reagr.

"Assumme an mapiuty to evacuate that area for 21

~> persons hvc within 20 miles of the Susquehanna River is. houn.M >>m,Nm .o e s au.a mean insCe

~ d) g land that the rractor sits on; a rm!! ion live within 30 miles, death lor n'iiThe ewosUlrpu4anan, vi . iea a,3 2.a.

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and 1.8 million within 50 miles. The theoreticalp;iy3icist, an associate professor m the 4 Decisions about rnovmg that many people presented M.I.T. School of liumanities, said that in some cities the le-that range might be considerably extended. At Indian problems that were almost paralyzing. Consider, then, New York's Indian Point reactor: 4.3 million people live Point above New York City, for example, the prevailing g

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Q within 30 miles of it, and 17.2 milhon withm 50 miles.

,The failurc of the Nuclear Reculator Commission (and winds and the Hudsen River valley would serve as a natu-ral channel for radiation.

its predeces er, tre Atomic i wrev t ommmmai ta ce. Another question about the continued operation of ex.

vcw a conwent. overall poucv on nucMar re.:cior sites isting reactors, of course,is whether they are sa fe. In 1976,

, has long tven hehl up as one of tne rnote im;mrtant sort- the Nuc! car Regulatoiy Commission began developmg, Q e comings oi nudea r renulat wn. techniques to evaluate reror performance The idea wu to identify those hcensees wnnse teriormance was not as O .

Iwo and a halt ye rs ago, for example, John F.O' Leary, former top official in the o!d Atomic Energy f*d ^ the umers, ccteigune the reaGns w hy, a:4Tmd g Commission who is now the Deputy Secretary of Energy, GENmqmmMcrtMBWith The o wrote a Ictter on the subject to the Carter campay'.n pohcy Pmt &c nh Ine Gno. mon has now toed several j D committee. "The frequency of serious and potentially cat- wat ruethods of ratma performance, and on the basis

• astrephic nuclear incidents," he wrote, "suppui t the con- of these expenmental evaluations it has amtiated a second j2 ,M,,9 clusion that sooner or later a major disaster will occur at a round of safety evaluation which is scheduled to be com-1 1

. nuclear generating

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