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RE: AJC Article: Nuclear plants can withstand attacks



Ted -
 
I don't know your definition of "tolerable" (maybe you're talking about NRC's siting rules) but given current federal emergency response guidance, a responsible state radiological official would be hard pressed NOT to recommend that individuals in the vicinity of a ruptured spent fuel cask be evacuated (or at a minimum, sheltered in place) given your estimate of a 1 rem dose, unless there were "extenuating circumstances" such as an ice storm, a hurricane, etc. which would make evacuation more hazardous in and by itself.
 
My $0.02 worth ...
 
Jim Hardeman
Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us


>>> "Ted Rockwell" tedrock@cpcug.org> 9/23/2002 12:11:58 >>

As to what can be released from a ruptured shipping cask, I thought we agreed on the last go-around that the noble gases are not a serious health hazard and that we should not assume that all non-volatile activity is in highly respirable form.  In this case, I recall that the total dose to the most exposed person was about 1 rem. Do I remember that wrong?  If it's less than 25 rem, then it's still a tolerable emergency dose under today's rules, is it not?  And we should not predict any deaths in that situation.That's all we intended by our statement.