ML20237H330

Requests Response to Encl Constituent H Stainbrook Concerns Re Plant

ML20237H330
Person / Time
Site:	Big Rock Point File:Consumers Energy icon.png
Issue date:	07/10/1987
From:	Levin C SENATE
To:	Kammerer NRC
Shared Package
ML20237H317	List: ML20237H314 ML20237H330
References
NUDOCS 8708170152
Download: ML20237H330 (9)

Text

q C RL LEVIN. COMMITTEES:

MICHIGAN - ARMED SERVICES - .1 GOVERNMENTAL AFF AIRS .

SMAll, BUSINESS ,.

3Cnifeb States Sennie W ASHINGTON, D,C. 20510 July 10, 1987 Mr. Carlton Kammerer NRC 1717 H Street, N. W.

Washington, D.C. 20555

Dear Mr. Kammerer:

j Enclosed is' correspondence from Helen Steinbrooke of Charlevoix. I would appreciate your looking into this matter for-me. Please address any correspondence to Kay DeKupier of my l staff. l Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely, Carl Levin CL/kdj Enclosure l

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8708170152 870810 PDR ADOCK 05000155  !

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l These allegations concern me very much. Is it true that; l

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1. iiig Itock auclear Plant has taken only a" Philosophical position" to reactor shieldin67

2. That Bic Rock has a high core damage probability?

3 That the facility is only allowed to operate because wo are a " low pop-ulation area? Does this mean that the lives of my children and myself are worth less than the lives of people in Detroit or Chicago?

Blease check into this and let me know what you find out. l l

Thank lou.

/

liolen Stainbrook 214 Bridge Street .!

Charlevoix, Michigan i

49720 t

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C .~,. - ~ W w ee C. pn y's BIG ROCK Nuclear Ficility C h % dtiK 8.nzrA

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+ v 1~ is the Olclest II- Most Dangerous III- has No Xhielding arounct its 44-inch Steel dorns N- is Operimental Z-Spgm Radialion Constantly y- Dumps Rbdioachve" Batches of u>aste into take Michigan.

E-YOU are NOT Insured

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I Vigil links Chernobyl, l

-Petoskey News-Review Monday, April ki,1987 By PERRY CLARK News Review rtt aff writer CHARLEVOIX - Anti-nuclear

. protesters remembered the Cherno- )

byl nuclear disaster Sundayin East Park, holding a prayer ceremony for victims of the accident and a ceremonyin praise of the Earth.

The group, Concerned Citizens for i Charlevoix, also used the opportu- )

nity to register their complaints j about the Big Rock Point nuclear '

>% worst accident in nuclear plant history occurred at the Soviet Big Rock..draks criticism Union's Chernobyl unit four reactor one year ago Sunday. The accident i Neither has affected the environ- j killed 31 people and spewed radia-BIG mentai detrimentally, he said.

tion over a wide area. Continued from page 1 The proteners expressed concern PROTESTERS ALSO were con-that the same thing could happen f =ttended the small ceremony, said a

cerned because the plant is the sec-and oldest in the United States and svith the Big Rock Point nuclear the steel sphere surrounding the l

plant, but plant officials say that has done experiments on nuclear plant is adequate to contain radia- fuelperformance.

and other plant criticisms are un- tion from an accident, and that a l

founded or overstated.

MacInnis said the plant had con-concrete containment structure ducted experiments in the past, The protesters passed out about would only be needed to protect 150 handbills detailing their con- contributing greatly to nuclear plant employees.

cerns with Big Rock. JoAnne Bier power development, but no longer "It is not a public health and does. He also said the plant, whien Beemon, one of six who attended safety concern," MacInnis said. went on line in 1962, is old, but said the ceremony, said one of the Beemon countered that plant per- that's not a bad thing.

group's blggest concerns is Big sonnel are important, too. ,

"In our industry, old has proven l

Rock's shieldinfqhe plant is sur g The protesters also said in their to be good," he said. "The reality is j rounded 2byy%-inch 1 boiler plate

• handbill the plant is dangerous, citeel,' not: reinforced concrete like we just keep sitting here putting out spews radiation constantly and electricity and the doomsday hther U.S.l commercial reactors. dumps radioactive water into Lake doesn't come.

?Beemon said the plant' continues Michigan. "We're not perfect," he said.

Ed operate becauseitis in_a low pop. MacInnis labelled the dangerous u!ation area. " ,

"The energy source that is perfect

! allegation as " crazy" but conceded has not been found."

?"It wouldn't be allowed to operate . the plant does release radiation and Perfect or not, Beemon said the 00tside' Detroit [ori Chicago,"Tshe " radioactive water. However, he I Concerned Citizens are trying to l

'said. "Our main concern is the high : ' said the radiation released to the

! stress the value of environment-k)tobibility ofamount risk l of the high proba- air is in the form ofinert gases that lism.

ility of a large radiation decay within minutes or hours, and "Every person in America must Snd the Iact it has no shielding;"r that the releases of water amount to

' ~ ~ be proud to become an entironmen-only 1 percent of what the plant has talist if our children are going to CIIALRES MACINNIS, public af- permits to release. live," she said.

fairs director for Big Rock who also See BIG, page 2 4

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! Nuclear Information and Resdurce Service 16}{gggg., Spig1gyashington, D.C. 20036 G02) 328-0002 l Since the accident at Chernobyl, nuclear proponents have been touting the virtues of U.S. containment. structures in preventing the release of radioactivity during accidents; however, few of the facts about U.S. containments have surfaced in the media. In fact 6 containments are not as safe as the l nuclear industry would have us believe.

• Chernobyl did have a containment structure. Documents released by Nuclear Reguistory Commissioner James Asseletine d e s c r ib e the Chernobyl reactor as having two containment-like structures.

• Any containment can f ail because of shoddy construction or operational errors.

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• Design defects in nearly half of the US reactors make these containments unreliable in a major accident. These include all CE pressure suppression and Westinghouse ice condenser designs.

• One reactor, Big Rock Point in Michigan, has a 3/4 inch steel sphere containment and no concrete shielding.

containment Design While the nuclear industry would have us believe that US containments would prevent disastrous releases of radiation like those at Chernobyl, this is untrue for several reasons. In reality, however, there are more than 200 containment penetrations for plumbing and elecrical conduits made through the ,

containment walls which are potential pathways of radiaiton l release. Dan Ford, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, more aptly described the containment as a " pin cushion".

After che nuclear industry told the American public that Chernobyl could not happen here bec quee U.S. reactors have  ;

containments, we learned that the Chernobyl reactor did have a containment system. And in fact, some U.S. containment can j Fithstand lgga of the high pressures generated during an accident ,

than the containment at Chernobyl. According to NRC Commissioner James Asselstine. Chernoby1's containment walls could withstand .

27 pounds per square inch (psi) of pressure compared to only 12 l psi at some U.S. reactors. l l

Containment design. can be categorized as those used in  !

pressurized water reactors (PWR)' and these used in' boiling water reactors (BWR). The PWR containments basically rely on brute strength to retain radiation in an accidente :The boiling water i

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reactors rely on a pressure suppression' system co: lower pressure  !

before.the released steam reaches the reac tor building--which i s not designed to.withecand high pressures. All of the reactors-  ;

except the one at Big Rock Point have a second structure to keep - l in radiation. l The reactor at Big Rock Point has a unique containment I d esign--e s sen tially a 3 /4 inch steel plate which covers the j reactor, and unlike other reactors has no concrete structure surrounding the ' reactor--not because the NRC and Consumers Power j

are confident that radiation could not' escape the'3/4 inch; steel sphere. It can. In fact, the NRC itself has said of Big Rock l Point "...During the initial hours after an accident movement. j around the site may be precluded because of radiation from the thin steel containment vessel. The~ licensee's calculations.show that initial radiation levels in most plant areas may be greater than 1000 rem per' hour" (a le thal dose).

There is not a large population around the plant. This fact, and the reactor's relative small size.often serve as excuses for the utility's deferral of needed safety modifications..While )

L these two factors of ten do provide the justification for j

exemptions, it does not mean the' plant is safe. In fact, the Probabalistic Risk Assessment (PRA) for this plant states that 1 "the probability at which one or more fatality would occur for 1 Big Rock Point is approximately a factor of six higher than for '

the average plant analyzed..." 1 Containment Failure Poor construction can cause containment failure under ]

! pressure, as can cracks in containment walls and holes made for ,

l piping and other equipment. In some accident scenarios, the . i containment can remain completely intact, and yet because of the location and nature of the accident, fission products still can be released.

Operational Fallures Experience has shown that containment failure could result from human error. In the past, worker access doors have been.left open, which, during an accident, would allow the release of' radioactive fission products. Containment vents and sampling lines also have'been inadvertently left open. The Fermi plant in Michigan, for example, operated for thre: months with an open containment valve. In another instance, the Palisades plant operated .for 18 months with two containment isolation valves locked open. The NRC later said, the open valves defeated the capability of -the containment building to contain radioactive materials in the event of an accident, calling the violation "a matter of very serious', safety significance."

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CONSUMERS POWER COMPANY'S BIG ROCR OLD l l l I - Big Rock was constructed in 1960 and began operation in 1962. I i

DANGEROUS )

l II - Big Rock has been named the most dangerous nuclear plant in the U.S. by the

Institute of Policy Studies. Three top level G.E. engineers (Bridenbaugh, M!nor and Hubbard) called for an immediate shutdown of Big Rock.

-0 l Big Rock has a high core damage probability (meltdown) of 9.8 x 10 per year. It also has a high degree of core damage events which produce very large releases of radiation. Consumers Power admits that "the probability at which  ;

c.m or more fatalities would occur for Big Rock is approximately a factor of j six higher than for the average plant analyzed in the Reactor Safety Study," j See " Big Rock P.R. A." (Probabalistic Risk Assessment) pages 117-138.

l l NO SHIELDIMG 1

l III- Under pressure from the NRC to improve shielding Consumers' officials replied

" Based on these results (The Big Rock Probabilistic Risk Assessment) a philosophical position has been developed relative to the reactor shielding at Big Rock Point."

l According to Consumers Power Company in the event of'an accident, movement around the site would be prohibited for up to 21 hours2.430556e-4 days <br />0.00583 hours <br />3.472222e-5 weeks <br />7.9905e-6 months <br /> because of gamma radiation.

I Workers would not get close to many vital plant areas. See C.P.Co. Correspon-dence 3-14-80 EXPERIMENTAL IV - In 1977 Consumers signed a $15,000,000 eight-year contract with Energy )

Research & Development Administration for experiments at Big Rock on nuclear fuel performance. Big Rock has conducted research in high power density, heat transfer effectiveness, mixed oxide fuels, new types of cladding, center melt i research, high burnup of fuels, etc.

RADIATION ,

V - Big Rock is designed to vent radiation continuously. Todayli nuclear plants are fined thousands of dollars if vents are inadvertently left open. Big Rock must vent, however, so that operators can have access to vital areas of the plant. This is obviously a problem when accidents occur (vents must be closed).

LIQUID WASTE VI - When liquid radioactive waste batches are too radioactive, water is pumped )

out of Lake Michigan and used to dilute batches. They are then released to Lake  ;

Michigan. Fish have been found showing increased levels of radioactivity. {

Tritium cannot be filtered from vaste.

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J NO INSURANCE 1 J

VII - The Price Anderson Act limits the liability of nuclear facilities even in cases of gross negligence. In the hearing for the Big Rock Construction Permit, Consumers Power Company experts stated "It is conceivable that the l

t general population might have to be evacuated for a short period (up to

( several months) as.a result of ground contamination. Monitoring and possible confiscation of crops and milk might have to be resorted to over an area of up to about two square miles."

l Radiation has been proven to cause cancer. Present studies are showing l high. cancer target areas around nuclear plants.  !

How much is your .

I FARM CONDO HOME CHILD LIFE l BUSINESS HEALTH worth?

The Concerned Citizens for Charlevoix i 6

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