ML050660016

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Comment (21) of Joseph J. Mangano Opposing the Relicensing of Millstone Nuclear Power Units 2 and 3
ML050660016
Person / Time
Site: Millstone  Dominion icon.png
Issue date: 01/11/2005
From: Mangano J
Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone
To:
NRC/ADM/DAS/RDB
References
69FR71437 00021
Download: ML050660016 (4)


Text

CONNECTICUT COALITION AGAINST MILLSTONE P.O. Box Niantic CT 06357 www.mothballmillstone.ora ,. , ,k t _/

1 0 yY7/t7e ANTI-MILLSTONE COALITION REPORTS MOUNTING EVIDENCE OF MILLSTONE LINK TO HIGH CANCER RATE IN NEW LONDON COUNTY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 11, 2005

Contact:

Joseph J. Mangano Tel. 610-666-2985 Nancy Burton Tel. 203-938-3952 Michael Steinberg Tel. 860-739-7002 WATERFORD - Evidence is mounting of a scientific correlation between routine radiation emissions from the Millstone Nuclear Power Station and high cancer incidence in the surrounding area, the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone reported today.

Laboratory analysis of baby teeth donated by children with cancer in the areas near the Millstone and Indian Point Nuclear Power Plants found levels of radioactive strontium-90 more than twice as high as found in teeth collected from other parts of the state, according to Joseph J. Mangano, National Coordinator of the Radiation and Public Health Project.

"The average level of strontium-90 concentration close to the nuclear power plants was 6.16 picocuries per gram of calcium, compared with 2.70 picocuries in other parts of the state," Mangano said.

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"For children suffering from cancer, the average level of strontium-90 concentration was 7.03 picocuries per gram calcium," Mangano said.

"Strontium-90 is a radionuclide routinely emitted by the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant into the air and water," said Mangano, who as national coordinator of the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) has participated in analysis of baby teeth collected from around the country. RPHP has published 21 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals (including 4 on the tooth study), and five books, since 1994.

"Strontium-90 mimics calcium and when it is taken into the body of an exposed person it collects in the teeth and bones," Mangano said.

"The presence of strontium-90 elevated levels near the nuclear power plants cannot be accounted for other than from their routine releases of strontium-90," Mangano said.

Mangano stated that cancer rates in the New London area, which used to be below the state average, have risen steadily during the period the Millstone nuclear reactors have been in operation, beginning in 1970.

"In the 1950s and 1960s, cancer incidence in New London County, where Millstone is located, was 8 per cent below the state rate," Mangano said. "After Millstone began operations in 1970, the state rate rose steadily until it reached a level of 6 per cent above the state rate in the late 1990s."

"New London County's current cancer rate is the highest of all counties in the state," Mangano said.

Mangano acknowledged that the information about strontium-90 levels in baby teeth in Connecticut is based on a sampling of 37 teeth, and therefore the information is still of a preliminary nature. The tooth-testing program is continuing to analyse baby teeth.

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In its most recent report of radiological emissions to the environment, based on samplings taken in the year 2002, Dominion reported the presence of strontium-90 in the milk of goats living two miles downwind of Millstone.

"Despite information to the contrary in its own reports, the owners and operators of Millstone have denied that strontium-90 found in goat milk near and downwind from Millstone has been coming from their nuclear reactors," said Michael Steinberg, author of "Millstone and Me," a book analyzing Millstone's radiological releases.

Strontium-90 is only one of hundreds of radioactive waste products Millstone releases into the air and water during routine operations.

"Millstone has the third-highest record of airborne radiation releases to the environment of all nuclear power plants operating in the United States according to its own reports," said Mangano.

The official Tumor Registry maintained by the state of Connecticut shows the region around Millstone has the highest incidence of cancers known to be triggered by certain of the radionuclides routinely released by Millstone, according to Mangano.

According to the Coalition, Millstone radiological releases of tritium

- radioactive hydrogen - to the environment are increasing to all-time highs.

The Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone comments were prepared for delivery to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at a proceeding today to consider the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) NRC staff prepared to assess environmental consequences of extending the Millstone operating license an additional twenty years.

In its draft EIS, the NRC concluded that the agency need not consider issues of human health as it relates to radiological emissions from nuclear power plants undergoing relicensing because 3

an NRC guidance document released in 1996 discounted health effects from nuclear power plant radiological releases.

"Millstone is poisoning our air and water and killing our children in the year 2005," said Nancy Burton, a founder of the Coalition, "We do not need its deadly megawatts. The community can no longer tolerate the Millstone menace."

The Coalition cited high cancer levels, environmental degradation and the threat of terrorism as causes for Millstone shutdown.

"Dominion sold itself to the people of Connecticut as a conscientious environmental steward when it bought Millstone for

$1.3 billion in 2001," Burton said.

Yet, according to research by Public Citizen, a public-interest organization based in Washington, D.C., Dominion's record has proved otherwise.

According to Public Citizen, in April 2003, a Dominion subsidiary agreed to pay $1.2 billion in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice when it violated the Clean Air Act by increasing power-generating capacity of a huge coal-fired power plant in West Virginia without obtaining mandatory permits.

A year later, according to Public Citizen, Dominion paid a

$500,000 civil penalty and had to offer a $4.5 million refund to its customers after the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) caught the company violating federal regulations.

"When an outlaw company operates a killing machine that targets innocent families in our community, it is time to demand that its operations be terminated," Burton said.

The Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone is an organization of statewide safe-energy groups, Millstone whistleblowers and families.

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