RE: Nuclear Laundry; Mindset of Anti's

["Duncan Howe" <howe@dcsmserver.med.sc.edu>]

The mindset and objectives of anti-groups are molded in part by gross 
misperceptions of risk followng exposure to low level radioactivity.  

However, the nuclear industry, in this case INS, has a lot of responsibility 
for this opposition and its intensity.   I base this on my experience 
as an expert witness for an environmental group that opposed 
relicensing of an INS facility.  I chose to take on this role because 
I felt these well meaning people (who had no funds) needed some 
technical support and it was an opportunity for me to educate them 
about health risks associated with exposures to low level 
radioactivity (virtually zero) - which I think I did.  

INS hired a high priced tag law firm 
that did everything in their  powers to delay an adjudicatory 
hearing.  The lawyer for the environmentalist group and myself were 
permitted to view data on past operations and INS' strategic plan for 
the future of this laundry site.  The INS lawyer was able to argue 
successfully that this information was proprietary and the judge 
agreed that we could view the info but could not reveal it in the 
courtroom.  The information was not proprietary.   My interactions 
with the INS lawyer during both the preliminary disposition and in 
court was almost entirely an effort on the part of the lawyer to discredit 
my credentials (CHP at the time) and my motives.   I think I can 
reveal this information because it is public record, recorded in the 
testimony. 

This blatant lack of openness and willingness to work with the 
community (including the hard core anti's) takes away the community's 
sense of empowerment and causes the anti's to dig their heels in 
deeper.    The nuclear industry and its radiation protection people 
should do more soul searching as to one of the major causes for 
public distrust - our condescending treatment of those who don't 
agree with us and our continued unwillingness to dialogue openly with 
the opposition.

Duncan Howe, PhD
USC School of Medicine
Columbia, SC  29208
803-733-3322   FAX  803-733-1543
howe@med.sc.edu



From:          "Migliore, Charles W" <Charles.W.Migliore@nspco.com>
>
Subject:       RE: Nuclear Laundry

I agree. The article is very enlightening about the mindset and objectives
of the anti- group. When they cried "contamination everywhere", the school
kids said "ok lets measure just how bad the contamination is". The
anti-group enthusiastically went along for the ride until the results did
not jibe with their pre-concieved ideas... then they started  trying to
prevent any further measurements, and actually succeeded preventing access
to a key site. The kids already had the data, though. After all that, the
city council refused to consider the data in its decision to enact the
ridiculous ordinance. (dont bother me with the facts, please.) 

The ordinance sounds utterly ridiculous. It outlaws the discharge of ANY
radionuclide with a long halflife, with no limits, automatically placing
everyone in town in violation (except medical facilities, I think, I dont
have the article in front of me.)

Some traces of Co-60 were found in the sludge field... 70 pCi per kg I
think. Because of this, the anti-group asked the school principal to stop
the project because the kids werent wearing protective clothing... And
actually used the "no pc's" as an argument to invalidate or discount the
data. Yeah, whatever.

The article is a good read.

Charles Migliore RRPT
charles.w.migliore@nspco.com 

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