NEWSLETTER
page three
MILLSTONE WASTE STORAGE PLAN IN
DOUBT;
NRC RULES FOR ANTI-MILLSTONE COALITIONS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 17, 2001
Contact: Nancy Burton 203-938-3952
Tina Guglielmo 631-324-0655
Mystic - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed today
to reconsider a decision made last October permitting expansion
of the storage capacity for highly radioactive waste at the Millstone
Unit 3 reactor in Waterford, the Connecticut Coalition Against
Millstone announced.
The NRC decision grants an appeal by the anti-nuclear coalition
and its Long Island counterpart, Long Island Coalition Against
Millstone, opposing Northeast Utilities plans to double waste
capacity onsite in the Unit 3 spent fuel pool from 756 spent
fuel assemblies to 1860 assemblies.
"It took NU's revelation that it has lost track of two spent
fuel rods to finally capture the NRC's attention on this issue,
which is of great significance to the public health and safety,"
said Nancy Burton, the attorney representing the coalitions in
the proceeding.
"For once, the NRC is making the right decision," said
Tina Guglielmo, program coordinator for STAR Foundation, a member
of the East Hampton, New York-based Long Island Coalition Against
Millstone. "The NRC owes our communities a serious look
into this issue."
The NRC's decision allows the Coalitions to appeal from a decision
of the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board issued on October
26, 2000 dismissing their challenge to the fuel storage expansion
plan.
The Coalitions and their experts have argued that doubling the
storage capacity of the pool exposes the public to unnecessary
risks of serious accidents.
The NRC decision concerns the legality of the NRC staff's interpretation
of General Design Criterion 62, a federal regulation which requires
that criticality - the occurrence of a spontaneous nuclear chain
reaction - in spent fuel systems be controlled by physical separation
of spent fuel assemblies.
"In deciding to review the legality of the NTC staff's interpretation
of GDC 62, the NRC Commissioners have taken a first step toward
recognizing the hazard posed by high-density pool storage of
spent fuel," said Dr. Gordon Thompson, executive director
of the Cambridge, Mass.-based Institute for Resource and Security
Studies, who served as expert witness for the Coalitions.
"The NRC staff has allowed licensees to violate GDC 62 in
order to increase the density of storage in pools," Thompson
said. "This practice creates the potential for criticality
accident."
"More seriously, a loss of water from a high-density pool
would lead to a fire in the pool, releasing huge amounts of long-lived
radioactive material in a plume that would travel downwind and
contaminate vast areas of land," Thompson continued."
Coalition members expressed concern about NU plans to expand
waste storage at Millstone in light of NU's admission in November
that it had lost track of two highly radioactive spent fuel rods
which belong in the Unit 1 spent fuel pool.
"It has been two months since NU publicly revealed that
it can't find two 12-foot-long spent fuel rods," said Joseph
H. Besade, a member of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone.
"Far from expanding storage capacity to allow for more deadly
waste at Unit 3, the NRC should order NU to suspend all fuel
movements until it can locate the lost rods."
The NRC has said it is unaware of any similar incident in the
history of the U.S. commercial nuclear industry.
Today's decision allows the Coalitions to file additional legal
arguments on their claims that federal law prohibits increasing
the density of the spent fuel pools because of increased safety
risks.
The Coalitions were directed to file briefs within 21 days. If
their appeal is successful, NU faces the prospect that it will
not be allowed to store additional spent fuel at Millstone.
Millstone Buyer and Breast Cancer
By Michael Steinberg
Dominion Resources, Inc., which bid $1.3 billion for Millstone
in August, owns and operates two nuclear power stations in Virginia.
A 1996 book found that breast cancer death rates increased dramatically
in counties closest to both nuclear power stations after they
began operating. Dominion Resources' two nuclear power stations
are Surry 1 & 2, 19 miles northwest of Newport News; and
North Anna 1 & 2, 40 miles northwest of Richmond. Surryís
two nuclear reactors started operating in 1972 and 1973. North
Annaís began operating in 1978 and 1980.
In 1996ís The Enemy Within: The High Cost of Living Near
Nuclear Reactors, author Jay Gould found that age adjusted rates
of breast cancer mortality in counties within 100 miles of U.S.
nuclear reactors were statistically significantly higher than
those rates for counties more than 100 miles from nuclear reactors.
Gould and his colleagues at the New York City-based Radiation
and Public Health Project (www.rphp.org) compared breast cancer
death rates for the years 1950-54 to those of the years 1980-84
and 1985-89.
For Surry 1 & 2, in the three closest counties, the rate
rose 12% in comparing 1950-54 to 80-84, and 27% in comparing
50-54 to 85-89.
For North Anna 1 & 2, in the 10 counties closest to the reactors,
the increases in comparing those same periods were 57% and "an
extraordinary 73%," according to Gould.
For the United States as a whole, the rate increases in comparing
the same periods were 2% and 1%.
And in New London county the increases were 20% and 26%.
In this unfortunate sense, and this sense only, Dominion Resources
may be a worthy successor to Northeast Utilities at Millstone.
Michael Steinberg is author of 1998ís Millstone and Me:
Sex, Lies and Radiation in Southeastern Connecticut, available
at libraries throughout New London County. His just released
book is The End of Tobacco Road: Life, Love and Sewage in the
New South, a rad crime novel with a strong anti-nuclear theme.
To get your copy send him $10 at 1009 Burch Ave, Durham, NC 27701.
_______________
Health Survey -
CCAM is collecting data from residents and physicians in New
London County. If you are a resident of New London County or
you know someone from New London County who suffers from thyroid
cancer, childhood leukemia, malignant melanoma, reproductive
organ disease, immune system disorder or other malignant cancer,
PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH US. Do not rely on your state,
local or federal government - and certainly not Northeast Utilities
- to gather this information.
__________________
Election results -
Multi-term Congressman Sam Gejdenson campaigned on a platform
to keep Millstone open.
Vice President Gore waited until the week before the election
to issue a statement against further development of nuclear power.
Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke campaigned on a platform of safe,
renewable energy.
Always remember: Every Vote Counts! Exercise your right to vote!
_______________
Wind yes! Millstone No!
The New York Times reported on its front page on November 26,
2000 that if the naturally occurring winds that blow across three
states -North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas - were harnessed,
their energy could provide all the electricity needs of the entire
United States.
Keep in mind: spent wind does not require long-term, high-security
storage and poses no danger to the public.
____________________
Special Thanks -
Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone extends Highest Public
Honors to the following exemplary citizens who presented testimony
to the Department of Public Utility Control on November 27, 2000.
Their remarks were so unsettling that Northeast Utilities, J.P.
Morgan, Inc., Dominion Resources, Inc., the DPUC Staff and the
Office of Consumer Counsel waived their rights to cross-examination.
The citizen-witnesses were:
*
Joseph H. Besade, of Waterford. (He testified about the workers
- more than seven - who labored at his side in the "dirty"
area of Millstone on pipefitting assignments who have since succumbed
to cancer.)
*
Rosemary Bassilakis, of Haddam. (She testified about the slashing
of the workforce at Millstone, Dominion's lack of financial qualifications
to operate Millstone and deficiencies in projections of costs
to safely decommission Millstone.)
*
Raymond H. Shadis, of Edgecomb, Maine. (He testified about the
prospect for reduction of safety margins under new ownership
and the need for a proper environmental evaluation to determine
the extent of liabilities for present and future owners.)
*
Joseph J. Mangano, of Brooklyn, N.Y. (He testified about Millstone
health effects based on public data, including statistics showing
decreases in infant mortality following reactor closures and
New London County's high thyroid cancer rate.)
*
Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass, of Pittsburgh, PA (He presented testimony
of recent findings of high levels of Strontium-90 in lobsters
taken from the Long Island Sound and studies of high cancers
rates among children in New London County.)
*
(You can read their statements contained in Docket Number 99-09-12REO1
at: _ HYPERLINK http://www.state.ct.us/dpuc/ _¶www.state.ct.us/dpuc/§)
____________________
How YOU Can Help:
*PLEASE SEND DONATIONS TO: CCAM, 13 Water St., Mystic CT 06355.
*Please offer to volunteer!
*Please attend the DPUC Protest on December 6 in New Britain
(11 A.M.)!
*Please write letters to the editors supporting efforts to deny
Dominion's bid to buy Millstone and to shut Millstone forever!
*Please call your state, local and federal representatives and
demand that they help shut Millstone forever!
THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO MAKE MILLSTONE SAFE:
SHUT IT DOWN!
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