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Re: Indian Point story



I doubt if the Times writer knows. But can anyone post or provide a link to the

NRC study? Or has it now been removed from public access because it might be

useful to terrorists?

Cheers (I guess?)

Maury Siskel    maury@webtexas.com

========================================

Rob Gunter wrote:



> Greetings All,

>

> Most of the article is tame relative to the statement "A 1982 study

> commissioned by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that a meltdown

> at Indian Point 2 could cause 46,000 fatalities and 141,000 injuries in the

> short term."

>

> What is meant by "Short Term".  Are we talking "short term" geologic time

> with the LNT and collective dose, or does the study anticipate an accident

> with short term fatalities orders of magnitude above Chernobyl??

>

> Robert J. Gunter, CHP

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: RaddGuyy [mailto:raddguyy@hotmail.com]

> Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 8:56 AM

> To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

> Subject: Indian Point story

>

> April 4, 2002

> Rising Anxiety

> By BOB HERBERT

> The nuclear reactor known as Indian Point 2 sits beside the Hudson River

> about 30 miles north of New York City. It has the worst safety rating of all

> 103 nuclear reactors in the United States. And of all the U.S. reactors,

> it's located in the most densely populated region.

> That is not a good combination of circumstances.

> Concern over the plant's continuing safety problems has heightened since

> Sept. 11. Increasing numbers of residents and elected officials are coming

> to the conclusion that the possibility of a terrorist attack or a

> catastrophic accident at Indian Point is a risk that is not worth taking.

> They believe it is time for the Indian Point complex with its two reactors -

> Indian Point 2 and the less troublesome Indian Point 3 - to close.

> In February 2000 an accident at Indian Point 2 resulted in the discharge of

> 20,000 gallons of radioactive water. Officials said the radiation released

> was not a threat to public health, but the reactor was closed for nearly a

> year. Last December, four of seven control room crews failed to pass their

> annual qualification exams. That same month the reactor shut down

> automatically after an electrical connection to the plant's turbine switched

> off unexpectedly. Leaks, malfunctions, human errors - it's always something

> at Indian Point.

>

> Casualties from a worst-case scenario at the complex would dwarf those of

> the attack on the World Trade Center. A 1982 study commissioned by the U.S.

> Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that a meltdown at Indian Point 2 could

> cause 46,000 fatalities and 141,000 injuries in the short term. The

> potential casualties from a meltdown at Indian Point 3 were even worse.

> Long-term, the deaths from cancer resulting from an Indian Point catastrophe

> would likely be horrendous.

> The casualty estimates are conservative. The population in the region is

> greater now, and evacuation plans are pathetically inadequate.

> I called the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week to ask about the safety

> ratings at Indian Point 2. A spokeswoman, Diane Screnci, said the commission

> did not rank plants. But it does conduct inspections and issue findings that

> are graded using the colors green, white, yellow and red. Green is the

> safest category and red the least safe.

> Indian Point 2 is "currently the only plant with a red finding," Ms. Screnci

> said. She characterized the red finding as highly significant and said

> Indian Point 2 continued to receive "increased N.R.C. attention."

> A serious accident or even a terrorist attack is no guarantee that the worst

> will happen. But we all learned as the World Trade Center vanished on Sept.

> 11 that the worst can happen.

> The vulnerability of nuclear power plants is made frighteningly clear when

> we consider that American Airlines Flight 11, as it flew south from Boston

> toward Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, passed almost directly over the Indian

> Point complex. Then consider that President Bush reported in his State of

> the Union Message that Americans in Afghanistan had found diagrams of U.S.

> nuclear power plants, and that the nation's 103 nuclear reactors were never

> designed to withstand the impact of a commercial airliner.

> Everyone within at least a 50-mile radius would be in danger if something

> terrible happened at Indian Point. That 50-mile radius contains more than 7

> percent of the entire population of the United States - 20 million people.

> It includes all of New York City; the suburban New York counties of

> Westchester, Orange, Rockland and Putnam; Bergen County in New Jersey; and

> most of Fairfield County in Connecticut. There is no other nuclear plant in

> the country with anything close to Indian Point's potential for disaster.

> Its chronic safety issues made Indian Point problematic before Sept. 11.

> Accidents happen. But since the attack on the World Trade Center, and with

> the awful proliferation of suicide bombers in the Middle East, the

> unthinkable is no longer unthinkable. Residents in the vast potential danger

> zone surrounding Indian Point have little trouble imagining an airliner

> diving toward the complex, or terrorists on the ground attempting to

> sabotage it.

> Anxiety is very high, and opposition to the plant by residents and elected

> officials is intensifying. It may not be long before a consensus is reached

> that Indian Point is a problem the region can do without.

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