ML19337A377

Petition to Intervene & Request for Hearing Submitted on Behalf of City of Gary,In,United Steelworkers of America Local 6787,Bailly Alliance,Save the Dunes Council & Critical Mass Energy Project

ML19337A377
Person / Time
Site:	Bailly
Issue date:	06/05/1980
From:	Cohn D, Schultz W GARY, IN, PUBLIC CITIZEN LITIGATION GROUP
To:	NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
Shared Package
ML19337A370	List: ML19337A374 ML19337A377 ML19337A380
References
NUDOCS 8009090633
Download: ML19337A377 (7)

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[ UlS.f NUCLEAR REGill.AToltY COMMISS ION ~

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-.IN TIIE MATTER OF. .).

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). Docket No. 50-367

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NORT!!ERNLINDI ANA: PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY )

-(Baillyl Generating S5ation,' Nuclear 1) _ )'

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PETITION FOR LEAVE TO INTERVENE

. AND REQUEST FOR 11EARINJ

PursuantCto the: notice published at 44'F.R. 6 9061 - (November .

3 0. , . 197 9 ) , ithe CityLof' Gary, Indiana, United Steelworkers of

' America Local ~6787, the Bailly Alliance, Save the Dunes Council, and the Critical Mass Energy; Project hereby petition to inter-vene in proceedings concerning the request.of. Northern Indiana Public : Service Commissi~on ( NI P SCO" ) for an amendment of.its construction permit ~to extend the date of completion of the Bailly. Generating Statiori, Nuclear 1 (" Bailly" ) . Intervenors contend tshat'~ " good cause" for-completion of the Bailly facility.

(which is'only:1% constructed)-should not be found in the

< , , absence of a: specific. showing'of adequate emergency response capability lIn the.eventiof a nuclear accident. Because such I: .

a showing has'^not.been,"and we submit cannot be, made, construc-tion on tiie.Bailly permit.-should not be approved without a full consideration of this. issue.

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INTERVH.NORS----

1. Each of the Intervenors has an interest which may be affected by this proceeding.

2. The City of Gary, Indiana, with a population of approximately 160,000 people, is located six miles from Bailly, with the center of downtown Gary only 11.3 miles from the site.

Because of the absence of adequate emergency evacuation plans or capability in the event of an accident, continued construction of Bailly poses a direct and immediate risk to the health and safety of citizens of the city of Gary.

3. United Steelworkers Local 6787 represents approximately ,

6,000 employees of the Bethlehem Steel Company's Burns Harbor Plant, which is adjacent to the Bailly site. In light of the absence of adequate emergency response capability, the pro-posed completion of Bailly directly threatens the health and safety of these workers.

4. The Bailly Alliance is a coalicion of citizens and community organizations representing persons residing in 12 Northwest Indiana communities in close proximity to the<Bailly facility. The continued construction of Bailly, when there is no capability for evacuation within a reasonable period of time, presents undue risk to the healtn and safety of the members of the Alliance.

5. Save the Dunes Council,is a 27-year old organization established for the purpose of preserving and protecting for public use and enjoyment the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which extends cast, west and south of the proposed Bailly. site.

In 1978, 1,031,307 citizens visited the National Lakeshore and

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k n'nother_- 1,113'; 000 c ci tizenn v i ni Lbd the . I ndianii Dunes /Sta to : Park.

h . ConstructionLof the_BaillyHfacility in the! absence of adequate

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l' cmcrgency responseLplanning' threatenscthe health and safety'of I

visihors to the.Lakeshore' area.

. 6 '. The fCritical: Mass Energy Project, a branch of Public Citizen, Inc. - in _Wasliing ton, -D. C. , ~ i s a. pub'lic interes t organi-zation-dedicated to the development of safe and efficient energy

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technology., .It has_ participated zin numerous NRC proceedings,

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and_recently' petitioned the NRC to amend.its regulations on preparedness for nuclear em'ergencies..

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1 ASPECT OF TIIE PROCEEDINGS AS L TO WHICH .

PETITIONERS SEEK TO' INTERVENE

'7 . - In determining whether good cause exists for an amend-

-ment of'the construction permit, Intervenors submit that NIPSCO must demonstrate that continued construction at'the Bailly' site l-will comport with safety requirements. Intervenors seek per-p.

zmission'to participate in these proceedings solely with respect r

to a consideration of whether realistic evacuation and emergency response' plans can;be implemented. Circumstances which'have Jar'isen in'the time since issuance of the construction permit in-l ,

1974 requireJa reexaminatioh of the inherent problems with the Baillyfsite from the perspective of_ emergency preparedness.

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8. The-inherent factors to be considered include most ,

[- 1significantly'that the-proposed Bailly site is located nearby

' the ic_ombined high population ' centers of Gary, llammond and East j.

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Chicago. As a. result,.approximately- 103,000 persons reside with-

'inha.10'mileLradius of_the plant, not including large " transient"

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populations;1/ .The-latter i'ncludo;the many thousands of re-creational. visitors..to the National Lakeshore, of whi ch t he Cowles Bog Area lies a mere 800 feet from the Bailly site,-as

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well as-the approximately.8,500 workers at just the Burns Harbor Over a Steel-plant alone, . located only about 700 feet away.

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1 thirty mile radius, the population density around Bailly is at least 780 persons per square mile.2/

Despite the extreme risks in terms of emergency prepared-ness which these' population factors pose, not even minimal consideration has been given to emergency response capability since neither the State.of Indiana nor Illinois have emergency .

To highlight response and evacuation plans concurred in by NRC.

the severity of the threat to health and safety in the event of an accident, Intervenors note that the Bethlehem Steel Corporation has submitted an emergency plan to NIPSCO which demonstrates that 'a " residual work force" of about 170 workers would be required'to remain at the Burns Harbor Steel plant for a minimum of 6' days to cool down the coke ovens in the event that operat' ions are interrupted. Factors such as these and the limited evacuation routes available in view of the size of the 1/ The 103,000' figure was cited by Robert Collins, Director of Emergency Preparedness .for the Office of State Programs, in docu-ments accompanying his report to the Commission on State and Local Government Radiological Emergency Response Plans and Preparedness, in which he' cited Bailly as one of 9 plants ~around the countryOther q

. requiring special attention due to high population factors. See

. estimates range from 83,608 to 110,000 within that radius.

letterffrom~ Daniel'R. Muller, Acting Director, Division of Site Safety'and Environmental Analysis, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, to Dr. Richard 'llansis, Assistant Professor of Geo-agraphy,.Valparaiso University, December-21, 1979. All 6f these estimates are based on 1970 census data.

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2/' _See Demographic Statistics Pertaining to Nuclear Power Reactor Sites,:NUREG-0348 at p. Tll (1970 figures).

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population make~it unlikely that evacuation around Bailly could l be accomplished within a reasonable period of time.

9. While NRC's current siting criteria require that "special attention" be given to alternative sites where faci-lities are proposed to be constructed in such areas of high population density,3/ no such consideration has even been made in relation to~Bailly. Even more importantly, however, the siting and evaco,ation planning criteria upon which Bailly was approved have now been unanimously criticized by the GAO, a joint NRC-EPA task force on' emergency _ planning, and the House Government Operations Committee, who have all called for a .

significan't upgrading of requirements for emergency response.1/

The recommendations of these studies demonstrate that Bailly's 188 meter exclusion area (the smallest at any site in the country) and the 2,400 meter low population zone are wholly inadequa'_e standards for determining whether construction at Bailly poses an undue risk to the public. Indeed, Bailly is the only nuclear plant,. operating or under construction, that failed to meet all 6 siting criteria recommended in the Report of the Siting Policy Task Force (NUREG-0625).

3/ See Regulatory Guide 4.7, General Site Suitability for Nuclear Power Stations at p. 9.

A/ See Comptroller General of the United States, " Areas Around Nuclear Facilities Should Be Bet'ter Prepared for Radiological Emergencies," EMD-78-ll (Mar. 30, 1979); " Planning Basis for the Development of State and Local Government Radiological Emer-gency Response Plans In Support of Light Water Nuclear Power

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Plants,"'NRC/ EPA Task Force on Emergency Planning (Dec. 1978);

,U.R.. Rep. No.96-413, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 1979 (" Emergency Planning ~Around U.S. Nuclear Power Plants: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Oversight").

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- 10. Most compelling..of'all,-.however, is.the fact'that y

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4 w isin~ce;the-! construction' permit at.Bailly'was approved, the Commission-~ has also faced: the accident.at Three Mile Island,

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where NRCtrecommended.at one point that the state of Pennsyl-

vania consider < evacuation within 20 miles of the-site. This Laccident has-in!the most direct way; focussed the_need for a re-

.' 'evaluationfof the Bailly' site, for consideration:of whether an

/ effective elvacuati'on r plan can be: implemented.

Ib.--Since199%:or virtually all construction.of the Bailly plant has yet to be completed, NIPSCO's request for an extension in'effect seeks approval for a new permit to construct a plant.

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-Since'the issuetof emergency preparedness goes to the' fundamental-question of the. suitability of the site from the standpoint of'

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the public health and safety, an issue which cannot be resolved at-a later stage?without-tremendous inancial consequences, the

" totality of the circumstances" requires consideration at this time. _See Indiana and Michigan' Electric Comp g , 6 A.E.C. 414 5 (1973). Intervenors thus submit that in determining whether

, good'cause exists':for the. requested amendment, NRC should, as b' strongly. recommended by GAO and the.Ilouse Government-Operations

i. Committee,: condition approval of1 construction at.the-Bailly

' site.on a showing lof effective emergencyr capability.

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Moreover,-

?NIPSCO.should.not be permitted to resume construction on the Bailly' plant prior to: completion of this proceeding.

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12; In}theidventithat the-Commission interprets-the. scope r- 'of/the: matters to be considered in a proceeding under 10 CFR p.

i Sf50.-55(b).more.' narrowly,.howcVer, Intervenors join in the

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iPetitionlof Naiver of or Exception-'to.10-CPR S 50.55(b).and

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tdie ' Petition for. Rule' Making' f iled ' by In tervenors Po'rter

-County; Chapter of the Izaak Walton. League of America,' Inc.,

' Conc'erned-CitizensLAgainst Bailly Nuclear' Site, Business-

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ment for the Public Interest, Inc., James E. Newman and

_ Mildred-Warner,.in. order that the issue:of emergency response-

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capability'can be considered,at this time.

Conclusion For all the foregoing-reasons, this petition should be l granted, Intervenors should-be admitted as parties to this proceeding, and a hearing should be held to consider whether.

NIPSCO's requeste'd amendment to the construction permit should

'be-denied unless NIPSCO demonstrates that adequate emergency response is.possible around the-Bailly site.

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Respectfully submitted,

! Diane B. Cohn i^

i Uh B. 5d 2ifllam BT 5~dhu t

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Suite 700 l '

2000 P Street, N.W.

. Washington,- D.C. 20036 f (202),785-3704 l.

Attorneys for the City of Gary Indiana, United Steelworkers of America. Local 6787,~the Bailly

. Alliance, Save the-Dunes. Council, andithe Critical Mass Energy Project l: -

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