RE: NRC scraps commercial nuclear power terrorism program

[per.hall@mep.ki.se (Per Hall)]

RE Chernobyl: So far 30 additional deaths due to the accident have been
identified among firemen and rescue personal.
Six deaths due to childhood thyroid cancer.
Among the so called liquidators there is still a LOWER mortality than
expected probably as a consequence of the healthy worker effect.
I do not know where the 125,000 deaths comes from.


Three comments/questions regarding this article.
>
>1. "at least 125,000 deaths." Really? I'm not familiar with this statistic.
>Anyone have additional info?
>
>2. The images conjured up in my mind of the NRC inspectors that know/have
>known scaling fences at power plants is certainly a comical one. (My
>apologies to all the NRC folks out there. No insult intended.)
>
>3. Did an official NRC spokesperson really say something like that (...I am
>not going to live 100 miles downwind) or is this something taken out of
>context/misquoted? Pretty scary!
>
>DJ Richards
>Hazards Assessment Team Leader
>Excalibur Associates, Inc.
>Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site
>David.Richards@rfets.com
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Sandy Perle [mailto:sandyfl%earthlink.net@inet.rfets.gov]
>Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 1998 11:18 AM
>To: Multiple recipients of list
>Subject: NRC scraps commercial nuclear power terrorism program
>
>
>Tuesday November 3 6:44 AM EDT
>
>LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal counter-terrorism program
>designed to identify security lapses at commercial nuclear power
>plants has been scrapped and budget cuts are partly to blame, the
>Los Angeles Times reported today.
>
>The Nuclear Regulatory Commission program is being dropped in a
>cost-cutting reorganization, the newspaper said.
>
>The program was designed to prevent someone from causing the
>devastation seen at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine
>in 1986. An accidental meltdown of a reactor core led to at least
>125,000 deaths.
>
>The 1991 program was killed at the end of September. Three
>weeks earlier, the NRC issued an advisory that recommended
>increased security at nuclear plants.
>
>The program has identified serious security lapses at nearly half
>the nation's 104 nuclear power reactors, the Times said.
>
>At one reactor, a team ``was able to reach and simulate
>sabotaging enough equipment to cause a core melt,'' said David
>Orrik, the NRC security specialist who directed the program.
>
>In March, NRC inspectors were able to scale fences at the
>Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon, Vt. One
>inspector smuggled a fake pistol past a plant security check.
>
>To perform well in program drills, plants had to employ an average
>of 80 percent more personnel than their security plans called for,
>Orrik said. One of the exercises could cost a plant $140,000 to
>$800,000.
>
>Critics accused the NRC of caving in to pressure to cancel the
>program, which industry officials said was too expensive. Eleven
>NRC inspectors have filed written objections to the elimination of
>the program.
>
>``If the concern in this country were merely over accidental
>meltdowns, I wouldn't hesitate to build my house next door to a
>plant,'' said Bruce Earnest, the NRC's security inspector for plants
>in California and Arizona.
>
>``But if you start taking vital security away from these plants, I am
>not going to live 100 miles downwind. And doing away with the
>program is a major step in that direction.''
>
>
>
>Sandy Perle
>sandyfl@earthlink.net
>http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1205
>
>"The object of opening the mind, as of opening
>the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
>              - G. K. Chesterton -
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Best regards,

Per Hall, MD, PhD                          Phone: +46 8 728 6152
Dept. of Medical Epidemiology        Fax: +46 8 314957
Karolinska Institute                          e-mail: per.hall@mep.ki.se

PO Box 281
SE-171 77 Stockholm
Sweden


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